Mutual Funds on WebNotes

5paisa mutual fund platform

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

5paisa’s mutual fund platform is the mutual fund investment feature of 5paisa Capital Limited, a SEBI-registered discount stockbroker that also holds an AMFI ARN registration for mutual fund distribution. 5paisa Capital Limited is listed on NSE (NSE: 5PAISA) and is promoter-backed by IIFL Finance Limited (formerly known as IIFL Holdings), one of India’s large NBFCs.

5paisa Capital Limited was incorporated as a distinct entity from IIFL to operate a low-cost, technology-led discount brokerage model. The mutual fund feature is integrated into the 5paisa mobile and web trading platform, accessible at 5paisa.com.

A. Balasubramanian

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A. Balasubramanian (often referred to as A. Bala in financial media) is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Limited (ABSL AMC), the asset management subsidiary of the Aditya Birla Capital group, a joint venture between the Aditya Birla Group and Sun Life Financial of Canada. He has held the CEO position since 2008 and is one of the longest-serving AMC chief executives in the Indian mutual fund industry. Balasubramanian served as Chairman of the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) during a significant period of industry growth, and he is regarded as one of the senior statesmen of Indian asset management.

Aashish Somaiyaa

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Aashish Somaiyaa is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of WhiteOak Capital Asset Management Limited, the mutual fund arm of the WhiteOak Capital Group founded by Prashant Khemka, a former Goldman Sachs Asset Management India fund manager. Somaiyaa joined WhiteOak Capital AMC in 2021, having previously served as CEO of Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company for more than a decade. He is known for his deep understanding of the Indian mutual fund distribution ecosystem, his investor education contributions, and his emphasis on transparent communication about investment process and performance attribution.

Active equity vs passive equity investing in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The active-versus-passive debate in Indian equity investing examines whether actively managed equity mutual funds, where a fund manager selects stocks based on research and conviction, consistently deliver higher risk-adjusted returns than passively managed funds that simply replicate a market index at lower cost.

This article presents the empirical evidence, cost analysis, and structural arguments advanced for each approach in the Indian market context as of 2024.

Definitions

Active equity fund: A fund where a fund manager and research team construct a portfolio of stocks based on fundamental analysis, valuation, sector views, and risk assessments. The fund’s benchmark (e.g., Nifty 50 TRI, Nifty 500 TRI) serves as the reference; the manager aims to generate alpha (return above the benchmark). Cost is higher due to research staff, portfolio management fees, and higher transaction turnover.

Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund (ABSL MF) is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Limited, and one of the larger mutual funds in India by assets under management. Sponsored by Aditya Birla Capital Limited (the financial services arm of the Aditya Birla Group) in joint venture with Sun Life Financial Inc. of Canada, ABSL AMC managed assets exceeding Rs 3.5 lakh crore as of March 2024. The fund house was established in 1994 and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange (listed in September 2021).

Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund direct portal

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Aditya Birla Sun Life (ABSL) Mutual Fund direct portal at mutualfund.adityabirlacapital.com is the investment platform operated by Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Limited for direct plan investments in its mutual fund scheme range. ABSL AMC is a joint venture between Aditya Birla Capital Limited and Sun Life Financial Inc. of Canada. Aditya Birla Capital is the financial services arm of the Aditya Birla Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates.

Aggressive hybrid mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An aggressive hybrid mutual fund in India is an open-ended hybrid scheme that must invest between 65% and 80% of its total assets in equity and equity-related instruments and between 20% and 35% in debt instruments, under SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular. This category corresponds to what was historically marketed as “balanced funds” in India before SEBI’s rationalisation. The equity allocation of 65% to 80% qualifies aggressive hybrid funds for equity-oriented taxation, making them more tax-efficient than purely debt-oriented or conservative hybrid funds. Each AMC may offer only one aggressive hybrid fund.

AIS / TIS mapping for MF transactions

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

AIS and TIS mapping for mutual fund transactions is the process of reconciling mutual fund transaction data visible in the Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Tax Information Summary (TIS) – both accessible on the Income Tax Department’s e-filing portal (incometax.gov.in) – with the investor’s own capital gains statements from fund houses, RTAs, and trading platforms. Fund houses and RTAs are required to file a Statement of Financial Transactions (SFT) under Section 285BA of the Income Tax Act 1961, which feeds into the AIS. Discrepancies between the AIS and the investor’s self-computed figures, if unexplained in the ITR, may trigger automated mismatch notices from the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC). Accurate reconciliation before filing ITR-2 or ITR-3 is essential.

AIS for mutual fund transactions in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Annual Information Statement (AIS) is a comprehensive tax-information document maintained by the Income Tax Department of India on its Compliance Portal, that aggregates financial transaction data reported by third-party entities under Section 285BA of the Income Tax Act, 1961. For mutual fund investors, the AIS is particularly important because it independently records all mutual fund purchase and redemption transactions, dividend payouts, and SIP instalments reported by RTAs (CAMS and KFintech) through SFT-015 (Statement of Financial Transactions, Type 015). Investors can cross-verify their AIS against their RTA statements and capital gains statements before filing an income-tax return.

Alpha (Jensen's alpha) in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Jensen’s alpha (commonly called simply “alpha” in mutual fund analysis) is a risk-adjusted performance measure that quantifies how much excess return a fund manager has delivered above the return that would be expected given the fund’s systematic risk exposure, as predicted by the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). A positive alpha indicates outperformance attributable to the manager; a negative alpha indicates underperformance after accounting for market risk.

The concept was introduced by Michael C. Jensen in his 1968 paper “The Performance of Mutual Funds in the Period 1945–1964” published in the Journal of Finance, making it one of the oldest formal measures of active management skill.

AMFI advertisement code

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The AMFI Advertisement Code is a set of rules issued by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) that governs the content, presentation, approval, and publication of all advertising and promotional material produced by SEBI-registered asset management companies (AMCs) and their authorised ARN-registered distributors. The code is a mandatory compliance obligation for all AMFI members and is grounded in the AMFI Code of Ethics (ACE) and Best Practice Guidelines (BPG).

The Advertisement Code aligns with SEBI’s own guidelines on mutual fund advertising and complements other disclosure frameworks including the Risk-O-Meter display requirements and the standardised factsheet template.

AMFI Best Practice Guidelines (BPG)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The AMFI Best Practice Guidelines (BPG) are a body of conduct, disclosure, and operational standards issued by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) to govern the professional behaviour of asset management companies (AMCs) and their authorised distributors in the Indian mutual fund industry. The BPG are issued as numbered circulars by AMFI and carry quasi-regulatory force: while they do not have the status of statutory rules made under the SEBI Act, compliance with the BPG is a mandatory condition of AMFI membership for AMCs and of ARN registration for distributors.

AMFI Circular 27 -- biometric KYD discontinuation

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

AMFI Circular 27 refers to the circular issued by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) in 2022 that discontinued the mandatory biometric fingerprint verification requirement for the Know Your Distributor (KYD) process applicable to AMFI Registration Number (ARN) holders. The circular replaced the biometric fingerprint collection requirement with digital alternatives – specifically, Aadhaar-based OTP authentication and video-based KYD (V-KYD) – for new ARN applications and subsequent renewals.

The circular was a significant operational change in the ARN registration process, addressing longstanding industry complaints about the inconvenience and geographic inaccessibility of the biometric collection infrastructure, particularly for distributors in smaller cities and rural areas.

AMFI Code of Ethics (ACE)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The AMFI Code of Ethics (ACE) is the principles-based statement of ethical obligations that all members of the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) – comprising every SEBI-registered asset management company (AMC) – must observe in their conduct towards investors, the regulator, and the public. It also applies to authorised distributors holding valid AMFI Registration Numbers (ARNs) by virtue of the terms of the ARN registration agreement. The ACE was first codified in the early years of AMFI’s operation and has been updated at intervals as the industry and its regulatory environment evolved.

AMFI Group Company classification

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The AMFI Group Company classification refers to the framework under which SEBI and the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) require asset management companies (AMCs) to identify securities issued by entities that are part of the same corporate group as the AMC’s sponsor, and to ensure that scheme investments in such securities comply with prescribed exposure limits. The classification is a conflict-of-interest management tool: it prevents AMCs from directing fund assets toward the bonds or shares of their own sponsor group companies at the expense of unit holders.

AMFI industry composition report

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The AMFI industry composition report is a structured breakdown of total mutual fund assets under management (AUM) in India by scheme category, published by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) as part of its monthly industry statistics release. The report allows analysts, researchers, regulators, and financial media to understand how the total industry AUM is distributed across the major categories defined by SEBI’s 2017 scheme categorisation and rationalisation circular.

SEBI’s scheme categorisation framework

In October 2017, SEBI issued a landmark circular (SEBI/HO/IMD/DF3/CIR/P/2017/114) that mandated a comprehensive rationalisation and standardisation of mutual fund scheme categories across the industry. Before this circular, AMCs used inconsistent category names and definitions, making like-for-like comparisons difficult. The 2017 circular defined 36 specific scheme categories across five broad groups, each with a prescribed investment mandate:

AMFI investor grievance escalation matrix

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The AMFI investor grievance escalation matrix is the structured framework that defines the sequence of complaint redressal channels available to mutual fund investors in India when they have a grievance against an asset management company (AMC), a registrar and transfer agent (RTA), or an AMFI-registered distributor. The matrix is published by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) and reflects the interplay between AMC-level complaint handling, AMFI’s own quasi-regulatory oversight, SEBI’s SCORES platform, and the Securities Appellate Tribunal for unresolved disputes.

AMFI monthly AUM data

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The AMFI monthly AUM data refers to the comprehensive set of assets under management (AUM) statistics that the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) publishes every month for the Indian mutual fund industry. Released within two to three working days of each month-end, the data provides a scheme-level, AMC-level, and category-level breakdown of AUM for all SEBI-registered open-ended and close-ended mutual fund schemes in India. The AMFI monthly AUM release is the single most widely cited data point in Indian personal finance and investment media.

AMFI NAV file -- NAVAll.txt

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

NAVAll.txt is the daily net asset value (NAV) file published by AMFI (Association of Mutual Funds in India) on its website (amfiindia.com) at the end of each business day after market close. It contains the NAV of every open-ended mutual fund scheme in India – across all AMCs, all plans (Direct and Regular), and all options (Growth, IDCW) – in a standardised, pipe-delimited plain text format. The file is freely downloadable without authentication and is widely used by mutual fund platforms, Registrar and Transfer Agents, fintech applications, financial data aggregators, and research tools as the authoritative NAV price feed for Indian mutual funds.

AMFI Quarterly Average AUM (AAUM) data

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Quarterly Average AUM (AAUM) is a measure published by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) that represents the average of the daily net assets of a mutual fund scheme (or an AMC’s entire AUM) over each quarter of the financial year. AAUM differs from the month-end AUM point-in-time snapshot and is used for several regulatory and commercial purposes where a smoothed measure of fund size is more appropriate than a single month-end figure.

AMFI Registration Number (ARN)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The AMFI Registration Number (ARN) is a unique alphanumeric identifier issued by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) to individuals, firms, companies, and other entities that wish to distribute or solicit subscriptions to mutual fund units on behalf of investors in India. No person may act as a mutual fund distributor or receive commissions from an asset management company (AMC) without holding a valid ARN. The requirement derives from SEBI’s Securities and Exchange Board of India (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, and is administered operationally by AMFI through its ARN issuance infrastructure.

AMFI revamped factsheet (2024)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The AMFI revamped factsheet refers to the updated standardised factsheet template issued by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) in 2024, which superseded the previous template and introduced a range of changes to how SEBI-registered asset management companies (AMCs) must present scheme information in their monthly factsheets. The 2024 revision was the most comprehensive overhaul of the factsheet format since the original standardisation effort and was driven by investor feedback, SEBI’s review of disclosure practices, and the need to align the factsheet with the 2021 Risk-O-Meter methodology.

AMFI Risk-O-Meter

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The AMFI Risk-O-Meter is a standardised risk-labelling tool applied to every mutual fund scheme registered in India. It is displayed as a dial-shaped graphic with six ascending risk levels, presented prominently on scheme information documents (SIDs), factsheets, key information memoranda (KIMs), all advertisements, and account statements. The tool was introduced in 2013 and substantially revised in 2021 following a SEBI circular that replaced the earlier five-level system with a more granular six-level framework and changed the risk measurement methodology from a category-level assignment to a portfolio-level, monthly-computed assessment.

AMFI scheme factsheet for mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An AMFI scheme factsheet (also called a fund factsheet or scheme information factsheet) is a standardised monthly disclosure document that each Asset Management Company (AMC) in India is required to publish for every actively managed mutual fund scheme it operates. The factsheet consolidates scheme-level data – investment objective, portfolio holdings, NAV history, performance versus benchmark, risk ratios, and fund manager biography – into a single document that investors, distributors, and analysts can use to evaluate and compare schemes. The format and minimum content requirements are prescribed by SEBI and operationalised through AMFI guidelines.

AMFI SIP contribution data

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

AMFI SIP contribution data refers to the monthly statistics on systematic investment plan (SIP) activity in the Indian mutual fund industry, published by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) as part of its broader industry data release. The SIP data release is among the most closely watched financial statistics in India, monitored by media, regulators, financial planners, and policymakers as an indicator of the health of retail investor participation in equity markets.

AMFI standardised factsheet template

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The AMFI standardised factsheet template is a prescribed format that all SEBI-registered asset management companies (AMCs) in India must follow when publishing their monthly mutual fund factsheets. Introduced by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) through a series of circulars, the template ensures that investors and financial advisers can compare schemes across AMCs on a consistent set of data points, rather than navigating AMC-specific formats that vary in content, layout, and level of detail.

AMFI T30 and B30 city categorisation

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The T30/B30 city categorisation is a geographic classification framework maintained by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) that divides Indian cities into two groups: the Top 30 cities (T30) by mutual fund assets under management, and the Beyond 30 cities (B30) comprising all other cities and towns. The framework underpins a differential incentive structure for ARN-registered mutual fund distributors who mobilise investments from B30 locations, and it provides SEBI and AMFI with a standardised tool for monitoring the geographic distribution of mutual fund investor participation across India.

Anand Radhakrishnan

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Anand Radhakrishnan is the Chief Investment Officer for Equities at Franklin Templeton Asset Management (India) Private Limited, the Indian subsidiary of Franklin Templeton Investments, the global asset management company. He has been with Franklin Templeton India for over a decade in senior equity investment roles and has been a visible presence in Indian financial media as a commentator on equity markets and investment strategy. Prior to his current role, he had an earlier career phase associated with Sundaram Mutual Fund (the Sundaram Asset Management Company, part of the Sundaram Group).

Angel One mutual fund platform

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Angel One’s mutual fund platform is the mutual fund investment feature integrated into the Angel One Limited stockbroking application, accessible at angelone.in and through the Angel One Android and iOS apps. Angel One Limited (formerly Angel Broking Limited) holds an AMFI ARN registration enabling it to distribute both direct plans and regular plans of mutual fund schemes from participating AMCs.

Angel One is one of India’s largest stockbrokers by active client count, consistently ranking in the top three alongside Zerodha and Groww by NSE-active clients. Its mutual fund feature leverages the existing client base of several crore equity trading accounts.

