The Indian government may apply wide-ranging duties and other measures on imports of “non-essential” items to try and limit the expansion in the current account deficit and decline in the rupee. While that would be consistent with the wider “Make in India” strategy of using tariffs to promote domestic manufacturing it may not make a significant difference to the deficit, which reached $174 billion in the 12 months to August 31. The main driver of the growth in the deficit was the rise in energy imports which (net of exports) drove 83% of the increase in dollar terms after the oil price c...