NEW DELHI, May 18 (Reuters) – India may be the world’s most populous ​country, with 1.42 billion people and challenges like high youth unemployment, but powerful allies of Prime ‌Minister Narendra Modi are championing larger families to counter a declining fertility rate. Even though the United Nations projects India’s population will keep rising for about four decades, peaking at around 1.7 billion, some policymakers and Hindu groups say the shift away ​from smaller families should begin now, including through government financial support. The country’s total fertility rate (TFR), the average ​number of children per woman, declined to 2 in the

MUMBAI, May 18 (Reuters) – The Indian rupee fell to an all-time low on Monday, ​as stubbornly high energy prices due to the Iran war sent ‌global bond yields soaring, denting risk appetite and deepening economic headwinds confronting the world’s third-largest crude importer. The rupee fell nearly 0.3% to 96.2275 per dollar, eclipsing its previous ​all-time low of 96.1350. Asia’s worst-performing currency of 2026 has fallen ​to record lows for five straight sessions. Traders said the losses would ⁠have been steeper if not for likely dollar-selling intervention by the Reserve ​Bank of India. In addition to market interventions, Indian policymakers