Anil Ghelani

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Anil Ghelani is the Head of Passive Investments and Products at DSP Investment Managers Private Limited, the entity operating DSP Mutual Fund. He is one of the more vocal advocates for passive investing and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) within the Indian mutual fund industry, contributing regularly to public discourse on the role of passive strategies, factor investing, and the evolving regulatory and product landscape for index funds and ETFs in India.

Early life and education

Anil Ghelani is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder and holds relevant postgraduate qualifications in finance and management. He is based in Mumbai.

Annual report of a mutual fund scheme

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The annual report of a mutual fund scheme is a comprehensive disclosure document that each mutual fund AMC must prepare and publish for every scheme it operates, covering the full financial year (1 April to 31 March). The annual report contains the scheme’s audited financial statements, portfolio as of the year-end, trustee report, fund manager commentary, and regulatory disclosures. It is the most detailed and authoritative periodic document available to investors about a scheme’s financial position, investment activity, and compliance record.

Applicable NAV and cut-off time rules for mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Applicable NAV is the Net Asset Value (NAV) at which a mutual fund transaction, subscription, redemption, or switch, is processed. Because NAV is computed once per business day after market close, the SEBI-mandated cut-off time rules determine whether a transaction uses the same-day NAV or the next business day’s NAV. The rules differ by scheme type and transaction type, and have been significantly tightened since 2020 to prevent NAV arbitrage.

SEBI cut-off time framework

SEBI’s Master Circular for Mutual Funds (2024), consolidating earlier circulars including SEBI/HO/IMD/DF2/CIR/P/2021/024 (5 March 2021), specifies the following cut-off times:

Arbitrage fund vs liquid fund for short-term cash parking

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Arbitrage funds and liquid funds are both used for short-to-medium term cash parking in India, but they differ in investment strategy, risk profile, and most significantly, tax treatment. The tax difference is the primary reason arbitrage funds are often chosen over liquid funds for investors in higher income tax brackets for holding periods of one year or more.

Structure

Arbitrage fund

An arbitrage fund exploits price differentials between the cash (spot) and futures markets for the same equity security. The fund simultaneously buys a stock in the spot market and sells the equivalent quantity in the futures market, locking in the price difference (the “spread”) as a near-risk-free return. At futures expiry, both positions are closed.

Arbitrage mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An arbitrage mutual fund in India is an open-ended hybrid scheme that generates returns primarily by exploiting the price difference between the cash (spot) market and the futures market for the same equity security. The strategy involves simultaneously buying a stock in the cash market and selling an equivalent futures contract on the same stock at a higher price (the futures premium). The spread between the cash price and the futures price, captured at the time of trade, represents a near risk-free return that is crystallised when the futures contract expires and the prices converge.

ASBA for Mutual Fund Subscriptions in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Application Supported by Blocked Amount (ASBA) is a payment mechanism regulated by SEBI whereby the subscription amount for a financial product remains blocked in the investor’s bank account – rather than being transferred out – until the allotment is confirmed. ASBA was originally introduced for IPO applications and is mandatory for all IPO subscriptions. For mutual funds, ASBA has a narrower and more recent application: SEBI directed a pilot implementation of ASBA-like blocked-amount mechanisms for mutual fund subscriptions, particularly New Fund Offers (NFOs) and certain lump-sum subscription scenarios, as part of its investor protection initiatives.

Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) is the apex industry body that represents the mutual fund industry in India. Established on 22 August 1995 as a non-profit organisation under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Mutual Fund) Regulations, 1996, AMFI brings together all SEBI-registered asset management companies (AMCs) under a common self-regulatory framework. Its headquarters are in Mumbai. As of the 2024-25 financial year, all 44 SEBI-registered AMCs operating in India are members of AMFI, and the industry collectively manages assets under management (AUM) exceeding Rs 67 lakh crore.

AUM size classification of mutual funds in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

AUM size classification in Indian mutual funds refers to the categorisation of equity mutual fund schemes based on the market capitalisation range of the stocks they are mandated to invest in, as defined by SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular. The terms “large-cap,” “mid-cap,” and “small-cap” refer to the capitalisation of the portfolio’s underlying securities, not the fund’s own assets under management.

The AUM-based classification of fund schemes (by their own AUM size) is a separate concept, used for TER slab determination and industry concentration analysis.

Axis Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Axis Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as Axis Asset Management Company Limited, sponsored by Axis Bank Limited, India’s third-largest private sector bank. As of March 2024, Axis AMC managed assets exceeding Rs 2.5 lakh crore across equity, debt, hybrid, and passive categories. The fund house was established in 2009 and built its equity franchise on a quality-growth investment philosophy, gaining significant market share during the 2015–2021 period when quality and consumer-facing companies outperformed the broader market.

Axis Mutual Fund direct portal

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Axis Mutual Fund direct portal at axismf.com is the investment platform operated by Axis Asset Management Company Limited (Axis AMC) for direct plan investments in its mutual fund scheme range. Axis AMC is a joint venture between Axis Bank Limited and Schroders plc of the United Kingdom. Axis Bank holds the majority stake, with Schroders plc holding a minority interest.

Axis AMC gained prominence in the Indian mutual fund industry through the mid-2010s as its equity fund performance attracted significant retail and HNI investor flows. Axis AMC manages equity, debt, hybrid, and passive schemes and has been among India’s top ten AMCs by AUM. In 2022-23, Axis AMC faced significant adverse publicity when certain fund management staff were subject to a SEBI investigation related to front-running concerns; subsequent regulatory proceedings and management changes followed.

B30/T30 incentive framework, Indian mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The B30/T30 incentive framework is the SEBI-mandated mechanism that permits mutual fund asset management companies (AMCs) to charge an additional component of the Total Expense Ratio (TER) on inflows sourced from cities and towns beyond the 30 most industrially and financially developed urban centres in India (the “T30” or top 30 cities), with the incremental revenue earmarked for additional distributor commissions to encourage geographic penetration into smaller cities (the “B30” or beyond 30 cities). The framework was introduced in its current form through SEBI circular SEBI/HO/IMD/DF2/CIR/P/2018/137 dated 22 October 2018 (effective 1 April 2019), building on earlier B15/T15 provisions. It is anchored in Regulation 52 of the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 and administered by the SEBI Investment Management Department.

Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as Bajaj Finserv Asset Management Limited, and among the newest entrants to the SEBI-registered mutual fund industry in India, having launched its first schemes in 2023. The fund house is sponsored by Bajaj Finserv Limited, the holding company for the Bajaj Group’s financial services businesses, including Bajaj Finance Limited (the NBFC), Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.

Balanced advantage fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A balanced advantage fund (BAF) – formally categorised by SEBI as a dynamic asset allocation fund – is an open-ended hybrid scheme that dynamically manages the allocation between equity and debt instruments based on market conditions, valuation models, or other quantitative triggers, with no regulatory floor or ceiling on equity allocation. SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular merged this category with the earlier “balanced advantage” label under the single heading “Dynamic Asset Allocation or Balanced Advantage”. Balanced advantage funds are among the largest hybrid fund categories by AUM in India, with several schemes managing over ₹50,000 crore each.

Balanced advantage fund vs aggressive hybrid fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Balanced Advantage Funds (BAFs) and Aggressive Hybrid Funds are two distinct hybrid mutual fund categories defined by SEBI’s October 2017 categorisation circular (SEBI/HO/IMD/DF3/CIR/P/2017/114). Both invest in a combination of equity and debt instruments, but differ in how the equity allocation is defined and managed.

SEBI definitions

Balanced advantage fund (dynamic asset allocation)

SEBI defines this category as: “investment in equity/debt that is managed dynamically.” No minimum or maximum equity/debt allocation percentage is prescribed by SEBI. AMCs define their own internal allocation models (often based on valuation metrics such as Price-to-Earnings ratio, Price-to-Book ratio, or yield spread indicators) and disclose this model in the scheme’s offer document.

Bandhan Group acquisition of IDFC Mutual Fund (2022)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Bandhan Group acquisition of IDFC Asset Management Company in 2022 was a landmark consolidation in the Indian mutual fund industry, transferring a mid-sized AMC with approximately Rs 1.17 lakh crore in assets under management from the IDFC Financial Institutions group to Bandhan Financial Holdings Limited, the holding company of Bandhan Bank and the broader Bandhan financial services franchise. The transaction represented one of the largest AMC acquisition by value in Indian history, with the consideration estimated at approximately Rs 4,500 crore based on disclosed financial terms.

Bandhan Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Bandhan Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, the successor to IDFC Mutual Fund following the acquisition of IDFC Asset Management Company Limited by Bandhan Financial Holdings Limited (the parent entity of Bandhan Bank Limited) in 2022. The rebranding from IDFC Mutual Fund to Bandhan Mutual Fund was completed in 2023. As of March 2024, the fund house managed assets exceeding Rs 1.3 lakh crore across equity, debt, hybrid, and passive categories.

Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as Baroda BNP Paribas Asset Management India Private Limited, resulting from the 2022 merger of Baroda Asset Management India Limited (sponsored by Bank of Baroda) and BNP Paribas Asset Management India Private Limited (the Indian operations of BNP Paribas Asset Management). As of March 2024, the combined entity managed assets of approximately Rs 25,000–30,000 crore.

For the historical background of the individual entities prior to their merger, see Baroda Mutual Fund (historical) and BNP Paribas Mutual Fund (historical).

Beta in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Beta (\(\beta\)) is a measure of a mutual fund’s systematic risk, its sensitivity to movements in its benchmark index relative to the benchmark’s own movement. A beta of 1.0 means the fund historically moves in perfect proportion with its benchmark. A beta above 1.0 indicates an amplified response (the fund falls more in a downturn and rises more in an upturn), while a beta below 1.0 indicates a dampened response. Beta of zero would imply no correlation with the market at all.

Bonus stripping disallowance (Section 94(8))

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Bonus stripping disallowance under Section 94(8) of the Income Tax Act 1961 is an anti-avoidance provision that prevents investors from generating artificial capital losses on mutual fund units by receiving bonus units (additional units allotted at nil cost) and then selling the original units at a loss. The mechanism is structurally analogous to dividend stripping under Section 94(7): bonus units, like IDCW distributions, reduce the NAV of the existing units without creating taxable income (bonus units are acquired at nil cost), and the resulting NAV decline in the original units can be engineered into a capital loss. Section 94(8) disallows the capital loss on the original units to the extent of the cost of the bonus units, which is notionally allocated from the loss on the original units.

BSE 100 TRI (Total Returns Index)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The BSE 100 Total Returns Index (BSE 100 TRI) is the dividend-reinvested variant of the BSE 100 index, a free-float market capitalisation-weighted index of the 100 largest and most liquid companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Published by BSE Limited, India’s oldest stock exchange, the BSE 100 TRI provides a broader large-cap benchmark than the NIFTY 50 TRI, extending coverage from 50 to 100 companies while retaining a large-cap orientation. It is widely used as the primary benchmark for SEBI-categorised large-cap equity mutual fund schemes that prefer the BSE family of indices, as well as for large-and-midcap funds seeking a broader top-tier universe.

BSE 500 TRI (Total Returns Index)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The BSE 500 Total Returns Index (BSE 500 TRI) is the dividend-reinvested variant of the BSE 500, the broadest widely used equity index maintained by BSE Limited. Covering 500 companies across large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap segments, the BSE 500 represents approximately 93% of total BSE-listed market capitalisation, making it a near-comprehensive proxy for the Indian equity market. Published by BSE Limited and licensed to asset management companies, the BSE 500 TRI is employed as the primary benchmark for SEBI-categorised multi-cap, flexi-cap, and broad-market equity mutual fund schemes.

BSE StAR MF

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

BSE StAR MF (Systematic Transaction and Reporting platform for Mutual Funds), operated by BSE Limited, is one of India’s largest mutual fund transaction processing platforms by order volume. The platform, accessible at bsestarmf.com and through BSE’s distributor-facing infrastructure, allows mutual fund distributors, registered investment advisers, and direct investors to place purchase, redemption, switch, and SIP transactions across participating AMCs without routing through each AMC’s individual portal.

BSE Limited, one of the two major stock exchanges in India, launched StAR MF to leverage its existing exchange membership infrastructure and settlement systems for mutual fund distribution. The platform processes transactions from AMFI-registered distributors, stockbrokers, and since the EOP framework, direct investors. As of 2024, BSE StAR MF was estimated to process tens of millions of SIP and lump-sum transactions annually, making it one of the highest-volume mutual fund transaction conduits in the country.

CAMS (Computer Age Management Services)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

CAMS (Computer Age Management Services Limited) is one of India’s two dominant mutual fund registrar and transfer agents (RTAs), providing back-office processing infrastructure for asset management companies (AMCs). CAMS processes purchases, redemptions, switches, SIP registrations, dividend distributions, and account statements for approximately 17 AMCs, including HDFC AMC, SBI AMC, ICICI Prudential AMC, Axis AMC, and DSP AMC. The company is listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) under the symbol CAMS and on BSE, following an initial public offering completed in October 2020.

CAMS and KFin capital gains statement for mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The CAMS and KFin capital gains statement is a tax computation report generated by the two principal Registrar and Transfer Agents (RTAs) for Indian mutual funds – CAMS (Computer Age Management Services) and KFintech (KFin Technologies) – that computes the capital gain or loss arising from mutual fund unit redemptions during any specified date range. The statement applies the FIFO (first-in, first-out) method to assign purchase costs to each redeemed lot, segregates gains into short-term capital gains (STCG) and long-term capital gains (LTCG), and optionally applies cost indexation for qualifying debt fund holdings. It is the foundational tax document for mutual fund investors preparing to file an income-tax return.

CAMS mutual fund account statement

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The CAMS account statement is a transaction and holdings record produced by Computer Age Management Services (CAMS), one of India’s two major Registrar and Transfer Agents (RTAs) for the mutual fund industry. CAMS services folios for approximately 20–25 Asset Management Companies (AMCs), including fund houses such as HDFC Mutual Fund, SBI Mutual Fund, Nippon India, Aditya Birla Sun Life, and several others. The statement captures every transactional event on a folio – purchases, redemptions, switches, dividend payouts, SIP instalments, and bonus units – together with the resulting unit balance and its current market value.

CAMS Online portal

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

CAMS Online is the investor-facing and distributor-facing portal operated by CAMS (Computer Age Management Services Limited), accessible at camsonline.com. The portal provides holders of mutual fund folios serviced by CAMS-registered AMCs with the ability to access account information, transact (purchase, redeem, switch, SIP register), download account statements, submit service requests, and view their portfolio across all CAMS-serviced AMC schemes.

CAMS Online is one of two primary registrar portals in Indian mutual fund investing, the other being KFinKart operated by KFin Technologies. Together, these portals provide direct registrar-level access that complements multi-AMC aggregator platforms such as Kuvera, ET Money, Groww, and the joint MF Central portal.

Canara Robeco Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Canara Robeco Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as Canara Robeco Asset Management Company Limited, operating as a joint venture between Canara Bank (a major Indian public sector bank) and Robeco Groep N.V. of the Netherlands (a global asset management group known for quantitative and sustainable investing). As of March 2024, Canara Robeco AMC managed assets exceeding Rs 90,000 crore.

Canara Bank is the majority sponsor, consistent with its role as a large public sector institution with extensive retail distribution. Robeco Groep (owned by ORIX Corporation of Japan) brings international investment process and research capabilities.

