Did you think gold was Indian favourite investment? Think again. It’s the mattress.

Indian savings idling in the form of hard cash and balances in savings bank accounts added up to ₹26 lakh crore in 2013. The latest Karvy Private Wealth Report says this was five times the sums parked in provident funds and post office schemes. Economic gloom has made people cautious. The cash bulge has actually increased from 10 per cent of Indian household wealth in 2012 to 10.4 per cent in 2013.

Financial advisors may ask us to put at least a third of our portfolio in equities, but Indians aren’t buying this advice. Safe options such as bank deposits, small savings schemes, insurance and hard cash accounted for three-fourths of household wealth in 2013.

If savers felt post office schemes were riskier than hard cash, you can imagine where market-linked investments stand — right at the bottom. Mutual funds held just ₹3.5 lakh crore of savers’ money. Insurers managed six times this sum.

The data shows that local investor preferences are markedly different from the rest of the world. For one, faith in the markets seems to be lower in India. Whereas 26.1 per cent of global wealth is in equities, just 12.9 per cent of Indian wealth is in the stock market. Then, 44 per cent of global wealth is tucked away in the form of bonds and debentures, compared to 41.4 per cent in India. When it comes to alternative assets, the difference in investment strategies is even more prominent: Indians invest 30.2 per cent of their wealth in alternative assets, compared to just 10 per cent globally.

But this is on account of their affinity for good old gold, which accounts for the lion’s share of their ‘alternative’ investments. Indian households have piled up as much as 20,470 tonnes of gold as of March 2013, worth ₹60 lakh crore.

Thought everyone in India was paying a home loan EMI? Well, 20 per cent of global wealth is pumped into property, as against just 15.6 per cent in India. But this statistic counts only homes bought as investment and not those acquired for living in.

Excluding primary residences, Indian investments in real estate within the country amount to ₹31.43 lakh crore. Their real estate investments overseas are valued at ₹1,700 crore.

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