The city, with a little over 10 lakh population, has recorded total deposits of Rs 24,191 crore in its banks in 2006-07.

Significantly, the deposit is around 20 per cent more than the preceeding year’s when it stood at Rs 19,506 crore.

The figure was Rs 16,082 crore at the end of 2005-06. The per capita deposit would be roughly Rs 2.5 lakh for the whole population.

And with 255 banks, which includes 252 scheduled commercial banks and three foreign banks, Chandigarh is also the “most banked city” in the country.

“The national economy is growing at the rate of 12.9 per cent at current price and 8.4 per cent at the constant price. Whereas the Union Territority’s economy is growing at a rate of 18.87 per cent at current price and 13.55 per cent at constant price (1999-2000),” reads the Chandigarh administration’s latest report, which presents the city's gross state domestic product and per capita income statistics.

Chandigarh’s annual per capita income, at Rs 86,629 at current prices for 2005-06, is already the highest in the country.

The per capita income had also recorded a growth of 15.23 per cent over the previous financial year.

While this explains a good part of the city’s economic success, other factors like the growing service sector, whose total contribution to the city’s gross state domestic product (GSDP) is 82.35 per cent, is also an important factor.

It isn’t just the credits in the banks that are reflecting the rising incomes and better living standards. The city also has a teledensity of as high as 98 per cent, indicating that 98 per cent of the population has either a mobile or a landline. This is a whopping 20 per cent increase over previous year.