CAS -- NSDL and CDSL versions for mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

India’s two depositories – the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) and the Central Depository Services (India) Limited (CDSL) – each issue a version of the Consolidated Account Statement (CAS) that covers mutual fund units held in demat form alongside listed equity shares, bonds, government securities, and other securities held in the same demat account. The depository CAS supplements, but does not replace, the RTA-generated CAS issued by CAMS and KFintech, because the RTA CAS remains the authoritative source for physical folio-based mutual fund holdings.

Close-ended mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A close-ended mutual fund is a category of mutual fund scheme that, under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, raises a fixed corpus through a one-time New Fund Offer (NFO), lists units compulsorily on a recognised stock exchange, and redeems them at a stated maturity date. Regulation 2(d) defines a close-ended scheme as a scheme of a mutual fund in which the period of maturity is specified, distinguishing it from the open-ended form defined in Regulation 2(s).

Conservative hybrid mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A conservative hybrid mutual fund in India is an open-ended hybrid scheme that must invest between 75% and 90% of its total assets in debt instruments and between 10% and 25% in equity and equity-related instruments, under SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular. The category is designed for investors who primarily seek income and capital preservation with a modest equity participation for inflation-beating returns. Because equity constitutes less than 65% of the portfolio, conservative hybrid funds are classified as debt-oriented funds for tax purposes.

Consolidated Account Statement (CAS) for mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Consolidated Account Statement (CAS) is a single, standardised investor document that aggregates all mutual fund folios, transaction history, and current valuation held by an investor across every Asset Management Company (AMC) registered with SEBI into one report. The CAS is generated and dispatched by the Registrar and Transfer Agents (RTAs) – CAMS and KFintech (KFin) – on behalf of all participating AMCs. Because a single PAN is the linking identifier, one CAS captures every mutual fund investment made by that investor regardless of how many different fund houses or folio numbers are involved.

Contra mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A contra mutual fund in India is an open-ended equity scheme that must follow a contrarian investment strategy – investing in stocks and sectors that are currently out of favour with the broader market, on the thesis that the market has over-discounted bad news and that mean reversion will generate superior returns. SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular defined contra funds as a distinct category, requiring each AMC that wishes to offer either a contrarian strategy or a value strategy to choose one: an AMC may not operate both a value fund and a contra fund simultaneously.

Corporate body MF investor

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A corporate body mutual fund investor is a company, limited liability partnership, or other artificial legal person incorporated under Indian law (or registered in India) that invests surplus funds in units of SEBI-registered mutual fund schemes. Corporate investment in mutual funds is primarily a treasury management activity, deploying short-term or medium-term surplus cash into debt and liquid fund schemes while earning returns superior to bank deposits. Equity mutual fund investments by corporates are less common but permissible.

Corporate bond mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A corporate bond mutual fund in India is an open-ended debt scheme that must invest a minimum of 80% of its total assets in the highest-rated corporate bonds – specifically AA+ and above rated corporate debt instruments – under SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular. This mandatory quality screen restricts corporate bond funds to investment-grade, near-sovereign-quality corporate paper, limiting credit risk while exposing investors to the yield spread that high-rated corporations offer above government securities.

Corporate Debt Market Development Fund (CDMDF)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Corporate Debt Market Development Fund (CDMDF) is a special-purpose backstop liquidity facility established by the Government of India in 2023 to provide emergency liquidity support to debt-oriented mutual fund schemes during periods of market stress. The Fund is structured as a Category I Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) registered with SEBI and is co-sponsored by the government through the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC), with all SEBI-registered asset management companies (AMCs) contributing as participants through the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).

Credit quality bucketisation in debt mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Credit quality bucketisation in a debt mutual fund refers to the percentage distribution of the portfolio across credit rating categories, from the highest quality (AAA-rated government securities and top-rated corporate bonds) down to below-investment-grade (BB and lower) instruments. It is a mandatory disclosure in Indian debt fund factsheets and is the primary tool for assessing default risk and potential for credit-driven NAV shocks.

Credit quality sits alongside Macaulay duration, modified duration, and yield to maturity (YTM) as the four key risk metrics for Indian debt funds.

Credit risk mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A credit risk mutual fund in India is an open-ended debt scheme that must invest a minimum of 65% of its total assets in below-AA-rated corporate bonds (specifically AA-rated and below, including A, BBB, and sub-investment-grade instruments), under SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular. These funds aim to generate higher yields than investment-grade debt funds by taking on credit risk – the risk that the issuing company may default on interest payments or principal repayment. Credit risk funds are the highest-risk category within the debt mutual fund universe and have faced significant investor confidence issues following a series of credit events in 2019 to 2020.

CRISIL Composite Bond Fund Index

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The CRISIL Composite Bond Fund Index is a fixed income benchmark published by CRISIL Research, a division of CRISIL Limited (a subsidiary of S&P Global). It is designed to represent the performance of a blended portfolio of government securities and investment-grade corporate bonds with medium-to-long duration profiles, reflecting the mandate of composite or dynamic bond mutual fund schemes in India. The index is used by asset management companies (AMCs) to benchmark debt mutual fund schemes that do not confine themselves to a single maturity segment.

CRISIL Liquid Fund Index

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The CRISIL Liquid Fund Index is a money market benchmark published by CRISIL Research (a division of CRISIL Limited, majority-owned by S&P Global) that represents the return profile of a portfolio of investment-grade money market instruments with residual maturities up to 91 days. As the standard performance benchmark for liquid mutual fund schemes in India, it is the reference index for the single largest category of debt mutual fund by assets under management, tracking instruments that are the closest domestic equivalent to cash.

CRISIL Short-Term Bond Fund Index

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The CRISIL Short-Term Bond Fund Index is a fixed income benchmark published by CRISIL Research (a division of CRISIL Limited, majority-owned by S&P Global) that represents the performance of a blended portfolio of government securities and investment-grade corporate bonds with residual maturities broadly in the 1-3 year range. It serves as the standard benchmark for SEBI-categorised short-duration debt mutual fund schemes, which are required to maintain a Macaulay duration of 1-3 years.

CRISIL Ultra Short-Term Bond Fund Index

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The CRISIL Ultra Short-Term Bond Fund Index is a fixed income benchmark published by CRISIL Research (a division of CRISIL Limited, majority-owned by S&P Global) designed to represent the performance of an investment portfolio with a Macaulay duration of 3-6 months – the precise range mandated by SEBI for the ultra short duration debt mutual fund category. The index bridges the gap between the very short-dated CRISIL Liquid Fund Index (maturity up to 91 days) and the CRISIL Short-Term Bond Fund Index (Macaulay duration 1-3 years).

Cube Wealth

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Cube Wealth is an Indian multi-asset wealth management platform operated by Cube Wealth Solutions Private Limited, accessible at cubewealth.io. The platform offers direct plan mutual fund investing, P2P (peer-to-peer) lending investment access, US equity investing, and other alternative asset options within a single app interface. Cube Wealth holds a SEBI registration as an investment adviser (RIA) and an AMFI ARN registration for mutual fund distribution.

Cube Wealth distinguishes itself from single-asset direct-plan platforms such as Kuvera and Scripbox by aggregating multiple asset classes – mutual funds, P2P loans, US stocks, and gold – under a unified portfolio view and advisory framework, targeting investors who want curated multi-asset diversification beyond the conventional MF-only investing experience.

D. P. Singh

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

D. P. Singh (full name Dinesh Pratap Singh or Dhirendra Pratap Singh; commonly referred to as D. P. Singh in public and media contexts) is the Deputy Managing Director and Chief Business Officer (CBO) of SBI Funds Management Limited, the entity operating SBI Mutual Fund. SBI Mutual Fund is one of India’s three largest mutual fund houses by assets under management and has one of the deepest retail investor reach in the country, enabled by its association with the State Bank of India’s vast branch and customer network.

Daily MTM for debt mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Daily mark-to-market (MTM) for debt mutual funds refers to the operational process through which the market value of every debt security held by a scheme is updated each business day, and the resulting changes flow directly into the scheme’s NAV. In India, this process is mandated by SEBI and is operationalised through price feeds from two SEBI-empanelled valuation agencies, with NAVs required to be submitted to AMFI by 11 p.m. each business day.

Debt mutual fund indexation removal, Finance Act 2023

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Finance Act 2023 amended the Income Tax Act, 1961, to remove the indexation benefit and the concessional long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax rate of 20 percent that had previously applied to gains from debt mutual fund schemes held for more than 36 months. With effect from 1 April 2023 (for transactions on or after that date), capital gains from specified debt mutual fund schemes are taxed as short-term capital gains at the investor’s applicable income tax slab rate, irrespective of the holding period. This change fundamentally altered the after-tax return profile of debt mutual funds relative to bank fixed deposits and other fixed-income alternatives, and it significantly reduced the attractiveness of debt funds as tax-efficient long-term investment vehicles for investors in the 30 percent income tax bracket.

DHFL default impact on credit-risk funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The DHFL default and its impact on credit-risk mutual funds unfolded through 2019 and 2020 as Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL), at its peak India’s third-largest private housing finance company, progressively ceased to service its market borrowings, ultimately triggering the first use of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) against a financial services entity. For Indian credit-risk funds and other debt mutual fund schemes that held DHFL’s non-convertible debentures (NCDs) and commercial paper, the episode produced significant NAV write-downs, accelerated redemptions, and reinforced the market’s already-heightened post-IL&FS scepticism about the creditworthiness of non-bank lenders. The episode also produced SEBI’s first large-scale enforcement exercise around credit risk classification and side-pocket usage.

Dinesh Kumar Khara

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dinesh Kumar Khara is the former Chairman of State Bank of India (SBI), the largest bank in India by assets, where he served from October 2020 until August 2023. His inclusion in this biographical series reflects his governance role over SBI Mutual Fund, formally managed through SBI Funds Management Limited, during his chairmanship of its parent institution, SBI. SBI Mutual Fund is one of India’s top three mutual fund houses by AUM and one of the two most important public sector AMCs, alongside UTI AMC.

Direct mutual fund portals comparison: Coin vs Groww vs Kuvera vs MFU

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Direct mutual fund plans, mandated by SEBI since 1 January 2013, allow investors to invest in mutual fund schemes without routing through a distributor, thereby avoiding the trail commission embedded in regular plan expense ratios. Several platforms have been built to facilitate direct plan investing: Zerodha Coin, Groww, Kuvera, MF Utility (MFU), and others.

This article compares the four prominent direct plan investment platforms on key dimensions: unit-holding model, registration type, SIP mechanism, account fees, scheme universe, features, and regulatory status.

Direct Plan Adoption Trajectory in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The direct plan in Indian mutual funds is a separate plan within each scheme available exclusively to investors who invest without any distributor or broker intermediary. Mandated by SEBI with effect from 1 January 2013, direct plans carry a lower total expense ratio (TER) than their regular plan equivalents because no distribution commission is embedded. The adoption of direct plans transformed the economics of mutual fund distribution, created a viable market for fee-based investment advisers, and enabled a generation of zero-commission digital platforms to acquire tens of millions of investors.

Direct vs regular plan TER differential in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The direct vs regular plan TER differential is the difference in the total expense ratio (TER) between a mutual fund scheme’s direct plan and its regular plan. Both plans hold an identical portfolio managed by the same fund manager, but the regular plan charges an additional amount to compensate the distributor or investment adviser who sold the units. That extra charge reduces the investor’s net return by the same magnitude every year, compounding significantly over long holding periods.

Direct-to-regular and regular-to-direct switch implications

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Switching between the direct plan and regular plan of the same mutual fund scheme is treated as an inter-scheme switch for all regulatory, operational, and tax purposes, even though both plans invest in the same underlying portfolio. The switch triggers a redemption of units in the source plan and a fresh subscription in the destination plan, with full capital gains tax consequences.

Background: direct and regular plans

SEBI mandated the introduction of direct plans from 1 January 2013 (Circular CIR/IMD/DF/21/2012, dated 13 September 2012). Every open-ended mutual fund scheme must offer a direct plan alongside the regular plan:

Distributor remuneration disclosure in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Distributor remuneration disclosure refers to the SEBI-mandated obligation on AMCs and mutual fund distributors to disclose the commissions and fees earned by distributors from mutual fund investments. These disclosures are intended to make investors aware of the financial incentives their distributors face when recommending or managing mutual fund investments, enabling informed decisions about the advice they receive.

SEBI has introduced distributor remuneration disclosure requirements through a series of circulars from 2012 onwards, progressively expanding the scope and granularity of disclosures.

Dividend reinvestment option in mutual funds (historical)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The dividend reinvestment option was a sub-option within the dividend plan of Indian mutual fund schemes under which the dividend declared by a scheme on the record date was not paid out in cash to the investor but was instead reinvested in the same scheme by purchasing additional units at the ex-dividend NAV. This option existed from the early years of the Indian mutual fund industry through to 1 April 2021, when SEBI mandated renaming the “dividend” option to “IDCW (Income Distribution cum Capital Withdrawal)” and the dividend reinvestment sub-option to “IDCW Reinvestment.”

Dividend stripping disallowance (Section 94(7))

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dividend stripping disallowance under Section 94(7) of the Income Tax Act 1961 is an anti-avoidance provision that prevents investors from manufacturing artificial capital losses on mutual fund units by exploiting the fall in NAV that occurs after an IDCW (Income Distribution cum Capital Withdrawal) distribution. The scheme targeted was: buy units just before the IDCW record date (at a higher pre-IDCW NAV), receive the IDCW (taxed as income), sell the units after the ex-date at a lower post-IDCW NAV (claiming a capital loss), and use the capital loss to offset capital gains elsewhere. Section 94(7) disallows the capital loss on such transactions to the extent of the IDCW received, neutralising the tax benefit.

Dividend-yield mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A dividend-yield mutual fund in India is an open-ended equity scheme that must invest a minimum of 65% of its total assets in high-dividend-yield stocks – equities of companies that pay dividends at a yield materially above the market average. SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular created this category to distinguish income-oriented equity strategies from growth or value strategies. The underlying premise is that companies paying consistent, high dividends are typically mature, cash-generative businesses with strong balance sheets, providing investors a combination of income and lower downside risk than high-growth, low-dividend companies.

Downside capture ratio in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The downside capture ratio measures how much of a benchmark index’s negative return a mutual fund captures when the benchmark posts a loss. It is computed as the ratio of the fund’s average return during periods when the benchmark is negative, to the benchmark’s average return during those same periods, expressed as a percentage. A ratio below 100 means the fund falls less than the benchmark in down periods, an indicator of downside protection.

DSP Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DSP Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as DSP Investment Managers Private Limited, and sponsored and wholly owned by the DSP Group, the Mumbai-based financial services and investment group founded by Hemendra Kothari. As of March 2024, DSP Mutual Fund managed assets exceeding Rs 1.4 lakh crore across equity, debt, hybrid, and passive categories. The fund house is the successor to DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund following the DSP Group’s buyout of BlackRock’s 40% stake in 2018. A detailed history of the BlackRock joint venture era is in the DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund (historical) article.

DSP Mutual Fund direct portal

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The DSP Mutual Fund direct portal at dspim.com is the AMC-operated investment platform for direct plan investments in schemes managed by DSP Investment Managers Private Limited (DSP AMC). DSP AMC is a privately held AMC that operates the DSP Mutual Fund trust, managed entirely by the DSP Group after Blackrock’s exit from its erstwhile joint venture (DSP Blackrock Investment Managers) in 2018.

