A Study on Financial Literacy of Urban India

With increasing life expectancy, nuclear family set ups and lack of social security system, an individual has to shoulder greater responsibilities to ensure his and his family's financial security. India, being a developing nation, is witnessing a gamut of financial reforms and introduction of new and complex financial products. The success of these financial reforms and attempts for financial inclusion depend upon people's response to such initiatives. This study attempts to understand the level of financial literacy among urban citizens of India. The study reveals the gender gap in the financial literacy and suggests future scope of research to bridge it. Apart from gender, the financial literacy has also been compared across ages, income, marital status and number of children in the household. This is important since the pace of development of the economy also depends upon ability of its nationals to take wise financial decisions. The analysis is found to be significant across all the demographics factors except age.