Should inflation-indexed bonds be linked to WPI?

A: It is a fabulous instrument for savers. Since independence there have been very few rare periods in which the real interest rate has been positive, almost the entire period barring few occasions where we had negative real rate of interest. So having inflation indexed bonds which gives you positive real interest is a breath of fresh air and that will bring in hoards of people wanting to invest in risk free framework.

Second thing is the structure of the instrument, whether it is linked to a particular type of index, whether the index characteristics correct or not, so that is more of a structuring part of it. So principle is very good. How do we execute it and then if by chance we fail somewhere how do we reiterate, continue to comeback till the time we succeed? That requires courage, conviction and humility saying that I have failed, so let me change and ask people what failed and then make it actually useful for people so that it is a win-win for both.

It helps us raise funds either for the government or for the private sector even and on other side it meets genuine need of the savers in all these areas. But overall it is a very, very impressive thought and the execution, even if you fail once, I have seen it in derivatives, internationally almost 95 out of 100 products fail, but that does not mean you stop trying. So idea is India is now sophisticated enough. People have needs which are varying. People are now becoming financially much more literate.

The processing part of it which used to be the largest problem of getting bad deliveries, not having correct prices, more transparency; all of that is gone. So for me now is the right time to introduce newer mass market products, because you can get carried away, create very complex, very niche leveraged products and you can create some more issues later on, but if you are able to create mass market investment products, we would be doing a great job going forward.

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