Libro

India has shown rapid economic progress in recent times. Its Economy has increased from $414 billion in 2001 to $3.17 trillion in 2023. India is now the 5th largest economy in the world. But, Indian capital markets have not been able to keep with the booming economy. Eg: In India, only over 2% people own a demat account (used as a direct measure of participation in the capital markets). When in the USA it is 22%, in the UK it is 20%, and in China 10%. With growing awareness and Financial Literacy, the number of demat accounts in India are growing but most of them are inactive. India had 16 active stock exchanges in total but now, it has reduced to just two, i.e., The National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Moreover, the share of total turnover of NSE among all the stock exchanges in India has exponentially increased from 62% in 2001-02 to 95% in 2022-23. Apart from NSE and BSE, there are two other active stock exchanges in India i.e., the Calcutta Stock Exchange and the Uttar Pradesh Exchange. Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Chennai continue to contribute over 80% of the annual NSE turnover. Out of which, 55% is contributed by Mumbai alone; and the rest 45% is contributed by the other four top cities mentioned earlier. BSE, which follows NSE has a market share of 15% by 2022-23. Therefore, in the case of cities like Bhubaneswar, estimating the turnover amount is difficult. With Indians saving big time and India maintaining extremely high saving rates in the world, Bhubaneswar and other tier-2 cities stand a fair chance of contributing towards the Indian capital markets. Moreover, this makes it crucial for researchers, scholars, academics, and analysts to study the investment behavior of investors in Bhubaneswar and other tier-2 cities. The research work covers three major cities in the eastern part of the state of Odisha namely, Bhubaneswar, Puri, and Cuttack. Generally, brokerage firms and banks in India have Depository Participant accounts along with trading accounts. Hence, this research work considered individual investors who trade through brokerage firms as its sample unit.