Indian Retail Finance on WebNotes

Direct plan adoption in India

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The direct plan adoption trajectory in India describes the multi-phase structural shift in Indian mutual fund distribution since the SEBI January 2013 mandate requiring every open-ended scheme to offer a separate direct plan alongside the conventional regular plan. Direct plans, available exclusively to investors who transact without a distributor or broker intermediary, carry a lower Total Expense Ratio (TER) than the corresponding regular plan because no distribution commission is embedded. The structural growth of direct plans, from approximately 21 per cent of industry AUM in March 2016 to over 50 per cent by late 2025 and approximately 57 per cent by April 2026, is among the most consequential changes in the Indian mutual fund distribution landscape in the post-liberalisation era. The adoption has reshaped distribution economics, enabled a viable market for fee-based registered investment advisers (RIAs), and catalysed the rise of zero-commission digital platforms that have collectively acquired tens of millions of retail investors.

Groww

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Groww is an Indian retail financial-services platform that operates as both the country’s largest direct-plan mutual fund distributor by registered user base and the largest discount broker by National Stock Exchange (NSE) active client count. Incorporated as Groww Securities Private Limited for the stockbroking business and Groww Invest Tech Private Limited for the mutual fund distribution business, the company is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Billionbrains Garage Ventures Private Limited. Groww was founded in April 2016 by Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh, and Ishan Bansal, four former Flipkart employees, and initially operated exclusively as a direct-plan mutual fund distribution platform before obtaining a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI ) stockbroking licence in 2020.

Mutual Funds Sahi Hai

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mutual Funds Sahi Hai (Hindi: “Mutual funds are the right choice”) is the industry-wide investor education and awareness campaign launched in February 2017 by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) under the oversight of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Investment Management Department. It is the largest and most sustained investor education initiative in the history of the Indian mutual fund industry , funded through mandatory contributions from all SEBI-registered asset management companies (AMCs) at 2 basis points per annum of daily average net assets, ring-fenced from the Total Expense Ratio (TER) under Regulation 52 of the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 . The campaign is operated by AMFI’s Investor Education Committee and deployed across television, digital media, radio, print, and outdoor formats in Hindi and 10 regional languages.