finance – Page 2 – THE ECONOMIC INDIA

31 Jul

Building Credit From Scratch: A Young Indian’s Guide to a Healthy Score

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Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 31: Rohit was just 23 when a bank in Pune rejected his two-wheeler loan application. He had a steady IT job, no debts, and enough savings for the down payment. But the guy had zero credit history. To the bank, he wasn’t a bad risk — he was invisible. This kind of rejection happens a lot more than people think, which brings up the weird truth about the credit system: you need credit just to get any credit in the first place. In India, there’s that three-digit credit score, usually the CIBIL score, which lands anywhere…

30 Jul

How Villages Are Getting Access to Loans Through Their Phones

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Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 30: Picture this: somewhere in a village, a farmer, a tailor, or a small shopkeeper grabs their phone — nothing fancy, just a basic one — pokes a few buttons, and boom. Money pops into their account. No need to hunt for a bank branch, fill out stacks of paperwork, or stand sweating in a long queue. Instead, all it takes is a phone, a signal, and a credit score that gets built quietly in the background. That’s not just some tech fantasy. It’s everyday life now for millions in rural Kenya, India, Bangladesh, and the…

29 Jul

Debt, Discipline, and Dreams: The New Financial Playbook for Young India

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Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 29: Puva never planned on racking up debt for a concert. She’d already missed Coldplay in Mumbai, and honestly, that bugged her. So when tickets for Ahmedabad popped up two days later, she grabbed her bag, messaged a friend, and just went. The wristbands were glowing in sync with the music, the phone lights flooded the crowd, and the rush of being part of it all—she put every bit of it on a BNPL app, split into four easy chunks. It didn’t feel like debt. It felt like freedom. Like she’d made the right call for…

28 Jul

India’s GDP Growth Projected Between 6.8-7.2% for 2026: Finance Ministry Officials

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Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 28: When the Economic Survey hit Parliament this year, it tossed out a number that quietly put a lot of nerves at ease: 6.8 to 7.2 percent. That’s where the Finance Ministry expects India’s growth to land for FY27, which kicks off next April. Not exactly earth-shattering, but it says a lot about the country’s ambitions—India, still the world’s fastest-growing big economy, wants to stick to a steady pace, even as the global outlook gets more unpredictable by the day. Why does this number matter? Well, look at what came before it. The fiscal year that’s…

27 Jul

Top Benefits of Switching to a Digital Zero Balance Savings Account

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New Delhi [India], July 27: Banking habits have changed significantly over the past few years. Many customers who once relied on traditional Savings Accounts now prefer digital banking solutions that offer greater convenience, flexibility, and accessibility. If you currently use a traditional account with minimum balance requirements, switching to a Digital Zero Balance Savings Account may better align with your everyday banking needs. With online account opening, digital banking services, and simplified account management, a Zero Balance Savings Account can make routine banking more convenient while reducing the need for branch visits. Before making the switch, it is helpful to…

23 Jul

Can a Credit Card Improve Your Credit Score?

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New Delhi [India], July 23: Your credit score is a reflection of how well you manage debt. It is a number from 300 to 900 that lenders and credit card issuers evaluate to determine whether they can offer you a loan or credit card. If you don’t have a credit score, you need to take on some form of debt to begin credit activity. If you have built a decent score and wish to improve it, one of the ways is using your credit card. Credit Card and Credit Score: The Correlation In order to acquire a credit card, you…

22 Jul

Crude Oil Shock: How Escalating West Asia Tensions Are Hitting Indian Equities

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Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 22: Every time fighting breaks out near the Strait of Hormuz, market nerves flare up in Mumbai. It’s not just a figure of speech — Dalal Street feels every shock from that patch of water thousands of kilometers away. Brent crude spiked almost 14% in just four days, breaking past $85 a barrel after the US and Israel clashed with Iran. It had been hanging around $72 at the start of the month — so, a 19% jump in under three weeks. For India, which buys more than 85% of its oil from overseas, a move…

22 Jul

Rupee Under Pressure: What’s Driving India’s Currency Volatility in 2026

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Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 22: Go to any currency exchange in Mumbai or Delhi this year, and you’ll see it right away. Those rate boards are changing faster, and not in the rupee’s favor. Not long ago, a dollar cost around 83 rupees. Now? You’ll get quotes anywhere from 91 to 95, depending on the week. That’s not just noise—it’s one of the rupee’s worst slides since 2013. For most people, exchange rates sound like background chatter—something you skim past in the paper. But this year, the rupee’s drop is starting to show up in real life. It’s sneaking into…

21 Jul

Behavioral Finance and Investor Psychology: Why Smart People Make Dumb Money Decisions

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Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 21: Open an economics textbook and you’ll get a clean, reassuring story: investors crunch numbers, weigh the options, and always chase what makes them the most money. But talk to anyone who lived through the crash in 2008—or someone who piled into GameStop at $400—and you’ll get a very different picture. Markets aren’t run by algorithms. They’re run by people. People get nervous. People get greedy. Sometimes people are their own worst enemy. That messy gap between the supposedly “rational investor” and the real person just trying not to panic while their account balance bleeds? That’s…

14 Jul

Senior Citizens Can Now Earn Up to 7.95 Percent on Bandhan Bank Fixed Deposits

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Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], July 14: Savers seeking stronger yet stable returns have a fresh reason to consider fixed deposits. Bandhan Bank has increased its Fixed Deposit (FD) interest rates on select tenures, with senior citizens now able to earn up to 7.95% per annum on deposits of two years to less than three years. General customers earn 7.45% for the same tenure. For longer tenures of less than five years, senior citizens earn 7.75% and other customers 7.25%, which is among the best FD rates in the banking industry. Bandhan Bank also offers 6.5% interest on savings account balances…