New Delhi: Notwithstanding the government’s reluctance to reveal the cost of the prime minister’s gifts to foreign dignitaries, a disclosure made by Washington has said that a diamond Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifted to US first lady Jill Biden in 2023 is worth about $20,000.

At the rupee’s closing exchange rate on Tuesday (January 7) of roughly 85.7 to the dollar, the synthetic, 7.5-carat diamond that Modi gifted is worth Rs 17,14,000.

That’s no trifle – actually, it was the most expensive gift the first couple received from a foreign dignitary that year as per the disclosure by the US president’s executive office.

To put Rs 17.14 lakh in some perspective, The Wire took a gander at what it could potentially fund – from teacher salaries to toilets and subsidised homes – were it in the government’s coffers for use within India instead.

Four government primary school teachers for a year

The average salary received by a government primary school teacher per month is Rs 31,255, as pegged by the 2023 edition of the ‘State of Teachers, Teaching and Teacher Education Report’ prepared at the Tata Institute of........

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