DSP AMC has a strong heritage in equity investing and manages a wide range of equity, debt, hybrid, and liquid schemes. As of 2024-25, DSP AMC ranked among India’s top fifteen AMCs by AUM, with particular strength in multi-cap and equity-oriented strategies.

DTAA benefit for NRI MF investors

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DTAA benefit for NRI mutual fund investors allows Non-Resident Indians and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) to claim relief from Indian income tax (or a reduced TDS rate) on capital gains and IDCW income from Indian mutual funds, where India’s Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with the investor’s country of residence provides for exclusive taxation rights or a reduced rate. Without invoking DTAA, the NRI is subject to TDS under Section 195 at standard rates. By furnishing a Tax Residency Certificate (TRC) and, where required, Form 10F, the investor can direct the AMC to apply the DTAA rate, potentially reducing or eliminating TDS on the Indian mutual fund investment.

Dynamic bond mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A dynamic bond mutual fund in India is an open-ended debt scheme that may invest across any duration (from short-term money-market instruments to 30+ year government bonds) and across any credit quality (from AAA government securities to lower-rated corporate bonds), with the fund manager actively adjusting the portfolio composition based on the prevailing interest rate environment, yield curve shape, and credit outlook. SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular placed dynamic bond funds in the debt category with no mandatory duration or credit quality constraints, giving fund managers maximum flexibility.

eCAN (electronic Common Account Number)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

eCAN (electronic Common Account Number) is the online registration process by which an investor creates a Common Account Number (CAN) on MFU (Mutual Fund Utility) using a fully digital, paperless workflow. The eCAN process allows an investor who is already KYC-compliant to register a CAN on MFU without submitting physical forms, enabling direct-plan and regular-plan mutual fund transactions across multiple AMCs through a single account identifier.

The CAN itself is the unique investor-level identifier on MFU that aggregates transactional access across all participating AMCs. The eCAN is the digital pathway to creating this CAN, as distinct from the physical CAN registration form (CRF) process that requires paper documents.

Edelweiss Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Edelweiss Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as Edelweiss Asset Management Limited, and sponsored by Edelweiss Financial Services Limited, the Mumbai-based diversified financial services group. As of March 2024, the fund house managed assets exceeding Rs 1 lakh crore across equity, debt, hybrid, passive, and alternative investment fund categories.

Edelweiss MF occupies a distinctive position in the Indian AMC landscape through two notable product categories: the Bharat Bond ETF series (a unique AAA-rated corporate bond ETF backed by public sector enterprises), managed on behalf of the government, and its range of alternative strategy funds targeting returns uncorrelated with conventional equity or debt markets.

ELSS mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An Equity Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS) is a category of open-ended equity mutual fund in India that qualifies for a deduction under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, 1961, allowing investors to claim a deduction of up to ₹1.5 lakh per financial year from their gross total income, subject to conditions. ELSS funds are the only equity mutual fund category in India that offers a tax deduction on the invested amount. They carry a mandatory lock-in period of three years from the date of each investment unit, which is the shortest lock-in period among all Section 80C instruments.

ELSS vs PPF

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Equity Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS) and Public Provident Fund (PPF) are among the most widely used instruments for claiming the Section 80C deduction under the Income Tax Act, 1961. Both allow an investor to claim a deduction of up to Rs 1,50,000 per financial year. They differ fundamentally in their nature, risk profile, return mechanism, liquidity, and regulatory framework.

ELSS is a category of equity-oriented mutual fund regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, while PPF is a government-backed small savings scheme administered by the Ministry of Finance under the Public Provident Fund Act, 1968 (since subsumed into the Government Savings Banks Act, 1873, as amended).

eMandate and NACH for Mutual Fund SIPs in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The National Automated Clearing House (NACH) and the associated electronic mandate (eMandate) framework are the primary payment infrastructure through which Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) debits are processed in Indian mutual funds. Developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and launched operationally in 2012-13, NACH replaced the earlier fragmented Electronic Clearing Service (ECS) system with a national, standardised platform for recurring payment mandates. While UPI AutoPay has largely displaced NACH for new SIP registrations since 2021, NACH remains the backbone of tens of millions of legacy SIP mandates and continues to process the majority of SIP debits by value.

Employee Unique Identification Number (EUIN)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Employee Unique Identification Number (EUIN) is a mandatory identifier issued by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) to individual employees, agents, or relationship managers of ARN-registered mutual fund distributors who interact with investors to recommend or advise on mutual fund transactions. The EUIN enables SEBI and AMCs to link specific mutual fund transactions to the particular individual who recommended or processed them, creating an individual-level audit trail within the broader ARN-based distributor registration system.

Entry load in mutual funds, historical note

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Entry load (also called front-end load or sales load) was a one-time charge deducted from an investor’s purchase amount before mutual fund units were allotted, effectively reducing the number of units received for a given investment. The charge was expressed as a percentage of the investment amount and was primarily used to compensate mutual fund distributors for their sales effort. SEBI abolished entry loads on all mutual fund schemes in India with effect from 1 August 2009, making it a purely historical instrument.

EOP regulations 2023 (Execution-Only Platform framework)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The EOP (Execution-Only Platform) framework is a regulatory architecture established by SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) through circular SEBI/HO/IMD/IMD-POD-1/P/CIR/2023/74, issued on 19 May 2023. The circular formally defines and regulates platforms that facilitate execution of mutual fund transactions in direct plans without providing investment advice, creating a distinct regulatory category for what had previously been a grey area in Indian mutual fund distribution regulation.

Prior to the EOP circular, direct-plan aggregator platforms such as Kuvera, ET Money, MFU, and BSE StAR MF operated either under AMFI ARN holder registrations (as mutual fund distributors without the commission basis) or as SEBI-registered investment advisers (RIAs). The absence of a specific platform category meant that transaction-only platforms faced regulatory uncertainty about their obligations and permissible activities.

EPFO and the Equity ETF Channel

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) equity ETF channel refers to the mechanism through which India’s largest provident fund – which manages the retirement savings of approximately 6.5 crore contributing members – allocates a portion of its incremental corpus to equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The EPFO’s entry into equity markets in 2015 created the largest single captive institutional demand for Indian equity ETFs, directly contributing to the passive investing wave and making the EPFO one of the most consequential investors in Indian capital markets.

EPFO equity ETF channel

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The EPFO equity ETF channel refers to the framework under which the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) invests a portion of the annual fresh incremental deposits of the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) in equity markets through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking broad market indices. Initiated in August 2015, this channel represents the largest single-entity indirect equity exposure of Indian salaried workers to the stock market through a government-mandated retirement savings programme.

Equity Culture in India and the Role of Mutual Funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Equity culture in India refers to the gradual but accelerating integration of equity-linked instruments into the savings and investment behaviour of ordinary Indian households. Mutual funds have been the dominant vehicle through which this cultural shift has occurred, serving as an accessible, regulated, and professionally managed pathway for the middle class to participate in Indian corporate growth. The transition from a predominantly physical-asset and bank-deposit savings culture to one incorporating equity exposure is one of the most consequential structural changes in India’s financial landscape since liberalisation.

Equity ETF in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An equity exchange-traded fund (equity ETF) in India is a passively managed open-ended fund that tracks a specific equity index (such as the NIFTY 50, SENSEX, NIFTY Bank, or NIFTY Midcap 150), with its units listed and traded continuously on a stock exchange (NSE or BSE) during market hours. Unlike a conventional open-ended mutual fund (in which units are purchased and redeemed at the end-of-day NAV), equity ETF units trade intraday on the exchange at market prices that approximate the fund’s NAV, enabling real-time entry and exit.

Equity savings mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An equity savings mutual fund in India is an open-ended hybrid scheme that combines three sources of return: unhedged equity (directional equity exposure), equity arbitrage (market-neutral hedged equity positions), and debt instruments. SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular defines the category by requiring a minimum 65% total equity allocation (which includes both unhedged and arbitrage equity), a minimum 10% in debt, and a minimum 10% in unhedged equity. Because total equity (unhedged plus arbitrage) is at least 65%, equity savings funds qualify for equity-oriented taxation, making them more tax-efficient than debt-oriented hybrid categories such as conservative hybrid funds.

ESG and Sustainable Investing in Indian Mutual Funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

ESG investing in Indian mutual funds refers to the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria into the investment process of SEBI-regulated mutual fund schemes. India’s ESG fund landscape is nascent relative to developed markets but has grown significantly since the first dedicated ESG mutual fund schemes were launched in 2018-19. By 2025, approximately 12-15 AMCs offered dedicated ESG or ESG-integrated schemes, though AUM in dedicated ESG schemes remained a small fraction of total equity mutual fund assets.

ET Money

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

ET Money is an Indian personal finance platform and direct mutual fund investment application, operated by Times Internet Limited, a subsidiary of the Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited (BCCL) media group. Accessible at etmoney.com and through Android and iOS applications, ET Money allows investors to invest in direct plans of mutual fund schemes, purchase insurance products, and access financial planning tools. As of 2024, ET Money disclosed over one crore registered users, positioning it among the larger consumer-facing direct-plan investment platforms in India alongside Kuvera, INDmoney, and Groww.

Exit load cap rule, Indian mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The exit load cap rule in Indian mutual fund regulation refers to the suite of provisions under Regulation 52 of the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 that govern the maximum exit load an AMC may charge and the mandatory credit of such loads to the scheme rather than to AMC revenues. The most significant milestones in the evolution of this framework are: the abolition of entry loads by SEBI circular dated 30 June 2009; the mandatory credit of exit loads above 1% to the scheme (from 1 October 2012); and the effective cap on exit loads at 1% for all redemptions after one year for equity schemes. These rules are enforced by the SEBI Investment Management Department.

Exit load in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Exit load is a fee charged by a mutual fund to an investor upon redemption of units before a specified minimum holding period has elapsed. It is expressed as a percentage of the redemption amount or the applicable NAV, and it is deducted from the redemption proceeds before the net amount is paid to the investor. Exit loads serve two purposes: they deter short-term redemptions that destabilise the fund’s portfolio and impose transaction costs on remaining unitholders, and they provide a modest income to the scheme that partially offsets redemption-related costs.

FATCA-restricted US/Canada NRI MF rules

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

FATCA-restricted US/Canada NRI mutual fund rules describe the regulatory and commercial constraints that prevent the majority of Indian asset management companies (AMCs) from accepting mutual fund investments from non-resident Indians (NRIs) who are tax residents of the United States or Canada. The restrictions arise from US and Canadian tax reporting obligations under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), and the Indian Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with the United States, rather than from any Indian regulation that bars such investments. This article explains the legal architecture, the AMC-level response, the available pathways, and the tax consequences for affected investors.

Flex SIP and Smart SIP

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A flex SIP (also called a smart SIP or value-based SIP) is a variant of the Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) in which the instalment amount is not fixed but varies based on a predefined valuation signal, such as the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio or price-to-book (P/B) ratio of the benchmark index, so that more is invested when the market is considered undervalued and less when the market is considered overvalued.

The concept is an attempt to systematise a form of tactical market timing within an automated investment framework, while retaining the discipline and regularity of a standard SIP.

Flexi-cap mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A flexi-cap mutual fund in India is an open-ended, dynamically managed equity scheme that must invest a minimum of 65% of its total assets in equity and equity-related instruments across the full market-capitalisation spectrum, with no mandatory minimum allocation to any individual market-cap segment – large-cap, mid-cap, or small-cap. The category was created by SEBI through a supplementary circular issued in November 2020 (SEBI/HO/IMD/DF3/CIR/P/2020/228, dated 6 November 2020) in response to industry concern that the September 2020 mandatory multi-cap circular had forced multi-cap funds to divest large-cap holdings and acquire small-cap stocks at scale in a compressed timeframe.

Focused equity mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A focused equity mutual fund in India is an open-ended equity scheme that invests in a concentrated portfolio of a maximum of 30 stocks, with a minimum of 65% of its total assets in equity and equity-related instruments. SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular created this category to distinguish high-conviction, concentrated equity portfolios from broadly diversified equity funds. Unlike large-cap, mid-cap, or flexi-cap funds, focused funds have no mandatory market-cap allocation; the 30 stocks may be spread across large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap at the fund manager’s discretion.

Folio number in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A folio number is a unique identifier assigned by a mutual fund’s Registrar and Transfer Agent (RTA) to each distinct investor account held with an AMC. All mutual fund units purchased by an investor from a given AMC are consolidated under a folio number for that investor with that AMC. The folio number is analogous to an account number in a bank: it identifies the investor–AMC relationship and aggregates all holdings, transactions, and correspondence under a single reference.

Forgotten Folios and the MITRA Initiative in Indian Mutual Funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Forgotten folios in Indian mutual funds are mutual fund investment accounts that have become inactive, unclaimed, or effectively lost due to investor migration, death of the investor without nominee claim, address or contact information change, or simply long-term neglect. With India’s total folio count exceeding 22 crore by March 2025 – accumulated over three decades of industry growth – a significant minority of these folios carry assets that investors or their heirs are unaware of or unable to access. The MITRA (Mutual fund Inactive accounts TrackeR and Aggregator) initiative, launched by AMFI in 2023 under SEBI’s direction, is the industry’s primary mechanism for helping investors identify and reclaim these dormant accounts.

Form 26AS -- TDS on mutual fund dividends in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Form 26AS is an annual consolidated tax credit statement maintained by the Income Tax Department of India for each PAN holder, showing all Tax Deducted at Source (TDS), Tax Collected at Source (TCS), advance tax payments, and self-assessment tax payments credited against the taxpayer’s account. For mutual fund investors, Form 26AS is relevant primarily because it records TDS deducted by AMCs under Section 194K on Income Distribution cum Capital Withdrawal (IDCW) payouts when the cumulative IDCW paid by a single AMC to an investor exceeds Rs 5,000 in a financial year.

FPI and mutual fund investing

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPI) registered under SEBI (Foreign Portfolio Investors) Regulations, 2019 may invest in units of Indian domestic mutual fund schemes, subject to aggregate limits set by the Reserve Bank of India and investment restrictions specified at the individual scheme level. FPIs constitute an important but non-dominant channel for foreign capital into Indian mutual funds; the more significant route for FPI participation in Indian equities is direct purchase of listed shares and bonds.

Franklin Templeton India Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Franklin Templeton India Mutual Fund is the Indian operations of Franklin Templeton Investments, the US-headquartered global asset management company founded in New York in 1947 and now part of Franklin Resources Inc. The Indian operations are conducted through Franklin Templeton Asset Management (India) Private Limited, registered with SEBI as an AMC, and have been active in India since 1996. As of March 2024, the fund house managed assets of approximately Rs 1.3 lakh crore, a recovery from the significant AUM reduction that followed the winding-up of six debt schemes in April 2020.

Franklin Templeton six-scheme winding-up (April 2020)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Franklin Templeton six-scheme winding-up of 23 April 2020 was the abrupt and unilateral closure of six fixed-income open-end mutual fund schemes by Franklin Templeton Asset Management (India) Private Limited, trapping approximately Rs 25,000 crore (then approximately USD 3.3 billion) of investor assets at the outset. The closure, announced without prior public notice or investor consent, constituted the largest simultaneous wind-up of open-end mutual fund schemes in Indian history. It set off protracted legal proceedings before the Supreme Court of India, a landmark enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, and fundamental regulatory changes that reshaped the liquidity and governance framework applicable to all debt mutual funds in the country.

