MORE INDIANS INVEST, BUT WOMEN STILL LAG

Urban Indians are increasingly diversifying their investments across traditional and market-linked assets, but women, especially in tier-3 towns, continue to trail in both investing and financial security.

- RUPANJAL CHAUHAN

Indians are investing more than ever, and also smarter than ever. The share of urban Indians spreading their money across both physical and financial assets jumped from 35% in 2022 to 45% in the latest YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey, conducted earlier this year. This shows investors are diversifying into both traditional safe havens such as real estate and jewellery, and market-linked instruments such as stocks.

With this, the pool of people sitting on the sidelines is shrinking. Non-investors are a declining tribe across nearly every demographic group-though not equally. Women are still significantly underrepresented: nearly 28% don't invest at all, compared to 19% of men. And that gap carries real consequences. Women are also the least likely to feel financially prepared for a crisis, particularly the death of an earning family member, with only two in five saying they would be ready.

Investing gaps

The share of non-investors has fallen steadily, from nearly 33% in 2019 (before the pandemic-era boom in retail investing) to 27% in 2022, and 23% in the latest round. Excluding those who are not currently in a job, the share of non-investors is now just 13%, down from 26% in 2019.

All income groups have shown an improvement, but lowerincome individuals still lag: among those earning less than ₹30,000 a month, 23% are non-investors. The figure is in single digits for those earning over 50,000 a month. Tier-3 cities remain an untapped market, with 29% non-investors, though the figure slipped below 30% for the first time.