Rupee-rouble trade should be at a rate reflecting India's economic strength

If India and Russia can work out a mutually acceptable exchange rate, bilateral rupee-rouble trade will be beneficial to India.

There is talk that India and Russia May re-start the rupee-rouble trade they had abandoned in 1991. This trade had developed because neither country had much foreign exchange and so both had an interest in conserving dollars. 

So payment for Indian exports and imports used to be in rupees. Russia agreed because it wanted to sell arms to India. India needed the arms but didn’t have the dollars to buy from the West. And thus was rupee trade born. 

Thirty years on things have changed but not much. Now, along with arms, India also needs oil, both of the fuel