Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai to donate 40-Kg gold to Modi's gold scheme

The two-century-old Shree Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai, devoted to Lord Ganesha, is reportedly holding 160-Kg of gold in the form of jewelry that had been donated by devotees. The temple trust plans to deposit a portion of this with banks under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plan to recycle tonnes of idle bullion to reduce imports and the country's current account deficit.
This has been reported in ibnlive.com dated 10 December 2015.

The deposit would be a big boost for the gold monetisation scheme that has attracted only one kg in its first month. AS the trust says - it plans to melt 40-Kg of the jewellery with lower purity to make bars and deposit those bars under the gold monetisation scheme.
The Siddhivinayak temple has in the past given 10-Kg of gold to a bank under an old deposit scheme. However, the final decision will be taken later in the month.
It may be recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the scheme to tap a pool of over 20,000 tonnes of gold that is held by households and temples in India. Such deposits would reduce imports of the precious metal that accounted for 28 per cent of India's trade deficit in the year ending March 2013.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Lord Balaji's temple in Tirupati could join Modi's plan to recycle tonnes of gold lying idle

The temple of Lord Balaji in Tirupati is believed to be the richest Hindu temple in the world with its huge hoard of over 20,000-tonnes of gold that is lying idle. It could soon come to the rescue of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plan to recycle tonnes of idle gold and help to reduce economy-hurting imports. So far, the gold monetisation scheme, that is aimed at persuading individuals, institutions and rich temples to deposit some of their gold stash with banks to recycle, has attracted only one kg in a month out of a total hoard of over 20,000 tonnes.
The Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple, also known as the Tirupati Temple, is believed to have been the abode of Lord Vekateswara for 5,000 years and might become the biggest contributor to the scheme with more than 5.5 tonnes of gold.

The finance minister of Andhra Pradesh, where the temple is located. has already issued a directive to go for the scheme.
India is the world's second-largest consumer of gold after China and the country's consumption added up to imports of the precious metal which accounted for 28 percent of India's trade deficit in the year ending March 2013.
Till now, devotees, seeking divine blessings, have offered billions of dollars worth of jewellery, bars and coins to temples over the centuries and most of the temples do not disclose their holdings which are usually hidden in underground vaults.

Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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