Jewellery associations will meet officials from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Tuesday, CNBC-TV18 reported. This comes after PM Narendra Modi appealed to people not to buy gold for a year. Notably, shares of jewellery companies fell sharply on Monday, with Kalyan Jewellers, Sky Gold and Senco Gold declining around 8% each on the exchanges.

The Indian rupee hit a record low of ₹95.17 against US dollar on Monday. This came after PM Narendra Modi urged citizens to reduce petrol and diesel consumption and defer gold purchases for a year amid Iran-US war. The fall also followed US President Donald Trump rejecting Iran’s response to a US peace proposal, which triggered crude oil price spike.

Opposition leaders reacted after PM Narendra Modi urged citizens to avoid gold purchase for a year, conserve fuel and gas and prioritise working from home. "These are very serious 'directives'...Government must...take the nation into confidence," Congress MP Karti Chidambaram said. "Policy failure to handle the ongoing Middle East conflict," Shiv Sena-UBT leader Priyanka Charturvedi said.

China's factory-gate inflation hit a 45-month high in April amid rising energy costs due to the Middle East war. The producer price index (PPI) rose 2.8% year-on-year, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data released on Monday. The consumer price index (CPI) also rose 1.2% year-on-year in April, up from a 1% increase in March.

Indian equity benchmarks opened lower on Monday after PM Narendra Modi urged citizens to conserve fuel and avoid buying gold for a year amid rising energy prices. The shares of major jewellers fell sharply. Senco Gold dropped 8.98% to ₹332.60, Titan fell 5.34% to ₹4,268.10, while Kalyan Jewellers and PC Jeweller declined 7.43% and 3.89% to ₹393.00 and ₹9.13, respectively.

Sensex plunged over 1,000 points and Nifty fell over 300 points during intraday trade on Monday. The crash was driven by several factors, including Trump rejecting Iran's response to peace proposal and Brent crude surging 4% to $105.5/barrel. Other facts included rupee weakening to 94.88 against the dollar, PM Narendra Modi's fuel conservation call and rising US bond yields.

The US government has proposed a massive 30% hike in minimum wages under the H-1B visa programme, potentially reshaping global tech hiring. If implemented, entry-level H-1B salaries could rise from $73,279 to nearly $97,746 annually. The move aims to protect American workers, but it may significantly impact Indian IT firms, startups, outsourcing giants, and thousands of skilled professionals.

India's rail revolution is accelerating as a new Bengaluru-Mumbai Superfast Train is expected to launch by June 2026, with plans to upgrade it into a premium Vande Bharat Sleeper service later. The 1,136-km journey, which currently takes nearly 20 hours, may soon be reduced to around 14-16 hours, boosting business travel, tourism, and regional economic growth across Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Maharashtra has approved the massive 14-lane Virar-Alibaug Multimodal Corridor project, one of the biggest infrastructure developments planned for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The 126-km corridor aims to decongest Mumbai, improve logistics connectivity, reduce travel time by nearly 90 minutes, and create a new economic growth belt connecting Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, JNPT, and coastal Maharashtra.

Indian Railways has revised the timings of more than 100 trains across multiple routes to improve punctuality, reduce congestion, and streamline operations. The changes are part of a larger timetable optimization exercise aimed at improving on-time performance amid rising passenger traffic, infrastructure upgrades, Vande Bharat prioritization, and increasing pressure on India's railway network.