National News
Augmont’s Excellence Recognized at India Gold Conference 2025
Augmont Enterprises Ltd., one of India’s established gold platforms, has been recognized with the prestigious “Promising Gold Bullion Refiner (All India)” award at the India Gold Conference (IGC) 2025. This recognition reflects the company’s role in contributing to the evolving bullion industry.
At the conference, Mr. Ketan Kothari, Director at Augmont, was presented with the IGC Excellence Award 2025: Promising Gold Bullion Refiner (All India) for his role in supporting the growth of the bullion industry.
Ketan Kothari, Director, Augmont, said: “Receiving this award is a shared recognition for the entire Augmont team. The bullion industry is going through a significant phase of change, and contributing to that journey is a responsibility we take seriously. This acknowledgment encourages us to remain consistent in our work and to keep building on the values that guide us.”
The India Gold Conference (IGC) 2025, held in New Delhi, brought together global leaders, policymakers, and industry experts to discuss the role of gold in financial markets and trade. Augmont’s recognition on this platform underscores its continued efforts to play a constructive role in India’s bullion ecosystem.
India’s appetite for borrowing against gold is reshaping the country’s credit landscape. Outstanding gold-backed loans have surged 128% from a year earlier, crossing Rs.4 lakh crore ($48 billion) for the first time, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India. As of Jan. 31, loans secured by gold jewellery stood at Rs.4,00,517 crore, marking one of the fastest expansions in retail credit in recent years.
The boom in gold loans has helped propel overall non-food bank credit growth to 14.4% year-on-year. Personal loans now account for 34.5% of total bank lending, outpacing other segments and underscoring a broader shift toward consumer-driven credit expansion
Gold loans alone contributed roughly 9% of incremental bank credit during the period. Between January 2024 and January 2026, outstanding gold-backed credit rose by nearly Rs.3.1 lakh crore—an increase of about 338% over two years—more than quadrupling the size of the portfolio.
Two factors are driving the surge. First, gold prices have climbed roughly 152% over the past two years, increasing the collateral value of household holdings. Second, regulatory guidance requiring banks to classify loans secured by gold explicitly as gold loans has sharpened reporting and accelerated balance-sheet growth in the segment.
The trend highlights a distinctive feature of India’s financial system: households’ vast stock of physical gold, long viewed primarily as a store of wealth, is increasingly being mobilized as collateral for formal credit.
While personal lending and credit to nonbank financial companies within the services sector continue to expand rapidly, industrial credit remains uneven. Loans to micro, small and medium enterprises are growing steadily, but borrowing by large corporations has stayed relatively muted.
Since March 21, 2025, banks have added Rs.21.8 lakh crore to their non-food loan books, translating into 12% growth for the financial year to date. Yet it is gold—rather than factories or infrastructure—that is emerging as one of the most dynamic engines of India’s current credit cycle.
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