New Delhi, Jan. 31 -- At Mint Horizon Kolkata, a discussion on global investing opened with an idea that felt counter-intuitive at first, but instantly familiar.

"All of you already invest overseas," said Neil Borate, Editor-in-Chief at thefynprint. "In fact, us Indians have been doing it for thousands of years."

The example he pointed to was gold. India does not produce gold, yet Indian households have imported it for centuries, steadily accumulating it as a store of value. According to Borate, global investing is not a recent financial trend for Indians but a deeply ingrained behavioural instinct.

Gold, he explained, has long served as the Indian public's default exit from the rupee. Whenever concerns surface around currency weakness...