Franklin Templeton winding-up (2020)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Franklin Templeton winding-up (2020) refers to the decision by Franklin Templeton Asset Management (India) Private Limited to wind up six open-ended debt mutual fund schemes on 23 April 2020, citing severe liquidity stress attributable to the market disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The six schemes had a combined assets under management of approximately Rs 28,000 crore and approximately 3 lakh investor accounts (folios). The event is the largest involuntary closure of open-ended mutual fund schemes in Indian mutual fund history and prompted significant judicial and regulatory responses.

FundsIndia

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

FundsIndia is an Indian online mutual fund distribution and financial planning platform, operated by FundsIndia.com Private Limited, accessible at fundsindia.com. Founded in 2009, FundsIndia is one of India’s earliest dedicated online mutual fund investment portals, predating the emergence of the current generation of direct-plan-focused fintech platforms by several years. The platform holds an AMFI ARN registration and distributes both direct plans and regular plans of mutual fund schemes from all major AMCs.

Gilt mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A gilt mutual fund in India is an open-ended debt scheme that invests a minimum of 80% of its total assets in government securities (G-Secs) across maturities, under SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular. The term “gilt” is borrowed from the British market, where government bonds were historically printed on gilt-edged paper. In India, gilt funds hold predominantly Central Government Securities (CG-Secs) and, to a lesser extent, State Development Loans (SDLs). Gilt funds carry zero credit risk (sovereign backing) but carry high interest rate risk due to the long average maturity of government securities portfolios.

Gold ETF in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A Gold ETF (Gold Exchange-Traded Fund) in India is an open-ended fund that is listed and traded on a stock exchange, where each unit represents ownership of a defined quantity of physical gold (typically 0.01 gram or 1 gram of gold of 99.5% or 99.9% purity). The fund’s assets are invested in physical gold held in a custodian-approved vault, and the NAV of each unit tracks the domestic gold price. SEBI regulates gold ETFs under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, and has issued specific guidelines on gold ETF structure, custodianship, and audit requirements.

Grandfathering of LTCG on equity MFs (31 January 2018)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Grandfathering of LTCG on equity mutual funds refers to the statutory mechanism under Section 55(2)(ac) of the Income Tax Act 1961 that protects gains accrued on equity-oriented mutual fund units before 1 February 2018 from being taxed under Section 112A. The provision was inserted by the Finance Act 2018 simultaneously with the reintroduction of LTCG tax on equity after a 14-year hiatus. It operates by deeming the cost of acquisition of pre-2018 units to be the higher of the actual purchase price and the fair market value (FMV) of the units on 31 January 2018, subject to an upper cap of the actual sale price. The effect is that all appreciation up to 31 January 2018 is excluded from the taxable LTCG base.

Growth option vs IDCW option in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every open-ended mutual fund scheme in India offers at least two investment options: the growth option and the IDCW (Income Distribution cum Capital Withdrawal) option. Each option maintains a separate NAV and represents a different mechanism for the investor to receive value from the scheme’s portfolio performance, though both options invest in an identical underlying portfolio managed by the same fund manager.

The choice between growth and IDCW is one of the most consequential structural decisions for a mutual fund investor, primarily because of its tax implications.

GST on mutual fund management fees

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Goods and Services Tax (GST) on mutual fund management fees is an 18 per cent GST levied on the investment management and advisory fee charged by an asset management company (AMC) for managing a mutual fund scheme. GST on fund management is classified as a financial service under the GST framework and is embedded within the total expense ratio (TER), meaning it does not increase the TER beyond the published ceiling but reduces the net fee retained by the AMC after GST payment.

Half-yearly portfolio statement for mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The half-yearly portfolio statement for mutual funds is a regulatory disclosure published by AMCs twice a year – as of 31 March and 30 September – that contains the full investment portfolio of each scheme along with additional data fields that are not required in the monthly portfolio disclosure. SEBI mandates this disclosure under Regulation 59A of the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 and related circulars. The half-yearly statement is sent directly to investors by e-mail (or post, on request) and is also published on the AMC’s website and AMFI’s website.

Half-yearly unaudited financial results of a mutual fund scheme

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Half-yearly unaudited financial results for mutual fund schemes are condensed financial statements mandated by SEBI that AMCs must publish for each scheme for the half-year periods ending 30 September and 31 March. Unlike the scheme’s annual report, which contains fully audited financials, the half-yearly results are unaudited (reviewed but not audited) and are published in a shorter format. They are one of the key periodic financial disclosures through which mutual fund investors can assess the financial health of their schemes between annual audit cycles.

HDFC AMC IPO (2018)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The HDFC Asset Management Company Limited IPO of July 2018 was India’s first public listing of a significant asset management company, bringing to the stock market the country’s largest AMC by equity AUM and profitable fee-income franchise. Listed simultaneously on the National Stock Exchange of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange on 6 August 2018, HDFC AMC’s IPO was subscribed approximately 83 times overall and listed at a significant premium to its issue price of Rs 1,100 per share. The offering established an earnings-multiple benchmark for asset-light fund management businesses in India that influenced the subsequent valuations of the UTI AMC IPO of 2020, the Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC IPO of 2021, and Nippon India AMC’s listing.

HDFC Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

HDFC Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally constituted as HDFC Asset Management Company Limited (HDFC AMC), and is one of the two or three largest mutual funds in India by assets under management. Sponsored by HDFC Limited (the mortgage finance corporation) and abrdn plc (formerly Aberdeen Standard Investments) of the United Kingdom, the AMC managed assets exceeding Rs 6 lakh crore as of March 2024. HDFC AMC was incorporated in 1999 and launched its first schemes in 2000, building a comprehensive product range across equity, debt, hybrid, and passive categories. It listed its shares on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in August 2018, becoming one of the first Indian AMCs to be publicly traded.

HDFC Mutual Fund direct portal

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The HDFC Mutual Fund direct portal at hdfcfund.com is the AMC-operated investment platform for direct plans of schemes managed by HDFC Asset Management Company Limited (HDFC AMC), one of India’s largest and most profitable asset management companies. HDFC AMC is listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE: HDFCAMC) and BSE, making it one of the few publicly traded Indian AMCs.

HDFC AMC manages a comprehensive range of equity, debt, liquid, and hybrid mutual fund schemes and, as of 2024-25, ranked among the top two or three Indian AMCs by equity AUM. The direct portal enables self-directed investors to access HDFC AMC’s scheme range without distributor intermediation.

History of Mutual Funds in India (1963 to 2026)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The history of mutual funds in India spans more than six decades, beginning with the creation of the Unit Trust of India (UTI) by an Act of Parliament in 1963 and culminating in a 44-AMC industry managing assets exceeding Rs 67 lakh crore by early 2026. The journey traverses three broad eras: a state-monopoly phase (1963-1992), a managed liberalisation phase (1992-2003), and a competitive private-market phase (2003-present) defined by SEBI regulation, direct plans, and the Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) revolution.

Holding-period statement for mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A holding-period statement for mutual fund units is a pre-redemption planning document generated by RTAs (CAMS and KFintech) and available through platforms such as MFCentral, that lists each individual purchase lot held in a folio with its purchase date, purchase NAV, cost of acquisition, number of units in the lot, and the number of days (or months and years) the lot has been held as of the statement generation date. Investors use the holding-period statement to determine which lots of units have crossed the threshold for long-term capital gains (LTCG) treatment and to plan redemptions in a tax-efficient manner.

How to buy your first mutual fund on Coin

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Zerodha Coin is a direct-plan mutual fund investment platform where units are held in demat form rather than in a statement-of-account (SOA) folio with the registrar. This guide covers the complete process of purchasing your first mutual fund unit on Coin, from account prerequisites through post-purchase verification.

Prerequisites

Before placing your first Coin order, confirm the following:

How to claim mutual fund dividends on Coin

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mutual fund investors on Zerodha Coin who choose the IDCW plan (Income Distribution cum Capital Withdrawal – formerly called the Dividend plan) receive periodic cash payouts from the fund’s distributable surplus. These payouts are automatically credited to the investor’s registered bank account; no manual claim process is required.

This guide explains what IDCW means, how it works for demat-held Coin units, and how to ensure you receive and report payouts correctly.

How to dematerialise mutual fund SoA holdings

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mutual fund units in India can be held in two modes: Statement of Account (SoA) form (also called non-demat or direct/regular plan physical form) and demat form. SoA-held units are registered in the investor’s folio with the fund’s RTA (KFintech or CAMS), and the investor receives periodic statements by email. Demat-held units are credited to a CDSL or NSDL demat account.

Investors who have historically invested directly with fund houses or through platforms like MFCentral, Kuvera, Groww (before Groww moved to demat), or the AMC’s own website may hold SoA-form units. These units can be converted (dematerialised) into demat form and consolidated into the Zerodha demat account, after which they appear in Zerodha Console and can be managed alongside equity holdings.

How to do a lump-sum mutual fund purchase on Coin

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A lump-sum purchase on Zerodha Coin is a one-time investment of a specified rupee amount into a direct plan mutual fund scheme. Unlike a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP), a lump-sum order is a single transaction and does not create any recurring debit obligation. All units purchased through Coin are held in demat account form at CDSL, not in a statement-of-account folio with the fund’s registrar.

This guide explains how to place and confirm a lump-sum purchase on Coin, the NAV cut-off rules that determine the applicable price, and what to verify afterwards.

How to download a Coin mutual fund statement

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mutual fund units held on Zerodha Coin are in demat form in your CDSL account. Account statements can be obtained from multiple sources depending on your needs: Zerodha Console for portfolio and tax reports, CAMS/KFintech for the SEBI-mandated Consolidated Account Statement (CAS) covering all mutual fund folios, and CDSL for the demat securities statement.

This guide covers all available statement download paths.

Prerequisites

Active Zerodha account with Coin holdings.
Zerodha client ID and TOTP for Console login.
PAN registered with CAMS and/or KFintech for CAS download.
Email address and/or mobile registered with CAMS/KFintech/CDSL for OTP authentication.

Regulatory basis for mutual fund statements

SEBI Circular SEBI/IMD/CIR No.16/2011/2011 and subsequent circulars require AMCs and registrars to dispatch a Consolidated Account Statement (CAS) to all investors:

How to import existing mutual funds into Coin

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Zerodha Coin offers two distinct meanings of “importing” existing mutual fund holdings:

View-only linking: Coin fetches your external statement-of-account (SOA) folio holdings from CAMS and KFintech registrars using your PAN and shows them in the “External Funds” section. This does not move units into your demat account; you cannot redeem or switch these units through Coin.
Demat conversion: A separate process through CAMS or KFintech that physically converts your SOA-folio units into demat units held in your CDSL account under Zerodha. After conversion, the units appear under “Holdings” in Coin and can be redeemed or switched through Coin.

How to invest in an index fund via Coin

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An index fund is an open-ended mutual fund scheme that passively replicates the composition and weightings of a market index, such as the Nifty 50, Nifty Next 50, Sensex, or Nifty Midcap 150. The fund manager’s objective is not to outperform the index but to minimise the difference between the fund’s returns and the index’s returns (tracking error). Index funds are low-cost, transparent, and tax-efficient relative to actively managed funds.

How to invest in ELSS via Coin

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An Equity Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS) is a category of open-ended equity mutual fund that qualifies for income tax deduction under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Investments in ELSS of up to Rs 1.5 lakh per financial year reduce your taxable income by the same amount, subject to the Rs 1.5 lakh aggregate limit under Section 80C. ELSS schemes have a mandatory 3-year lock-in period per investment tranche, the shortest lock-in among all Section 80C instruments.

How to invest in liquid funds via Coin

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Liquid funds are debt mutual fund schemes that invest in money market instruments, treasury bills, commercial paper, and certificates of deposit with a residual maturity of up to 91 days. They are designed to provide returns slightly above savings account rates with near-instant liquidity, making them a popular parking ground for short-term cash.

Zerodha Coin offers direct plans of liquid funds from major AMCs at zero distribution commission, with lower expense ratios than regular plans.

How to modify SIP amount or date on Coin

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Zerodha Coin does not currently support direct in-app editing of a running SIP’s instalment amount or debit date for most fund AMCs. The standard procedure to change either parameter is to cancel the existing SIP and register a new SIP with the desired settings. This guide explains both the direct-edit path (where available) and the cancel-and-restart workflow, along with mandate management considerations.

Prerequisites

An active Zerodha trading and demat account with complete KYC.
At least one active SIP in your Coin portfolio.
TOTP authenticator for Zerodha two-factor login.
UPI app or net banking access for mandate registration if the new SIP amount requires an updated mandate.

Why direct SIP modification is often unavailable

An SIP on Coin is linked to a payment mandate (UPI autopay or NACH) registered with a specific amount ceiling. When you change the SIP amount, the underlying mandate may also need to change if the new amount exceeds the mandate limit. Because mandates are registered with the payment system (NPCI for UPI, NACH for bank mandates) and not just with Coin, changes require re-registration at the payment network level.

How to pause or cancel an SIP on Coin

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) on Zerodha Coin can be paused temporarily or cancelled permanently at any time. Stopping an SIP does not redeem the units already purchased; your existing mutual fund units remain in your CDSL demat account until you separately initiate a redemption. This guide explains the pause and cancellation processes, timing constraints, and mandate management.

Prerequisites

An active Zerodha trading and demat account with complete KYC.
At least one active SIP in your Coin portfolio.
TOTP authenticator for Zerodha two-factor login.

Pause vs. cancel: key differences

Pause: Temporarily suspends SIP instalments for a defined period (typically 1 to 3 months), after which the SIP automatically resumes. Not all AMCs support the pause facility. The SIP mandate (UPI autopay or NACH) remains active during the pause; instalments are simply skipped for the pause period.

How to pledge mutual funds for margin on Zerodha

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mutual fund units held in demat form in your Zerodha demat account can be pledged as collateral to generate margin for trading in Futures and Options (F&O), equity intraday, and commodity segments on Zerodha’s Kite platform. This is a SEBI-permitted mechanism that allows investors to use their mutual fund corpus as trading margin without redeeming the units.

Prerequisites

An active Zerodha trading and demat account with complete KYC and F&O segment activated.
Mutual fund units in your Coin CDSL demat account (not SOA-folio units).
CDSL TPIN or access to CDSL-registered mobile for OTP.
Understanding that ELSS units in lock-in period cannot be pledged.
TOTP authenticator for Zerodha two-factor login.

Regulatory framework for pledging mutual funds as margin

SEBI Circular SEBI/HO/MRD/DRNP/CIR/P/2020/218 (October 2020) overhauled the margin pledge framework for brokers and clients. Key provisions:

How to redeem a mutual fund on Coin

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mutual fund units held on Zerodha Coin are in demat form in your CDSL account. Redeeming them requires a CDSL authorisation step that is unique to demat-held units and does not apply to statement-of-account (SOA) folios. This guide walks through the complete redemption process on Coin, including cut-off time rules and payout timelines.

Prerequisites

An active Zerodha trading and demat account with complete KYC.
Mutual fund units already held in your Coin portfolio.
CDSL TPIN set up, or access to the mobile number registered with CDSL for OTP authorisation. Set up the TPIN at cdsl.com if not already done.
TOTP authenticator for Zerodha two-factor login.

