Safe Money & Fixed Income
Most Indian household savings sit in deposits, provident funds and small savings rather than in equities. A headline rate is not what the saver keeps: tax treatment and the term committed separate the quoted number from the return. This page carries the policy corridor and the sovereign yield curve as the Reserve Bank publishes them, and measures what each instrument pays over the risk-free alternative.
What the saver keeps
Interest on deposits and Treasury bills is taxed at the holder's slab rate, so the quoted rate is not the return. Select a slab to see what each instrument pays in hand, and what it pays over the sovereign one-year alternative.
| Instrument | Credit risk | Quoted | In hand | Over 364-day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Savings bank account Instant access. The rate most household money actually earns. | Liquid cash | 2.50% | −399 bps | |
Bank fixed deposit, over 1 year Scheduled commercial banks. DICGC insured to ₹5,00,000 per bank. | Bank credit | 6.00–6.75% | −49 bps | |
91-day Treasury bill Three-month sovereign borrowing, at the last auction cut-off. | Sovereign | 5.73% | −76 bps | |
182-day Treasury bill Six-month sovereign borrowing, at the last auction cut-off. | Sovereign | 6.29% | −20 bps | |
364-day Treasury bill One-year sovereign borrowing. The risk-free benchmark on this page. | Sovereign | 6.49% | 0 bps |
In hand applies the selected slab to the quoted rate; it takes no account of surcharge, cess, or the section 80TTA deduction on savings interest. A rate quoted as a range is a range across scheduled banks, and the lower bound is used. Over 364-day is the spread against the Treasury bill cut-off above, which is the return available with no credit risk. Every rate here is published by theReserve Bank of India ↗. No inflation figure is applied, because this platform does not collect one.
The Capital Preservation Ladder: Where is Money Truly Safe?
For middle-class families and treasuries, avoiding permanent capital loss is rule number one. Not all "safe" instruments carry the same legal protection:
Tier 1: 100% Sovereign Guarantee
Backed directly by the Government of India. The sovereign cannot default on domestic rupee liabilities.
Tier 2: Scheduled Bank Deposits
A bank deposit is a claim on the bank, not on the sovereign. The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation ↗, an RBI subsidiary, insures ₹5,00,000 per depositor per bank, covering principal and interest together.
Tier 3: Emergency Cash & Liquidity
Hold what a few months of expenses requires, and no more. A savings account pays the lowest rate on this page, and the gap to a Treasury bill of the same tenure is the cost of keeping the balance instantly available.
Small savings schemes
PPF, Sukanya Samriddhi, the Senior Citizen Savings Scheme and the rest of the small savings family are set by gazette notification each quarter rather than by any market. They matter here because they are the sovereign-backed alternative to a bank deposit, and for a tax-free scheme the comparison is not the quoted rate.
The quarterly notified rate, tenure, tax treatment and investment limit for PPF, SSY, SCSS, NSC, KVP, POMIS and the RBI Floating Rate Savings Bond.
Not collected. dea.gov.in and nsiindia.gov.in present a certificate chain that verifies against no standard trust store, and disabling certificate verification to read a government site is not a trade this platform will make. Every other source here verifies normally, so this is their configuration rather than ours.
The Treasury Bill Yield Curve (Term Spread)
Treasury bills are short-term borrowing by the Government of India, issued at auction. The gap between the 91-day and the 364-day cut-off is the additional yield the market requires to lock capital for a full year, and it is measured here rather than assumed: a curve can slope either way.
The RBI Policy Corridor & Money Market Pulse
The Reserve Bank of India steers money market interest rates through a three-tier policy corridor. The band RBI steers overnight money within: the SDF rate is the floor banks earn parking cash, the MSF rate the ceiling they pay to borrow, and the repo rate sits between them.. When overnight call rates trade near the SDF floor (5.25%), the banking system is flush with cash. When call rates spike toward the MSF ceiling (5.75%), banking liquidity is tight.
RBI Policy Corridor Rates
| Policy Repo Rate The anchor interest rate banks pay RBI to borrow overnight. Prices the entire loan and deposit market. | 5.50% |
| Standing Deposit Facility Rate What banks earn parking surplus cash with RBI without collateral. The corridor floor. | 5.25% |
| Marginal Standing Facility Rate Emergency overnight borrowing window for banks. The corridor ceiling. | 5.75% |
| Bank Rate Long-term lending rate by RBI to commercial banks; penal interest anchor. | 5.75% |
| Fixed Reverse Repo Rate Legacy absorption rate, largely dormant since the SDF took over as the floor. | 3.35% |
| CRR Cash Reserve Ratio: Share of deposits banks must keep as cash with RBI, earning zero interest. | 3.00% |
| SLR Statutory Liquidity Ratio: Share of deposits banks must hold in sovereign government bonds. | 18.00% |
Bank Lending & Deposit Rates
| Savings Deposit Rate The rate on standard savings bank accounts. The rate most household money actually earns. | 2.50% |
| Term Deposit Rate > 1 Year What scheduled banks pay on 1+ year fixed deposits. A range reflecting different banks. | 6.00–6.75% |
| Base Rate The historical floor for floating-rate loans issued prior to MCLR. | 8.40–10.00% |
| MCLR (Overnight) Marginal Cost of Funds-based Lending Rate: benchmark for newer retail/corporate loans. | 7.80–8.00% |
Every rate on this page is read from the Reserve Bank of India ↗ daily financial market reports. Small savings rates are not collected and are not shown; the section above names the publisher they will come from.