If you've ever applied for a loan in India, you know how it goes. You walk into a branch (or click a banner ad) and get quoted a rate. Maybe you push back. Maybe you don't. You sign the papers because you need the money, and you move on with your life.
Then, a year later, at a wedding, your cousin mentions she got the same loan at 2 percentage points lower. From a bank you never thought to ask. Through a channel you didn't know existed.
The Indian retail-lending market is opaque on purpose. Information asymmetry is how lenders earn the spread. And the borrower — usually the one with the least time and the most need — pays for it.