Bonding with bonds: Creating a deeper, wider market

India needs a vibrant bond market to fuel its growth ambitions but financial repression is keeping investors and issuers away

Much has been written about the corporate bond market development in the past. There would hardly be any budget speech during the last decade that didn’t announce measures to develop this market. Though there has been some progress in recent years, much needs to be done. There is no way India can meet its growth aspirations without having a deep and vibrant domestic bond market.

Let’s take the example of infrastructure development where there is a crying need for finding viable and sustainable financing options. Can banks alone do the infra financing? The answer is no. Infra project financing has an