What are the best options for short term investments other than FD???

Please suggest some short-term (6Months - 1 Year) investment options, other than FD with good returns.

Bank FDs don’t go beyond 8% for a year and then we pay a good amount of tax on this. Are there any better avenues to invest for short term? (up to a year).

Where do you all save emergency funds and other savings for short term needs. Let's say if you wanna save some amount of your salary and don't want it in a bank, where would you put that money so it gets better returns than bank and it c...