indians love for gold is no secret and a recent world gold council wgc survey found that 29 per cent of retail investors who have never bought gold in the past are open to the idea of buying the yellow metal in the future wgcs report india retail investor insights also found that 52 per cent of investors already owned some form of gold with 48 per cent having invested in the 12 months preceding the survey gold jewellery and gold coins remained two of the top five investments held by indian investors across the boardthe study captured the opinions of more than 12000 global active retail investors gathering insights into retail investment via a quantitative survey of at least 2000 men and women aged 18 to 65 in china india germany the us canada and russia within india 1005 facetoface interviews were conducted with rural investors and 1280 online interviews conducted with urban investors somasundaram pr managing director india world gold council said indias retail investment landscape is evolving underpinned by governmentled financial inclusion programmes the surge of fintech and increasing investor knowledge one statistic that leaps out to me and captures my imagination is that 29 per cent of retail investors have never bought gold in the past but are open to the idea of buying gold in the futurehere are more findings from the survey gold currently has a deeper penetration among urban investors among urban investors 76 per cent of this group have invested in gold in the past and 21 per cent are open to buying gold in the future having never previously invested on the other hand 37 per cent of rural investors would consider buying gold in the future despite never having done so before lack of trust an issue the data for india shows it to be a far bigger issue here than elsewhere about 61 per cent of those that have never bought gold in the past but will consider buying in the future said that a lack of trust in the product or industry is a barrier to purchaseeducation and awareness 65 per cent of potential gold investors said they have gaps in their knowledge around gold for example rural considers cited lack of understanding of what drives the gold price as a barrier 29 per cent while for urban considerers perception that gold is unaffordable was the main barrier 29 per cent common to both groups was the lack of knowledge of how to buy gold 23 per cent considerers identified this as a barrier to investing stating that the process of buying was too difficult or opaque