Regulatory framework for redemptions

Under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, AMCs are obligated to honour redemption requests from investors at the applicable NAV. SEBI Circular SEBI/HO/IMD/DF2/CIR/P/2019/137 (November 2019) governs mutual fund units held in demat form. When units are in demat form, the depository participant (Zerodha, through CDSL) must authorise the transfer of units to the AMC before the redemption can be processed. This is handled through CDSL’s TPIN or OTP mechanism, which serves as an electronic equivalent of a delivery instruction slip (DIS).

How to set up an SIP via UPI autopay on Coin

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

UPI autopay (also called UPI e-mandate or UPI recurring mandate) allows a fixed amount to be debited automatically from your bank account at a set frequency – daily, weekly, or monthly – after a one-time approval. For SIP registration on Zerodha Coin, UPI autopay is the fastest mandate option: registration is completed within minutes and requires only a one-time approval in your UPI app, compared to NACH mandates which take up to 30 days.

How to start an SIP on Coin

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) on Zerodha Coin is a standing instruction that automatically invests a fixed rupee amount into a chosen direct mutual fund scheme at a defined frequency – daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Units purchased through each SIP instalment are held in demat form in your CDSL demat account. This guide covers the complete SIP setup process on Coin, from scheme selection through mandate registration and first instalment verification.

How to switch a mutual fund on Coin

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A fund switch on Zerodha Coin allows you to move your investment from one mutual fund scheme to another without first receiving the redemption proceeds in your bank account. On Coin, switches are limited to schemes within the same Asset Management Company (AMC). This guide covers the complete switch process, the regulatory basis for the switch mechanism, and the tax consequences.

Prerequisites

An active Zerodha trading and demat account with complete KYC.
Mutual fund units already held in the source scheme in your Coin portfolio.
CDSL TPIN set up, or access to your CDSL-registered mobile for OTP authorisation.
TOTP authenticator for Zerodha two-factor login.

What is a fund switch: regulatory context

Under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, a switch is treated as a simultaneous redemption from the source scheme and a fresh purchase into the destination scheme of the same AMC. Because both schemes belong to the same AMC, the AMC processes the internal transfer without the investor having to receive and reinvest cash. The switch is not available across AMCs on Coin; to move between different AMCs, you must redeem from one and separately purchase in the other.

How to switch from regular to direct mutual fund via Coin

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Switching from a regular plan to a direct plan of the same mutual fund scheme is one of the highest-impact, zero-cost investment improvements available to retail mutual fund investors in India. A regular plan includes a distributor trail commission (typically 0.5%–1.0% per annum for equity funds) embedded in its Total Expense Ratio (TER). A direct plan of the same scheme, available on Zerodha Coin, does not include this commission, resulting in a lower TER and consequently higher NAV growth over time.

HSBC acquisition of L&T Mutual Fund (2022)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The HSBC Asset Management India acquisition of L&T Investment Management Limited in May 2022 consolidated two mid-sized mutual fund franchises into a combined entity with approximately Rs 82,000 crore of assets under management, making HSBC Mutual Fund one of the top-ten AMCs in India by AUM. The transaction involved HSBC Asset Management (India) Private Limited acquiring L&T Investment Management from L&T Finance Holdings Limited, the listed NBFC arm of the Larsen and Toubro engineering and infrastructure conglomerate, for an enterprise value of approximately Rs 3,188 crore.

HSBC Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

HSBC Mutual Fund is the Indian mutual fund operations of the HSBC Group, formally managed through HSBC Asset Management (India) Private Limited, a subsidiary of HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Private Limited. The fund house was established in 2001 and entered a new phase in 2023 when it completed the acquisition of L&T Investment Management Limited (formerly L&T Mutual Fund), substantially expanding its AUM and scheme count. As of March 2024, HSBC Mutual Fund managed assets exceeding Rs 1 lakh crore, positioning it in the mid-size bracket of the Indian AMC industry.

HUF as MF investor

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) as a mutual fund investor is a distinct legal entity under Hindu personal law that may invest in units of SEBI-registered mutual funds in its own name. The HUF is neither a company nor an individual; it is a joint family body recognised under the Income Tax Act, 1961, as a separate assessable person. The Karta, the senior-most male or female member who manages the HUF, acts as the authorised representative for all investment and redemption transactions.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally constituted as ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company Limited, and is consistently one of the two or three largest mutual funds in India by assets under management. The AMC is jointly sponsored by ICICI Bank Limited, India’s second-largest private sector bank, and Prudential plc of the United Kingdom, one of the world’s largest financial services groups. As of March 2024, ICICI Prudential AMC managed assets exceeding Rs 7 lakh crore across over 100 schemes spanning equity, debt, hybrid, passive, and solution-oriented categories.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund direct portal

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund direct portal at icicipruamc.com is the AMC-operated investment platform for direct plans of schemes managed by ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company Limited, a joint venture between ICICI Bank Limited and Prudential plc of the United Kingdom. ICICI Prudential AMC is one of India’s three largest AMCs by total AUM, managing equity, debt, hybrid, liquid, and passive schemes across all SEBI scheme categories. The company is listed on NSE (NSE: ICICIPRULI’s parent, but the AMC itself as ICICIPRUMAS as of AMC listing details – the AMC has filed for listing separately) and holds a SEBI registration as an AMC.

IDCW intimation for mutual funds in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An IDCW intimation (Income Distribution cum Capital Withdrawal intimation), commonly referred to as a dividend intimation before SEBI’s renaming of the option in 2021, is a regulatory announcement made by a mutual fund AMC ahead of a planned distribution from a scheme’s IDCW option. The intimation discloses the per-unit IDCW amount, the record date (the date by which investors must hold units to be eligible), the ex-date (the date from which the NAV drops to reflect the distribution), and details of applicable TDS under Section 194K. SEBI mandates that this intimation be published at least one day before the ex-date, and that it be communicated to AMFI and published on the AMC’s website.

IDCW, Income Distribution cum Capital Withdrawal

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

IDCW (Income Distribution cum Capital Withdrawal) is the official name, effective 1 April 2021, for what was previously called the “dividend” option in Indian mutual fund schemes. SEBI mandated the renaming through Circular SEBI/HO/IMD/DF3/CIR/P/2020/235 (dated 9 December 2020) to more accurately describe the economic nature of the distribution: unlike a corporate dividend which is paid from profits without reducing the share price proportionally on the ex-date, a mutual fund IDCW distribution reduces the scheme’s NAV by exactly the distribution amount per unit on the record date, because the money distributed to investors comes out of the scheme’s corpus.

IL&FS default impact on debt funds (2018)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The IL&FS default of September 2018 marked the most consequential single credit event in the Indian debt mutual fund market in the decade preceding the COVID-19 crisis. When Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) and its subsidiaries began defaulting on short-term commercial paper and non-convertible debenture obligations in September 2018, mutual funds holding these instruments suffered immediate net asset value (NAV) write-downs, interbank and capital market credit flowed sharply away from non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and the Securities and Exchange Board of India was compelled to introduce a suite of emergency and structural regulatory measures. The episode revealed deep weaknesses in credit risk assessment, concentration management, and valuation practices within Indian fixed-income mutual funds and accelerated reforms that reshaped the industry for years.

Illiquid asset workout in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Illiquid asset workout in the context of Indian mutual funds refers to the process through which an AMC manages, restructures, and attempts to recover value from debt securities in a scheme’s portfolio that have become illiquid, defaulted, or severely distressed. Unlike equity holdings, which can be sold on an exchange even under stress (at a price), debt securities that are in default or have a credit event may have no willing buyers in the secondary market, requiring the AMC to engage directly with the issuer, work through resolution or insolvency proceedings, or accept partial recovery over an extended period.

Indexation removal for debt MFs (Finance Act 2023)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Indexation removal for debt mutual funds refers to the legislative change effected by the Finance Act 2023 that eliminated the benefit of indexation – the inflation-adjustment of the cost of acquisition using the Cost Inflation Index (CII) – for units of “specified mutual funds” acquired on or after 1 April 2023. Simultaneously, the Finance Act 2023 abolished the concept of long-term capital assets for such funds, treating all gains (irrespective of holding period) as short-term capital gains taxed at the investor’s slab rate. The change fundamentally altered the competitive tax advantage that long-term debt mutual fund investment had over bank fixed deposits for investors in the higher income-tax brackets.

INDmoney

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

INDmoney is an Indian financial services platform and wealth aggregator, operated by INDmoney Private Limited, accessible at indmoney.com and via Android and iOS applications. INDmoney aggregates an investor’s financial holdings – mutual funds, equity portfolios, provident fund, National Pension System accounts, insurance policies, and fixed deposits – into a single dashboard, while also providing direct-plan mutual fund investing, US equity investing, and an INDwealth premium advisory tier. The platform had disclosed over one crore registered users by 2024.

INDwealth

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

INDwealth is the premium wealth management sub-brand operated by INDmoney (INDmoney Private Limited), targeting high-net-worth individual (HNI) and ultra-HNI investors who seek personalised portfolio management alongside the broader INDmoney platform’s aggregation and direct-plan investing capabilities.

INDwealth operates under the SEBI registered investment adviser (RIA) registration held by INDmoney Private Limited, providing fee-based advice and personalised portfolio construction rather than the self-directed direct-plan investing model of the mass-market INDmoney platform. INDwealth charges a fee based on assets under advice (AUA), consistent with the RIA fee models permitted under the SEBI (Investment Advisers) Regulations 2013 and the 2020 amendment.

Information ratio in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The information ratio (IR) is a risk-adjusted performance measure that quantifies a mutual fund manager’s ability to generate consistent excess returns (active returns) above a benchmark, per unit of active risk taken (tracking error). It combines the concepts of alpha and tracking error into a single efficiency measure, rewarding managers who generate high excess returns consistently rather than those who occasionally produce large excess returns with high variability.

The information ratio is particularly relevant in the Indian context as it distinguishes skilled active managers from those who appear to generate alpha simply by taking concentrated sector or stock bets.

Insurance-Linked Savings vs Mutual Funds in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Insurance-linked savings products – including traditional endowment plans, money-back policies, and unit-linked insurance plans (ULIPs) – have historically dominated household savings in India, competing with mutual funds for the same pool of long-term investable surplus. The relationship is partly complementary (life insurance provides mortality cover that mutual funds do not) and partly adversarial (both compete for the savings component of household financial allocation). The regulatory evolution, transparency improvements, and cost compression in both sectors have significantly altered the competitive dynamic between 2000 and 2025.

Inter-AMC migration of mutual fund investments

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Inter-AMC migration (sometimes called an inter-AMC switch) is the process of moving a mutual fund investment from a scheme managed by one AMC to a scheme managed by a different AMC. Unlike an inter-scheme switch within the same AMC, there is no direct transfer mechanism between two separate AMCs in India; the process involves a full redemption from the source AMC followed by a fresh subscription to the destination AMC, with the investor’s bank account as an intermediary.

Inter-scheme switch in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An inter-scheme switch is a transaction in which an investor moves units from one mutual fund scheme to another scheme offered by the same AMC (asset management company). Both the source and destination schemes are managed by the same fund house and administered by the same Registrar and Transfer Agent (RTA). The transaction is processed as a simultaneous redemption from the source scheme and subscription to the destination scheme.

Inter-scheme switches are also referred to as intra-AMC switches. They are the most operationally straightforward type of switch because the RTA maintains records for both schemes and can execute both legs in a single internal transaction without involving external bank transfers.

International fund of funds vs direct foreign brokerage for overseas investing

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Indian investors seeking exposure to overseas equity markets, primarily US equities (S&P 500, Nasdaq) and international indices, can access them through two primary regulated channels: international mutual fund of funds (FoFs) offered by Indian AMCs, or direct foreign brokerage accounts maintained under the RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS).

Both channels allow Indian resident individuals to invest in foreign equity markets, but differ substantially in regulatory framework, tax treatment, transaction process, limits, and cost.

Interval mutual fund scheme

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An interval mutual fund scheme is a category of mutual fund scheme under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 that combines features of the open-ended form and the close-ended form by restricting subscription and redemption to defined transaction windows, known as Specified Transaction Periods (STPs), while otherwise running as a continuous scheme. The structure was codified by a SEBI circular of 11 June 2008, which prescribed the minimum length of each STP, the minimum gap between successive STPs, and the mandatory listing of units on a recognised stock exchange.

Invesco Mutual Fund India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Invesco Mutual Fund India is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as Invesco Asset Management (India) Private Limited, and the Indian subsidiary of Invesco Ltd, the Atlanta-headquartered global investment management company. As of March 2024, Invesco India AMC managed assets of approximately Rs 12,000–15,000 crore across equity, debt, and hybrid schemes.

The fund house originated as a joint venture between the Religare group (the Indian financial services group associated with the Singh family of Fortis Healthcare and Ranbaxy fame) and Invesco Ltd in 2006. Following the Religare group’s financial difficulties and strategic exit from various financial services businesses, Invesco acquired full control of the Indian AMC. The entity was renamed from Religare Invesco Asset Management to Invesco Asset Management (India) in 2016.

Investor Education from TER: How Mutual Fund Fees Fund Financial Literacy in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Total Expense Ratio (TER) in Indian mutual funds includes a mandatory component earmarked for investor education and awareness activities. SEBI’s regulations require AMCs to allocate a specified basis-point portion of TER towards investor education, with the funds pooled and administered by AMFI through its investor education programmes – primarily the Mutual Funds Sahi Hai campaign. This mechanism represents one of India’s most distinctive financial regulatory innovations: using industry-generated fees to fund the education of the very investors whose participation the industry seeks.

ITR-ready capital gains statement for mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The ITR-ready capital gains statement for mutual funds is a tax computation document generated by Registrar and Transfer Agents (RTAs) – principally CAMS and KFintech – as well as by the joint portal MFCentral, that calculates the taxable capital gain or loss arising from mutual fund redemptions during a financial year. The statement applies the first-in, first-out (FIFO) method mandated under Indian income-tax rules, segregates gains into short-term capital gains (STCG) and long-term capital gains (LTCG), and presents the output in a format aligned with Schedule CG of ITR-2 or ITR-3. Investors use this document as the primary tax computation input when filing their annual income-tax return.

Joint holders in MF folio

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Joint holders in a mutual fund folio refers to two or three individuals who hold units of a SEBI-registered mutual fund scheme in a single folio. Joint holding is one of the most common folio structures for retail investors and allows families or business partners to share a single investment account. The rules governing joint folios, eligible combinations, operational modes, taxation, and transmission, are set by SEBI, AMCs, and the Income Tax Act.

JP Morgan India Amtek Auto incident (2015)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The JP Morgan India Amtek Auto incident of August 2015 was the first instance in Indian mutual fund history in which an asset management company unilaterally suspended redemptions from open-end debt schemes following a credit event. JP Morgan Asset Management (India) Private Limited restricted redemptions from its India Short Term Income Fund and India Treasury Fund after Amtek Auto Limited’s non-convertible debentures (NCDs) held in those schemes were downgraded to below-investment grade, triggering an immediate write-down of NAV and a liquidity crisis within the funds. The episode preceded the more systemic IL&FS default of 2018 and Franklin Templeton winding-up of 2020 but established many of the procedural and regulatory questions those later crises would reopen at far larger scale.

