Does family culture drive investments in bank deposits?

Indians are traditionally known for their orientation towards savings and preference for safe investments. Post independent India has been continuously witnessing higher rates of savings. The increase is more pronounced during the recent years. On the investment side, many new instruments have been introduced during the last two decades to attract the public. As a result the level of awareness about investments such as the stock market securities is more. Against this background, this paper attempted to study the preference of investors from the educated and business backgrounds in a cosmopolitan city and the reasons for their investment behavior. The results indicate that people prefer to invest in safer avenues with a large number of them preferring assets such as bank deposits. Further analysis of the data indicates that the family culture plays a dominant role in investments decisions.