'Much of this is locked up in safes and vaults as a dead investment. If we can put the vast reserves of gold to use, it would boost the economy,' says V P Nandakumar, executive chairman, Manappuram Finance, India's first listed gold loan company.

The big challenge is to get private gold into the financial system as deposits.

In other words, we should aim for a scenario where people who need money can use their gold to borrow, and those who don't need money can place their gold as deposits with the banks.

This gold can be sold in the domestic market to generate resources to finance infrastructure.

Indians have $1 trillion worth of gold!