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 1992. 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.
Money market refers to the market where money and highly liquid marketable securities are bought and sold having a maturity period of one or less than one year. It is not a place like the stock market but an activity conducted by telephone. The money market constitutes a very important segment of the Indian financial system.
The highly liquid marketable securities are also called as ‘ money market instruments’ like treasury bills, government securities, commercial paper, certificates of deposit, call money, repurchase agreements etc.
The major player in the money market are Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Discount and Finance House of India (DFHI), banks, financial institutions, mutual funds, government, big corporate houses. The basic aim of dealing in money market instruments is to fill the gap of short-term liquidity problems or to deploy the short-term surplus to gain income on that.
Features / Characteristics of Indian Money Market
Every money is unique in nature. The money market in developed and developing countries differ markedly from each other in many senses. Indian money market is not an exception for this. Though it is not a developed money market, it is a leading money market among the developing countries.
Indian Money Market has the following major characteristics :-
1. Dichotomic Structure: It is a significant aspect of the Indian money market. It has a simultaneous existence of both the organized money market as well as unorganized money