Mumbai

India's thriving gold markets have gone strangely quiet. Shops are shuttered across the world's largest consumer after China and would-be customers are getting frustrated in a country that adores bullion.

"I will have to wait and see when the shops open next," said Ghevar Jain, who stepped out in Mumbai this week to buy 200,000 rupees (S$4,134) worth of jewellery for weddings next month. Instead, he had to return empty-handed as stores in the Zaveri Bazaar were not trading. "I didn't know about the strike."