A two-week national campaign brings together NSE as Venue Partner, NSDL as Depository Partner and ecosystem partners across eight metros.
Mumbai, 18 August 2026: Grip Invest today launched the first edition of the Great Indian Bond Festival (GIBF), a festival dedicated to fixed-income investing, with NSE as Venue Partner and NSDL as Depository Partner. The two-week national campaign, running from 18 to 31 August, brings together regulators, bond issuers, market infrastructure institutions, ecosystem partners and investors to build greater awareness around bonds and other fixed-income products as a retail investment avenue.
India’s corporate bond market is valued at over ₹59 lakh crore, while less than 1% of Indian households invest in bonds, highlighting significant headroom for wider participation from individual investors. GIBF aims to address this gap through a 360-degree campaign spanning print, digital, social media, podcasts, influencers and affiliates, supported by investor-focused offerings during the campaign period.
The campaign is supported by NSE as the Venue Partner and NSDL as the Depository Partner, with Tata Neu, ET Money, MobiKwik, Compound Express (DSP Group) and Elevest by InsuranceDekho joining as ecosystem partners.
Commenting on the launch, Nikhil Aggarwal, Founder and Group CEO, Grip Invest, said, “GIBF is both a celebration and an awareness initiative. On the one hand, retail participation in bonds has grown at 200% CAGR to ₹30,000+ crore annually. At the same time, understanding of bonds and participation remains deeply underpenetrated. GIBF is an annual platform that will contribute to the growth of India’s retail bond market and bring fixed-income investing into the broader investment conversation.”
Speaking about the primary challenge facing retail bond adoption, Aggarwal said, “Awareness and ease of understanding are closely linked. If I have to pick one, it is definitely awareness. Bonds are already an excellent product, particularly with small ticket sizes. What we needed was to raise that awareness, and the idea behind GIBF is to make a large, concerted effort to get more people to look at bonds as an investment option.”
The festival was launched at the NSE Atrium in Mumbai in the presence of more than 250 attendees representing different segments of the financial ecosystem, including regulators, issuers, retail investors, wealth advisors, IFAs, family offices and fund managers.
The event featured an inaugural address by Sriram Krishnan, CBDO, NSE, followed by a panel discussion on deepening India’s bond market with Maninder Cheema, Executive Director, SEBI; Saravanan Krishnamurthy, Chief General Manager, SEBI; and Nikhil Aggarwal, Founder and Group CEO, Grip Invest. The programme also included an address by Sameer Patil, Chief Business Officer, NSDL, and a panel discussion on debt-market distribution.
Building awareness around bonds
A key focus of GIBF is making fixed-income investing more accessible to first-time investors without downplaying the risks involved.
For retail investors, factors such as credit ratings, liquidity and returns can make bond selection appear complex. Grip Invest said it aims to simplify the discovery and comparison process while retaining the information required for informed decision-making.
Aggarwal said, “Today, the rating is the single most externally validated element of risk. Helping people understand where a bond sits on the spectrum from good to bad is important, but it has to be done within a regulated framework. We also provide information about the company in a simple and concise manner and allow people to filter and compare bonds based on ratings and returns.”
The company said the festival will use multiple channels to reach potential investors. The campaign includes print, digital, out-of-home and OTT media, alongside partnerships with affiliates, ecosystem partners and creators. Grip Invest expects the campaign to reach approximately 50 million Indians.
Aggarwal added, “The idea is to create a large-scale awareness effort around a product that is already established but has not received enough attention from retail investors. We want more Indians to look at bonds and understand where they can fit within their investment portfolios.”
The campaign also reflects Grip Invest’s broader approach of making fixed-income products available through platforms and channels that consumers already use. According to Aggarwal, the company wants to take bond investing beyond a specialised investment audience and make it part of the wider retail financial ecosystem.
Sriram Krishnan, CBDO, NSE, said, “India’s fixed-income market has significant potential to grow, both in terms of participation and reach. The debt investor base has expanded 3.25x in just the last four months, underscoring the growing appetite for fixed-income investments. As investors increasingly seek to diversify their portfolios, making bonds more familiar, accessible and easy to participate in will be important for the continued deepening of the market. Initiatives such as the Great Indian Bond Festival can play an important role in building greater awareness and encouraging wider participation in the bond market. NSE is pleased to be part of this initiative and remains committed to supporting the growth and deepening of India’s fixed-income ecosystem.”
Sameer Patil, CBO, NSDL, said, “Retail participation in India’s capital markets has grown significantly, and there is an opportunity to extend this participation across asset classes. With its scale and range of products, the bond market can play a larger role in retail investment portfolios. This will require greater investor awareness, easier access and continued focus on trust and transparency. The Great Indian Bond Festival by Grip Invest brings together stakeholders across the ecosystem to support this objective, and NSDL is pleased to be part of this effort to deepen retail participation in the fixed-income market.”