The easiest way to demonstrate that was to show we could raise plenty of foreign exchange. My thought turned to an iffy scheme that had been presented to me in North Block. Essentially, bankers had told us they would bring plenty of dollars in as FCNR(B) 3 year deposits, which they would convert to rupees and invest in India.
In return, they wanted a cheap rate at which they could convert rupees back into dollars 3 years hence. So long as the Reserve Bank could be trusted to provide the forward dollars, this was a great deal for the banks – they got rupee interest income and a guaranteed cheap price at which they could swap maturing rupees back into dollars.