Indians ditch stocks for safety in gold - Globe and Mail

Many good factoids in the article about Indian gold demand trends, for example:

• The country is the largest single market for the precious metal, much of it in the form of jewellery. It consumes about a quarter of global production - 700 to 800 tons a year. Because 99.6 per cent of that is imported, demand is sensitive not only to international prices but also to fluctuations in the value of the Indian currency, the rupee.
• For a year until March, 2008, as international gold prices soared and the rupee remained weak, India's gold imports slumped by a whopping 23.4 per cent
• Since then, plummeting prices combined with the arrival of a festival and the coming Hindu wedding season may be setting the stage for a recovery in Indian demand.
  In the first 20 days of October, the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation registered a 66-per-cent rise in gold sales all over India. And sales are continuing to soar as Dhanteras - an auspicious day in the Hindu calendar - and the Diwali festivities kicked off last week, both propitious occasions to splurge on gold.
• According to the World Gold Council, India's gold consumption this year could cross the 1,000-ton mark for the first time.