The story so far: Economies across the world are facing a new problem: investors selling their government bond holdings. This could have serious implications for the future borrowing plans of governments, including India’s. It also potentially has knock-on effects on the cost of borrowing for the private sector and the levels of private sector investment in the economy.

A bond is nothing more than a contract of sorts between a borrower (the issuer of the bond) and the lender (the purchaser of the bond). It is basically an agreement that the purchaser will lend money to the bond issuer with the promise that it will be repaid with interest over a set period of time.