Golden Path to Savings?

While going through the Economic Times today, I happened to come across this article which talks about how Savings products receive better response from consumers when its backed by gold or real estate. Forget real estate when it comes to the rural context - I was wondering about the relevance of gold savings in rural India.

For a select few who feel disgusted whenever a gold appears in front of us, be it at the cinema hall or on the roadside - lets admit that gold and its worth in today’s times is definitely something worth investing in. Rural India like any urban city has a lot of weddings that take place. We have often come across studies where people who have taken multiple loans cited marriage as one of the reasons behind taking up loans. [Click Here] Marriages need not mean gold transactions alone, it would be hard to deny that such do not take place.

Now, even if it forms a small percentage of their reason behind taking up multiple loans. The article that I posted here - can it have the same bearings in a rural scenario? Would the rural crowd be interested in a savings product that would entail gold? Is this something that is still yet to be explored or have a few agencies/institutions already work with something of this sort?

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