The India money market is a monetary system that involves the lending and borrowing of short-term funds. India money market has seen exponential growth just after the globalization initiative in 1991. It has been observed that financial institutions do employ money market instruments for financing short-term monetary requirements of various sectors such as agriculture, finance and manufacturing. The performance of the India money market has been outstanding in the past 20 years.
The central bank of the country - the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has always been playing the major role in regulating and controlling the India money market. The intervention of RBI is varied - curbing crisis situations by reducing the cash reserve ratio (CRR) or infusing more money in the economy.
Money market instruments take care of the borrowers' short-term needs and render the required liquidity to the lenders. The varied types of India money market instruments are treasury bills, repurchase agreements, commercial papers, certificate of deposit, and bankers acceptance. The major players in the money market are Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Discount and finance House of India (DFHI), banks, financial institutions, mutual funds, government and the giant corporate houses.
Indian money market has a dichotomic structure. It has a simultaneous existence of both organized and unorganized money markets. The organized structure consists of the RBI , all scheduled and commercial banks and other recognized financial institutions as mentioned above. However, the unorganized part of the market consists of local moneylenders, indigenous bankers, traders, etc. This part of the market is outside the purview of the RBI.
Issues and challenges of the Indian money market
The money market in India has undergone tremendous developments since past twenty years. However, it is still not free of certain rigidities that are hampering the growth of the market. They are:
1. Dichotomy between