The Government securities market consists of securities issued by the State government and the Central government. Government securities include Central Government securities, Treasury bills and State Development Loans. They are issued in order to finance the fiscal deficit and managing the temporary cash mismatches of the Government. All entities registered in India like banks, financial institutions, Primary Dealers, firms, companies, corporate bodies, partnership firms, institutions, mutual funds, Foreign Institutional Investors, State Governments, Provident Funds, trusts, research organisations, Nepal Rashtra bank and even individuals are eligible to purchase Government Securities. They are generally by banks and institutions with the Reserve Bank of India in Subsidiary General Ledger accounts. They can be held in special accounts known as Constituent Subsidiary General Ledger (CSGL) accounts which can be opened with banks and Primary Dealers or in dematerialized form in demat accounts maintained with the Depository Participants of NSDL.

The securities are issued at par value (Rs 100) and have a coupon rate which is decided at the time of issue by auction technique. These securities pay interest at the coupon rate on a half yearly basis and are redeemed at par value on maturity. These are called dated securities because these are identified by their date of maturity and the coupon, e.g., 7.99% GOI 2017 is a Central Government security maturing in 2017, which carries a coupon of 7.99% payable half yearly.

Government securities are highly liquid instruments available both in the primary and secondary market. In the primary market Government securities are issued through auctions (yield based or price based auctions) which are conducted by the Reserve Bank of India. There is a scheme of non-competitive bidding in these auctions wherein retail investors can participate for small amounts ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 2 cr face value. The tenor of these securities ranges from 1 year to 30 years.

State Development Loans are securities issued by the State Governments to finance their expenditures. These securities are generally issued by auction technique which is carried out by the Reserve Bank of India. They also pay half-yearly interest at the coupon rate.

The secondary market consists of both a telephonic market wherein brokers provide quotes to market participants and the electronic trading system operated by the Reserve Bank of India known as Negotiated Dealing System Order Matching (NDS-OM). The instruments traded on the NDS OM include G-secs, T-Bills and SDLs. The membership of this electronic system is open to most institutional players including banks, primary dealers, insurance companies and financial institutions. The settlement of all such trades takes place through the Clearing Corporation of India which guarantees the settlements. The market trades from 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. from Monday to Friday.