Great changes have affected the Indian financial market in the last twenty years. While in the past women constituted only a tiny percentage of buyers of financial products, today with the growing financial literacy among women and their growing independent earning power, a section of the more educated urban Indian women have become active participants in the affairs of the market . capital markets. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay. Traditionally, women in our society also have a high propensity to save, much more than men. With new investment avenues now readily available and the possibility of Demat accounts and internet access allowing even housewives to trade from the comfort of their homes, during their free time, the temptation to earn from their idle savings through carefully considered investments in a variety of market-related instruments, is significantly increasing. Post-liberalisation, women investors have also become more aware and informed about the glut of choices available to them in the capital markets, and have started to emerge as an astute investor class in their own right. Yet it is surprising that although women are considered smarter at saving than men, they still end up saving less than their men and investing even less than their men. Only a quarter of all Indian women have an account at a financial institution, be it a bank, credit union, post office, cooperative or microfinance institution, compared to almost half of the country's men! Why save “One in three women, since the age of 15, has faced domestic violence in various forms in the country, as per the National Family Health Survey (NHFS-4) released recently by the Union health ministry. Of these, nearly 27% of women in India have experienced physical violence since the age of 15. This experience of abuse is more common in rural areas than in urban ones. Domestic violence cases amount to 29% and 23% in rural and urban areas respectively. Due to the stigma associated with domestic violence, especially in the middle and upper socioeconomic strata, most of these cases go unreported. The only way to counteract this social malaise is to educate and make women more financially independent. Therefore, no matter what stage or place an individual lives in, accumulating savings is always a great idea: for one's education, for investments, for vacations and, above all, for rainy days. Once you understand the logic behind saving a portion of your income each month, the next logical question that arises is where to park the saved money? While two decades ago, the options available were quite limited – either a bank or something called a Public Provident Fund (PPF), nowadays an investor's choices have multiplied, to put it mildly. .Where were savings usually parked? While bank deposits have historically been a popular venue among Indians due to their low risk, capital security and relative liquidity, banking institutions cannot counter inflation risk and are generally not fiscally friendly. Therefore, money parked in savings accounts can be eroded over time and may not double as investments. Even in the case of banking, the biggest difference between rural and urban Indians lies in their access to banking and financial advice. In high inflation environments like India, inflation erodes real savings, which underlines.