India will buy Iran oil despite US sanctions, says Dharmendra Pradhan

The rupee payment mechanism has been suggested as the best possible way to cut India's dollar exposure

Despite the US pressuring India to cease oil imports from sanctions-hit Iran, the government is going ahead on negotiating greater oil purchases from the West Asian nation, along with Venezuela and Russia.

However, this will be done with an aim to create a rupee-based trading mechanism with these nations, so as to reduce the exposure of the US dollar to India’s largest import category. At an inter-ministerial meeting last week, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu asked the commerce, revenue, and petroleum departments to work on the possibility of a rupee trade mechanism with all these nations, according to senior source