I intent to open a recurring account so that I can accumulate some amount by saving a little each month to be payed later after a year as an LIC policy installment. I scoured over 3 banks to look for which of them provide the best interest rates.
Here’s what I discovered:

ICICI Bank (http://www.icicibank.com/interest-rates.html) :
| Rates of Interest (% p.a.) w.e.f January 26, 2013 | ||
| Maturity Period | General | Senior Citizen** | 
| 6 months | 7.00 | 7.50 | 
| 9 months | 7.00 | 7.50 | 
| 12 months | 7.50 | 8.00 | 
| 15 months | 9.00 | 9.50 | 
| 18 months | 9.00 | 9.50 | 
| 21 months | 9.00 | 9.50 | 
| 24 months | 8.75 | 9.50 | 
| 27 months | 8.75 | 9.50 | 
| 30 months | 8.75 | 9.50 | 
| 33 months | 8.75 | 9.50 | 
| 3 years to less than 5 years | 8.75 | 9.50 | 
| 5 years upto 10 years | 8.50 | 9.25 | 
 
Citibank (https://www.citibank.co.in/servlets/DCGOutputServlet?txRx=txRx) :
| Recurring Deposits | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| These rates are updated as of 16-MAR-2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 
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Canara Bank (http://www.canarabank.com/English/Scripts/DepositAccounts.aspx) :
 
| 2. TERM DEPOSITS | ||||
| A. Domestic | Rate of Interest (%) p.a. | |||
| For Deposits less than Rs.15 lakh w.e.f. 08.03.2013 | ||||
| Term Deposits (All Maturities) | General Public | Senior Citizen | ||
| Rate of Interest (% p.a) | Annualised Interest yield ** | Rate of Interest (% p.a) | Annualised Interest yield ** | |
| 7 days to 14 days * | 4.00 | 4.00 | 4.50 | 4.50 | 
| 15 days to 30 days | 4.50 | 4.50 | 5.00 | 5.00 | 
| 31 days to 45 days | 7.00 | 7.00 | 7.50 | 7.50 | 
| 46 days to 90 days | 7.50 | 7.50 | 8.00 | 8.00 | 
| 91 days to 179 days | 8.00 | 8.00 | 8.50 | 8.50 | 
| 180 days to 269 days | 7.25 | 7.32 | 7.75 | 7.83 | 
| 270 days to less than 1 year | 9.00 | 9.20 | 9.50 | 9.73 | 
| 1 year & above to less than 2 years | 9.05 | 9.36 | 9.55 | 9.90 | 
| 2 years & above to less than 3 years | 9.05 | 9.80 | 9.55 | 10.39 | 
| 3 years & above to less than 5 years | 9.05 | 10.27 | 9.55 | 10.91 | 
| 5 years & above to less than 8 years | 9.05 | 11.29 | 9.55 | 12.06 | 
| 8 years & above to 10 years | 9.05 | 13.08 | 9.55 | 14.10 | 
 
Now I am confused between because of following points:
1. Why is there so much disparities between rates?
2. Does “Term deposit” a term used by Canara Bank for “Recurring deposit”?
3. What is Annualised Interest yield?
So far, ICICI bank is luring me to open a recurring account with them because of their high interest rate of 9% on 15 month term. But I don’t know if there’s a catch if any. Since I am not sure about if the interest rates described above is for recurring account or not. Further investigation is under the way.