Kalpen Parekh

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Kalpen Parekh is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of DSP Investment Managers Private Limited, the entity operating DSP Mutual Fund, one of India’s established mid-tier mutual fund houses with a heritage that traces to the DSP Merrill Lynch partnership. He has held the CEO role since 2019, succeeding Hemendra Kothari’s direct involvement in leadership as the DSP family took full ownership of the AMC following its buyout from BlackRock (which had acquired the former Merrill Lynch AMC stake). Parekh is known for his accessible communication style, his emphasis on investor behaviour and long-term compounding, and his early and sustained engagement with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing themes within the Indian mutual fund industry.

Key Information Memorandum (KIM), Indian Mutual Funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Key Information Memorandum (KIM) is the standardised, condensed summary document that every asset management company (AMC) in India must make available to investors at the point of sale or subscription of a mutual fund scheme. Introduced by SEBI circular SEBI/IMD/CIR No. 9/120982/08 dated 14 January 2008 as part of the bifurcation of the erstwhile combined Offer Document into the Scheme Information Document (SID) and the Statement of Additional Information (SAI), the KIM condenses the most commercially relevant disclosures into one or two pages. It must be read alongside the full SID and SAI; a KIM alone does not constitute sufficient due diligence. The KIM regulatory framework is embedded within the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 and is updated through the SEBI Master Circulars issued by the Investment Management Department.

KFinKart portal

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

KFinKart is the investor-facing and distributor-facing portal operated by KFin Technologies Limited, accessible through kfintech.com. The portal provides holders of mutual fund folios serviced by KFin-registered AMCs with the ability to access account information, transact (purchase, redeem, switch, SIP register), download account statements, and submit service requests.

KFinKart is the registrar portal counterpart to CAMS Online and together with CAMS Online covers the vast majority of Indian mutual fund folios. The joint portal MF Central (mfcentral.com) draws data from both KFin Technologies and CAMS, providing a unified cross-registrar view for investors.

KFintech mutual fund account statement

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The KFintech account statement (formerly known as the Karvy Fintech account statement) is the official transaction record and portfolio-valuation document issued by KFin Technologies Limited for mutual fund folios that it services as a Registrar and Transfer Agent (RTA). KFintech services a broad roster of AMCs including Axis Mutual Fund, DSP Mutual Fund, Franklin Templeton Investments India, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, Kotak Mutual Fund, Mirae Asset, and several others. The statement records every transactional event – purchases, redemptions, switches, dividend payouts, SIP instalments – along with the running unit balance and current market value.

Know Your Distributor (KYD)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Know Your Distributor (KYD) is a mandatory identity and integrity verification process that must be completed by all individuals and entities holding or applying for an AMFI Registration Number (ARN) in India. Administered by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), KYD verifies the distributor’s identity, address, qualifications, and NISM certification status and creates a compliance record that is a precondition for commission payments from asset management companies (AMCs). An ARN holder who has not completed KYD, or whose KYD compliance has lapsed, is ineligible to receive commissions until compliance is restored.

Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company Limited (KMAMC), sponsored by Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited, one of India’s leading private sector banks. As of March 2024, the fund house managed assets under management exceeding Rs 3.5 lakh crore across over 100 schemes covering equity, debt, hybrid, and passive categories. The AMC was established in 1998 and is headquartered in Mumbai.

Kotak Mutual Fund direct portal

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Kotak Mutual Fund direct portal at kotakmf.com is the investment platform operated by Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company Limited (Kotak AMC) for direct plan investments in its mutual fund scheme range. Kotak AMC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited, one of India’s major private sector banks. Kotak AMC ranks among India’s top five to seven AMCs by equity AUM and offers a wide range of equity, debt, hybrid, and passive schemes.

Krishna Sanghavi

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Krishna Sanghavi is the Chief Investment Officer for Equities at Mahindra Manulife Mutual Fund, a SEBI-registered mutual fund managed by Mahindra Asset Management Company Private Limited, a joint venture between the Mahindra Group and Manulife Investment Management of Canada. Prior to joining Mahindra Manulife, Sanghavi served in senior equity investment roles at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company, where he was one of the key equity fund managers in an investment team led overall by MD and CEO Nilesh Shah.

Kuvera

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Kuvera is an Indian direct mutual fund investment platform and SEBI-registered investment adviser (RIA), accessible at kuvera.in. Operated by Arevuk Advisory Services Private Limited, Kuvera allows investors to purchase direct plans of mutual fund schemes at zero commission, provide goals-based financial planning tools, and consolidate portfolios across multiple folios. Kuvera is one of the largest direct-plan mutual fund platforms in India by registered users, with the company disclosing over 35 lakh registered users and approximately Rs. 90,000 crore in assets under advice as of 2024.

Lalit Nambiar

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Lalit Nambiar is a fund manager at UTI Asset Management Company Limited who has served in equity investment roles at the AMC for an extended period, with responsibility for mid-cap and diversified equity schemes. He has been a contributor to UTI AMC’s equity research and investment process under the oversight of Chief Investment Officer Vetri Subramaniam.

Early life and education

Lalit Nambiar holds a postgraduate management qualification and is a CFA charterholder. He pursued his education in India. He is based in Mumbai.

Large-and-midcap mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A large-and-midcap mutual fund in India is an open-ended equity scheme that must invest a minimum of 35% of its total assets in large-cap stocks (top 100 companies by AMFI ranking) and a minimum of 35% in mid-cap stocks (101st to 250th companies by AMFI ranking), under SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular. This dual minimum mandate creates a structurally blended exposure that provides the stability of large-cap companies alongside the higher growth potential of mid-cap companies.

Large-cap fund vs index fund in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

SEBI’s October 2017 categorisation circular mandated that large-cap equity mutual funds invest at least 80% of total assets in equity of large-cap companies, defined as the top 100 companies by full market capitalisation listed on NSE/BSE as per AMFI’s semi-annual ranking. Index funds tracking the Nifty 50 or Sensex invest in the same broad universe (top 50 or top 30 companies by market cap) but use a passive, rules-based replication strategy with no active stock selection.

Large-cap mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A large-cap mutual fund in India is an open-ended equity scheme that is required, under SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular, to invest a minimum of 80% of its total assets in equity and equity-related instruments of large-cap companies. SEBI defines large-cap companies as the top 100 companies listed on a recognised stock exchange, ranked by full market capitalisation, as published by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) every six months. The category exists to give investors a clearly defined, low-ambiguity route to owning the largest, most liquid, and most widely followed Indian companies through a regulated pooled vehicle.

LIC Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

LIC Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Limited, sponsored by Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). LIC is the Government of India-owned life insurance giant and one of India’s largest institutional investors. LIC Mutual Fund was established in 1989 as one of the public sector bank and insurance company-sponsored AMCs that entered the market after the government opened the sector beyond the Unit Trust of India in 1987.

Liquid fund vs savings account

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Liquid mutual funds and bank savings accounts are both commonly used for parking short-term cash in India. Liquid funds are debt-oriented mutual fund schemes regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, investing in money market instruments with a maturity of up to 91 days. Bank savings accounts are deposit products regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), offering a fixed or floating interest rate on balances maintained.

Both instruments provide ready access to funds, but they differ in return potential, insurance coverage, taxation, and minimum balance requirements.

Liquid fund vs sweep-in FD

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A sweep-in fixed deposit (also called an auto-sweep FD or sweep facility) is a product offered by banks in India that automatically converts savings account balances above a specified threshold into short-term fixed deposits, earning the higher FD rate while retaining the liquidity of the savings account. When the account holder initiates a withdrawal or payment that exceeds the savings balance, the linked FD is automatically broken in LIFO or FIFO order to fund the transaction.

Liquid mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A liquid mutual fund in India is an open-ended debt scheme that invests exclusively in debt and money-market instruments with a residual maturity of up to 91 days. Under SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular, the liquid fund category is defined by this 91-day maximum maturity constraint, which limits the interest-rate risk and credit-duration risk of the portfolio while preserving daily net asset value (NAV) liquidity for investors. Liquid funds are among the most widely used short-term parking instruments in India, employed by retail investors for emergency funds, by corporates for treasury management, and by high-net-worth individuals as an alternative to savings bank accounts for idle cash.

Lock-in periods in mutual funds, ELSS, retirement, and children's funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Lock-in periods in mutual funds are mandatory holding periods during which an investor is legally prohibited from redeeming their units. Unlike the voluntary deterrent of an exit load, a lock-in is a structural feature of the scheme, the registrar and transfer agent (RTA) will reject a redemption request submitted before the lock-in expires. Lock-in periods are mandated by SEBI for specific scheme categories and are associated with tax benefits or long-term savings objectives.

LTCG on equity mutual funds (Section 112A)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Long-term capital gains (LTCG) on equity-oriented mutual funds are taxed under Section 112A of the Income Tax Act 1961 at a flat rate of 12.5% on gains exceeding Rs 1,25,000 per financial year, as revised by the Finance Act 2024 effective 23 July 2024. Section 112A was introduced by the Finance Act 2018 to reimpose LTCG tax on listed equity after a 14-year exemption and is the primary charging section for long-term redemptions of equity mutual fund units, ELSS, balanced hybrid funds, and arbitrage funds that qualify as equity-oriented. Indexation is not available under Section 112A. The grandfathering provision in Section 55(2)(ac) ensures that gains accrued before 1 February 2018 are excluded from the taxable base.

Lump-sum investing in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Lump-sum investing in mutual funds is the process of deploying a single large amount of capital into a mutual fund scheme in one transaction, as opposed to spreading investments over time through a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) or Systematic Transfer Plan (STP). The entire amount is invested at the prevailing Net Asset Value (NAV) applicable on the transaction date, and units are allotted accordingly.

Lump-sum investments are appropriate when the investor has a large sum available, from a bonus, inheritance, maturity proceeds, or asset sale, and wishes to deploy it immediately rather than staggering it.

Macaulay duration in debt mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Macaulay duration is the weighted average time until a bond’s cash flows (coupon payments and principal repayment) are received, where each cash flow is weighted by its present value as a proportion of the bond’s total present value. The concept was introduced by Frederick Macaulay in 1938. Measured in years, it is the foundational duration measure in fixed-income analysis and the metric used by SEBI to define the investment mandate of Indian debt mutual fund categories.

Madhusudan Kela

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Madhusudan Kela is a veteran Indian equity investor and former Chief Investment Officer of Reliance Capital Asset Management, the asset management subsidiary of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group that was subsequently restructured and rebranded as Nippon India Mutual Fund following Nippon Life Insurance of Japan’s acquisition of a controlling stake. Kela is regarded as one of the most accomplished mid-cap and small-cap equity investors in India’s mutual fund history, with a career at Reliance Capital AMC spanning more than a decade and a half during which he oversaw some of the best-performing equity schemes of their era. After leaving Reliance Capital AMC, he has operated as an independent investor and occasional media commentator.

Mark-to-market (MTM) for debt holdings in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mark-to-market (MTM) valuation of debt holdings is the practice of valuing a mutual fund’s fixed-income portfolio at current market prices (based on current market yields) rather than at the original purchase price or on an amortised cost basis. Under full MTM, the NAV of a debt mutual fund rises when market interest rates fall (because bond prices rise when yields fall) and falls when market interest rates rise (because bond prices fall when yields rise). This price sensitivity to interest rate movements is the primary source of NAV volatility in debt funds.

Maximum drawdown in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Maximum drawdown (MDD) is the maximum observed loss from a peak NAV to a subsequent trough NAV, before a new peak is achieved, over a specified period. It represents the worst-case scenario for an investor who happened to invest at the highest point and exited at the lowest point in the measurement window. Maximum drawdown is expressed as a negative percentage and is one of the most intuitive and investor-relevant risk metrics, unlike standard deviation, it directly answers the question: “What is the worst I could have lost?”

MF Central

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

MF Central is a joint investor-service platform operated by CAMS (Computer Age Management Services) and KFin Technologies, India’s two dominant mutual fund registrar and transfer agents. Accessible at mfcentral.com, MF Central provides a single portal through which mutual fund investors may view their complete portfolio across all AMCs – irrespective of whether their folios are serviced by CAMS or KFin Technologies – and submit service requests such as nomination changes, bank account updates, redemptions, and SIP modifications.

MF Lite Framework and Passive-Only AMCs in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The MF Lite framework is a simplified regulatory pathway introduced by SEBI in 2021 for asset management companies (AMCs) that intend to offer exclusively passive mutual fund schemes – index funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and fund of funds investing in ETFs. By reducing the minimum net worth requirement and simplifying certain governance obligations relative to the standard AMC registration framework, MF Lite lowers the entry barrier for new entrants focused on the passive investing segment and encourages competition in a space historically dominated by large, full-service AMCs.

MF switch as a taxable event

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A switch in mutual funds is a taxable event under the Income Tax Act 1961. When an investor switches from one mutual fund scheme to another – or from the regular plan to the direct plan of the same scheme, or from the IDCW option to the growth option – it constitutes a “transfer” within the meaning of Section 2(47) of the Income Tax Act 1961. At the moment of the switch, units in the source scheme are deemed to have been redeemed at the prevailing switching NAV, and new units are allotted in the destination scheme at the same NAV. Capital gains (or losses) crystallise in the source scheme on the switch date, and the holding period for the new units in the destination scheme begins on the switch date.

MFU (Mutual Fund Utility)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

MFU (Mutual Fund Utility), operated by MF Utilities India Private Limited, is an industry utility platform that enables investors and distributors to transact in mutual fund schemes across multiple AMCs using a single Common Account Number (CAN). MFU is promoted by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) and is owned by a consortium of participating asset management companies. The platform is accessible at mfuindia.com and provides both a direct investor interface and a distributor-facing portal, making it one of the foundational pieces of transaction infrastructure in Indian mutual fund distribution.

MFU account statement

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The MFU account statement is an investor document issued by MFU India Private Limited (formerly Mutual Fund Utilities India) for investments and transactions executed through the MFU platform using a Common Account Number (CAN). MFU is an AMFI-promoted shared transaction processing platform that allows investors to transact in mutual fund schemes across multiple AMCs using a single CAN identifier, without the need to open separate folios with each AMC directly.

The MFU account statement reflects all transactions – purchases, redemptions, SIP instalments, switches – placed through the MFU channel and consolidates them across participating AMCs.

Mid-cap mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A mid-cap mutual fund in India is an open-ended equity scheme that must, under SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular, invest a minimum of 65% of its total assets in equity and equity-related instruments of mid-cap companies. SEBI defines mid-cap companies as the 101st to 250th companies listed on a recognised stock exchange, ranked by full market capitalisation, as enumerated in the AMFI list published every six months. Mid-cap funds occupy the risk-return space between large-cap funds and small-cap funds, offering higher long-term return potential than large-cap funds at the cost of higher volatility and larger drawdowns.

Mihir Vora

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mihir Vora is the Chief Investment Officer of Trust Mutual Fund (formerly TRUST Asset Management Private Limited), a SEBI-registered mutual fund. He is a veteran Indian equity fund manager with a career spanning over three decades across HDFC Asset Management Company, Max Life Insurance, Standard Chartered Asset Management (India), and other financial institutions.

Early life and education

Mihir Vora is a Chartered Accountant (CA) and holds a CFA charter. He pursued his professional education in India. He is based in Mumbai.

