Covered Bonds
If you like fixed return investments, then excluding the FD, you have Bonds, Debentures, Debt Mutual Funds, and similar debt-backed options. Remember, how they say how risk and return are inversely correlated? So you get a much higher return in unsecured debt than you do in secured debt.
However, if God forbid, any issuer of such debt securities goes into liquidation, and the money that you've invested is in "secured" debt, there is still a possibility of you not recovering the amount after paying off all other secured lenders, tax liabilities, creditors, etc.
Here, "Covered Bonds" come as an option, where a pool of assets is set aside for Covered Bond holders to receive their money from exclusively in case the issuer's business fails.
Covered bonds are debt securities issued by a bank or NBFC and collateralised against a pool of assets that, in case of failure of the issuer, can cover claims at any point of time. The pool of assets are also of a value higher than the total size of the issue to account for depreciation in the value of the pool. Further, if the value of the pool reduces, the issuer is mandatorily required to put more assets in the pool to maintain its value and "cover" the value of debt outstanding.
This pool of assets is managed by a separate trust for the benefit of the Covered Bond holders.
If you want to invest in Covered Bonds, you can explore a few options on wintwealth.com where the minimum ticket size is Rs. 10,000/- and the interest offered is between 9% to 11% p.a. The maturity is between 18 to 24 months.
