Gold - value or drain?

Warren Buffet said it best. You spend large amounts of money, digging a hole in the ground to take out the gold. Then you spend large amounts of money, digging another hole in the ground (large vaults under Manhattan) to keep it safe.  Indians have an attraction to gold that rivals the rest of the world.   It is the singularly worst 'investment' you can make.  There is nothing productive coming from gold. It cannot be used for any purpose. Its value is purely in the eyes of the seller and purchaser. In many ways, Bitcoins are very similar.  The sooner Indians understand and realise this, the better use their money can be put to. The Indian government is trying its best to drill common sense into the public. But alas, 000's of years of foolhardy 'investments' into Gold cannot be forgotten in a few years. ----- Watch as the Federal Reserve starts to taper, raise interest rates in fairly rapid order as soon as the first whiff of inflation is sighted. The price of Gold is headed downward. ----- Buyer beware.  The BEST way to stop this gold attraction is as follows: Gold's main attraction is that it is perceived as a store of value. How do we remove this per reduce the value of gold. 1) International prices of gold when they fall will reduce this attraction. ii) Another thing that people hate is the loss of purchasing power of Rupee due to inflation. The way around this is to make the RBI's goal inflation reduction to < 2%. Over many years of controlling inflation, people will realise that Rupee is a strong currency. They will stop worrying about loss of value. An indirect result will be reduction in attractiveness of gold. iii) Increase the attractiveness of other investments by a) ensuring that scams are caught and prosecuted immediately b) promoting equity ownership c) promoting fixed-income (bonds) with safety in value of principal. A combination of the above steps will reduce the attraction of gold and promote use of people's savings in more productive investments.