Indian rupee since independence: A brief history 

Indian rupee is slipping against the US dollar -- today we will tell you about the journey of the Indian currency.

Back in 1948, a US dollar could be bought for less than 4 Indian rupees, today you will have to shell out 70 rupees for one US dollar, why is that?

India gained independence 71 years ago, the economy has grown manifold since then, but the rupee has seen massive depreciation over the decades. 

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The rupee was valued at around 4.79 against US dollar between 1950 and the mid-1960s. After independence, our rupee was pegged to the Pound sterling which lost ground owing to UK's weak economy, so did the rupee. 

India then started borrowing heavily to finance its welfare and development projects which led to a fall in the value of the national currency.
 
Another big fall for the Indian currency came in the 60s as military spending sky-rocketed during the 1962 Indo-China war. India also suffered a major drought during that time and all these factors forced India to devalue the rupee to 7.57 against the US dollar. This was a massive 58 per cent drop.
 
Over the next 25 years -- the rupee continued to slowly depreciate against the dollar. Its link to Pound sterling was severed in 1971 and now it was directly linked to the dollar.

Political instability, lack of robust growth and the 1973 Arab oil embargo widened India's trade deficit. India then had to sell rupees and buy dollars to pay its bills which further reduced the value of the currency. The rupee then sank to a fresh low of Rs 12.34 to US dollar in 1985.
 
Rupee saw another decline during the first Gulf War in 1990 which sent crude oil prices surging. The downgrade by global credit rating agencies and the disintegration of the Soviet Union brought on a massive balance of payment crisis in India. 

High inflation and low growth only made the situation worse. This led to rupee's devaluation on July 1 and again on July 3 -- the Indian currency slipped by a massive 18.5% against the dollar now standing at 26 to a dollar.

In 1993, the government, for the first time, allowed the rupee to float. The freedom of exchange rate to be determined by the market led to the rupee slipping to 31.37 against US dollar.

Over the next decade it posted an average annual depreciation of close to 5% and by 2002-03, it had fallen to Rs 48.40 against the greenback.
 
The end of 2008 had the currency hit a fresh low of Rs 51. In 2012, the government's budget worsened due to spill-over effects of the Greece-Spain sovereign debt crisis, the rupee fell further to Rs 56.
 
The Indian currency has been slipping ever since. High crude prices and the latest financial turmoil in Turkey have sent the Indian rupee to a record low of 70 against the American dollar.