National News
Platinum Shines as the Gifting Choice for Rakshabandhan 2025
Platinum: The Perfect Gift for Rakshabandhan 2025
This Rakshabandhan, platinum jewellery is emerging as the preferred gifting choice, adding deeper meaning and modern elegance to the celebration of sibling bonds. Known for its rare purity (95% pure), timeless appeal, and enduring strength, platinum resonates with the spirit of lasting relationships and emotional expression.
Increasingly popular among younger consumers, platinum offers a refined design language that supports individuality and self-expression. Its naturally white, non-tarnishing finish and availability across a wide range of designs and price points make it ideal for thoughtful gifting.
Whether it’s a sleek bracelet for a brother or a minimalist pendant for a sister, platinum’s contemporary designs cater to every style. This year, the Men of Platinum and Platinum Evara collections showcase bold, resilient styles for men and elegant, expressive pieces for women—perfectly reflecting the unspoken love and unique bond siblings share.
More than just a gift, platinum is a meaningful gesture—symbolising that some relationships, like the metal itself, are rare, strong, and built to last.
National News
Outstanding gold-backed loans surge by 128% from a year earlier
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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