Milind Barve

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Milind Barve is the former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of HDFC Asset Management Company Limited, one of India’s two largest mutual fund houses. He co-founded and led HDFC AMC from its inception in 1999 until his retirement in January 2021, a tenure of more than 21 years that made him one of the longest-serving AMC chief executives in India. During his leadership, HDFC AMC grew from a newly established fund house into one of the dominant forces in Indian asset management, co-managing with ICICI Prudential AMC the position of the largest or second-largest mutual fund by AUM in India through most of the 2010s. His retirement was followed by the appointment of Navneet Munot as the new MD and CEO.

Minor as MF investor

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A minor as a mutual fund investor is a person below 18 years of age who invests in units of SEBI-registered mutual fund schemes through a natural or legally appointed guardian. Minors cannot execute legal contracts in their own name under the Indian Contract Act, 1872 (a contract with a minor is void ab initio); therefore, all investment transactions in a minor’s folio are executed by the guardian on behalf of the minor. The folio is in the minor’s name, with the guardian as the operating authority until the minor attains majority.

Mirae Asset Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mirae Asset Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as Mirae Asset Investment Managers (India) Private Limited, and the Indian operations of the Mirae Asset Global Investments group of South Korea. As of March 2024, the fund house managed assets exceeding Rs 1.7 lakh crore, making it one of the fastest-growing large AMCs in India over the preceding decade. Mirae Asset entered India in 2008 and has grown almost entirely organically, without acquisitions.

MITRA (Mutual Fund Investment Tracing and Retrieval Assistant)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

MITRA (an acronym for Mutual Fund Investment Tracing and Retrieval Assistant) is an online portal operated by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) that enables mutual fund investors, their legal heirs, or nominees to search for and retrieve dormant or unclaimed mutual fund investment folios. Launched in 2023 following a directive from SEBI, MITRA aggregates folio information from all registered AMCs and their registrar and transfer agents (RTAs) into a single search interface, addressing the significant and growing problem of unclaimed mutual fund investments in India.

MITRA (Mutual Fund Investment Tracing and Retrieval Assistant)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

MITRA (Mutual Fund Investment Tracing and Retrieval Assistant) is an AMFI (Association of Mutual Funds in India) initiative that enables investors, their nominees, or legal heirs to trace and retrieve unclaimed or forgotten mutual fund folios in India. Accessible at mitra.amfiindia.com, MITRA queries the combined databases of both major mutual fund registrar and transfer agents – CAMS and KFin Technologies – to locate folios associated with a given investor’s PAN, name, or other identifying information.

Modified duration in debt mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Modified duration is a measure of the price sensitivity of a fixed-income instrument (or a debt mutual fund’s portfolio) to a change in interest rates (yield). It quantifies the approximate percentage change in bond price (or fund NAV) for a 1 percentage point (100 basis points) parallel shift in the yield curve. Modified duration is the primary interest rate risk metric disclosed in Indian debt mutual fund factsheets.

A debt fund with a modified duration of 5 years will see its NAV fall by approximately 5 per cent if yields rise by 1 percentage point, and rise by approximately 5 per cent if yields fall by 1 percentage point. This makes modified duration the single most important number for assessing interest rate risk in a debt fund.

Monthly portfolio disclosure for mutual funds in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Monthly portfolio disclosure is the regulatory requirement under which every mutual fund AMC in India must publicly publish the complete portfolio of each scheme – listing every security held, its ISIN, quantity, market value, and percentage of net assets – as of the last working day of each calendar month. The disclosure is made on the AMC’s website and on AMFI’s website within ten working days after the end of the month. It is one of the primary transparency mechanisms prescribed by SEBI for the mutual fund industry.

Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company Limited (MOAMC), and sponsored by Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited, the Mumbai-based financial services group with businesses spanning equities broking, investment banking, wealth management, private equity, and housing finance.

As of March 2024, Motilal Oswal AMC managed assets exceeding Rs 70,000 crore across equity, hybrid, and passive categories. The fund house is associated with a distinctive quality-growth investment philosophy, branded as QGLP (Quality, Growth, Longevity, Price), applied through concentrated equity portfolios in its flagship schemes.

MSCI Emerging Markets Index

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index (commonly abbreviated as MSCI EM) is a free-float adjusted market capitalisation-weighted equity index maintained by MSCI Inc. (previously Morgan Stanley Capital International), covering large- and mid-cap stocks across 24 emerging market (EM) countries. First launched in 1988, the MSCI EM is the most widely referenced benchmark for the emerging markets equity asset class globally, with over USD 1.7 trillion in assets benchmarked to it as of 2024. For Indian mutual fund investors, the MSCI EM Index is the benchmark used by fund-of-fund (FoF) schemes and overseas ETF feeder funds that invest in emerging markets equities.

MSCI World Index as an Indian Mutual Fund Benchmark

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The MSCI World Index is a free-float adjusted market capitalisation-weighted equity index maintained by MSCI Inc. that covers large- and mid-cap stocks across 23 developed market (DM) countries. Despite the name, the MSCI World Index does not include emerging market countries (for a global index including EM, MSCI publishes the MSCI ACWI – All Country World Index). For Indian mutual fund investors, the MSCI World Index – or its total return variant – is the benchmark for feeder funds and fund-of-funds (FoFs) that invest in diversified developed market equities, providing geographic diversification beyond the Indian domestic market.

Multi-asset allocation mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A multi-asset allocation mutual fund in India is an open-ended hybrid scheme that must invest in at least three asset classes, with a minimum of 10% of its total assets in each of those asset classes, under SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular. The most common combination is domestic equity, domestic debt, and gold (or gold-linked instruments). Some AMCs include international equity, silver, or real estate investment trusts (REITs) as the third or fourth asset class. Multi-asset allocation funds represent the broadest diversification available within a single open-ended mutual fund in India.

Multi-cap fund vs flexi-cap fund in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

SEBI’s October 2017 categorisation circular originally created a single “Multi-cap” fund category requiring diversified equity investment across market capitalisations. In January 2021, SEBI split this into two distinct categories, multi-cap and flexi-cap, with materially different mandatory allocation constraints. This article explains the distinction between the two categories and their practical implications for investors.

SEBI definitions

Multi-cap fund

SEBI’s September 2020 circular (SEBI/HO/IMD/DF3/CIR/P/2020/130) redefined multi-cap funds. The mandatory allocation requirement is:

Multi-cap mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A multi-cap mutual fund in India is an open-ended equity scheme that must, under SEBI’s September 2020 amendment to the scheme categorisation framework, invest a minimum of 75% of its total assets in equity and equity-related instruments, with mandatory minimum allocations of 25% each to large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap company stocks. This equal-minimum rule ensures that multi-cap funds genuinely diversify across all three market-capitalisation segments, unlike flexi-cap funds which have no such minimum constraint.

Mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A mutual fund in India is a collective investment vehicle that pools money from multiple investors and invests the combined corpus in a portfolio of securities (equities, bonds, money market instruments, or a combination) in accordance with a defined investment objective. Mutual funds in India are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations 1996. Each mutual fund is established as a trust, with the asset management company (AMC) as the investment manager and a trustee company overseeing the interests of unitholders.

Mutual Fund Advertising and SEBI Disclosure Norms in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mutual fund advertising and disclosure norms in India are governed by SEBI’s Master Circular on Mutual Funds and the AMFI Best Practice Guidelines (BPG), which together prescribe what information must be included in all promotional materials, how past performance may be displayed, what risk disclosures are mandatory, and how digital and social media advertising must be handled. The framework has evolved significantly since the first SEBI advertising guidelines in 1994, culminating in a comprehensive regime that mandates the riskometer, standardised past performance presentation, and “Mutual Funds Sahi Hai” investor education branding.

Mutual fund aggregator portal landscape in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The mutual fund aggregator portal landscape in India encompasses the range of digital platforms that allow investors to access mutual fund schemes from multiple AMCs through a single interface, as distinct from investing directly through an individual AMC’s portal. Aggregator platforms represent a significant share of mutual fund transaction volumes in India and have been the primary channel through which direct-plan investing has grown since the SEBI direct-plan mandate of January 2013.

Mutual Fund AUM Growth in India (2000 to 2026)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mutual fund assets under management (AUM) in India grew from approximately Rs 93,000 crore in March 2000 to over Rs 67 lakh crore by March 2025, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 19% over 25 years. This trajectory, tracked monthly by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), reflects the cumulative effect of equity market appreciation, systematic inflows through SIPs, a doubling of the investor base, and regulatory interventions that improved product transparency and reduced distribution costs.

Mutual fund cut-off times (India)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mutual fund cut-off times in India are the regulatory deadlines prescribed by SEBI before which a mutual fund transaction (subscription, redemption, or switch) must be submitted, and for most scheme types, the subscription amount must be received in the AMC’s bank account, for a given business day’s NAV to apply. Cut-off times are prescribed under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 and updated through SEBI circulars, most recently through the consolidated Master Circular. The 2021 NAV reform (SEBI circular SEBI/HO/IMD/IMD-PoD-1/P/CIR/2021/555; see SEBI NAV applicability rule 2021) extended the fund-realisation requirement to all scheme types, making cut-off times the secondary rule that defines the daily window within which realisation must occur for same-day NAV. The SEBI Investment Management Department enforces these norms.

Mutual fund distribution in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mutual fund distribution in India encompasses the regulatory framework, intermediary categories, technology platforms, and transaction infrastructure through which investors purchase, redeem, and switch units of mutual fund schemes offered by asset management companies (AMCs) registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The distribution ecosystem is governed by SEBI’s Mutual Fund Regulations 1996, AMFI (Association of Mutual Funds in India) guidelines, and the SEBI Investment Adviser Regulations 2013, with further architecture defined by SEBI’s Execution-Only Platform (EOP) framework of 2023. As of 2025, the industry distributed assets under management (AUM) of approximately Rs. 65 trillion across more than 15 crore unique investor folios.

Mutual fund distributor (intermediary role)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A mutual fund distributor (MFD) in India is an individual or entity registered with the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) under the AMFI Registration Number (ARN) system, authorised to distribute mutual fund schemes to investors and receive trail commissions from asset management companies (AMCs). MFDs are the primary channel through which the majority of Indian mutual fund assets under management (AUM) is held, serving retail investors, HNIs, and corporate clients through regular-plan schemes across equity, debt, hybrid, and passive fund categories.

Mutual Fund Industry Employment and Careers in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mutual fund industry careers in India span a range of functions from investment management and research to distribution, compliance, operations, technology, and investor education. With 44 SEBI-registered asset management companies (AMCs), two registrar-and-transfer agents (CAMS and KFin), multiple custodians, and a network of national distributors and IFAs, the mutual fund industry directly employs tens of thousands of professionals and supports a broader ecosystem of hundreds of thousands of registered agents and advisers.

Mutual fund industry in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The mutual fund industry in India encompasses all asset management companies (AMCs), schemes, and intermediaries that pool capital from retail and institutional investors to invest in securities markets under the regulatory oversight of the Securities and Exchange Board of India. As of March 2024, the industry managed assets under management (AUM) exceeding Rs 53 lakh crore (approximately USD 640 billion), spread across 44 SEBI-registered AMCs offering more than 1,500 distinct schemes. The industry serves over 180 million unique investor folios and channels a significant share of domestic household savings into equity and debt capital markets.

Mutual fund vs ETF in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) and an open-ended mutual fund are both pooled investment vehicles regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996. Both pool investor money and hold a portfolio of securities. Their key structural difference is the mechanism through which investors buy and sell units: mutual fund units are transacted directly with the AMC (or its registrar) at the day-end NAV, while ETF units are bought and sold on a stock exchange (NSE, BSE) at market prices throughout the trading session.

Mutual fund vs NPS Tier-II

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The NPS Tier-II account is an optional voluntary savings account within the National Pension System (NPS) framework, managed by PFRDA-registered pension fund managers (PFMs). Unlike the NPS Tier-I account (which has lock-in until age 60 and mandatory annuity requirements), the Tier-II account has no lock-in and withdrawals are freely permitted. This positions it conceptually as a savings vehicle that competes with open-ended mutual funds for discretionary savings.

Structure

NPS Tier-II

The Tier-II account requires an existing active NPS Tier-I account (with a PRAN). It cannot be opened independently. The minimum contribution at account opening is Rs 1,000, with a minimum per-contribution of Rs 250 thereafter. There is no mandatory minimum annual contribution.

Mutual fund vs PMS vs AIF in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mutual funds, Portfolio Management Services (PMS), and Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) are three distinct categories of SEBI-regulated pooled or managed investment vehicles in India. They differ in minimum investment thresholds, investor eligibility, portfolio structure, fee models, regulatory disclosure requirements, and tax treatment.

Regulatory overview

Instrument	Regulatory framework	Regulator
Mutual fund	SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996	SEBI
PMS	SEBI (Portfolio Managers) Regulations, 2020	SEBI
AIF	SEBI (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations, 2012	SEBI

All three are regulated by SEBI, but under separate regulatory frameworks reflecting their different investor bases, risk profiles, and operational structures.

Mutual fund vs stock investing in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Direct stock investing involves buying shares of individual companies listed on NSE or BSE through a stockbroker’s trading platform. A mutual fund is a pooled investment vehicle managed by a professional fund manager, investing the aggregated corpus across a portfolio of securities as specified in the scheme’s investment objective. Both instruments provide equity market exposure, but differ in how that exposure is structured, managed, and accessed.

Diversification

A direct equity investor who purchases shares in one or a few companies is concentrated in those specific businesses, sectors, and risks. Diversification requires purchasing multiple stocks, which demands larger capital at each share’s prevailing price.

Mutual Funds Sahi Hai

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mutual Funds Sahi Hai (Hindi: “Mutual funds are the right choice”) is a mass investor education and awareness campaign launched in February 2017 by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI). 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). The campaign is operated under the direction of AMFI’s Investor Education Committee and deployed across television, digital media, radio, print, and outdoor formats, increasingly in regional languages.

Nasdaq 100 as an Indian Mutual Fund Benchmark

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Nasdaq 100 (ticker symbol: NDX) is a modified market capitalisation-weighted index of the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, covering primarily the technology, consumer discretionary, communication services, healthcare, and industrial sectors. Maintained by Nasdaq Inc. (now Nasdaq, Inc.), the index is heavily concentrated in US and global technology companies and represents the performance of the world’s most capitalised technology-driven businesses. For Indian mutual fund investors, the Nasdaq 100 – through its total return variant – serves as the benchmark for feeder funds and fund-of-funds (FoFs) that invest in US technology equities.

NAV computation methodology for mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

NAV computation methodology refers to the standardised process by which the per-unit value of a mutual fund scheme is calculated on each valuation date, covering the market valuation of every security in the portfolio, the accrual of income and expenses, and the division of net assets by units outstanding. In India, the methodology is prescribed by SEBI through its Mutual Fund Regulations, valuation circulars, and guidelines issued by AMFI, and is implemented by fund accountants on behalf of the asset management company.

NAV cut-off time reform for mutual funds (1 February 2021)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The NAV cut-off reform effective 1 February 2021 was a fundamental change to the rules governing which net asset value (NAV) is allotted to a mutual fund investor’s purchase transaction, implemented by the Securities and Exchange Board of India through Circular No. SEBI/HO/IMD/DF2/CIR/P/2020/253 dated 31 December 2020. Prior to this reform, mutual fund purchases above Rs 2 lakh in debt schemes were allotted the same-day or next-day NAV if the transaction application was submitted before the scheme’s cut-off time, regardless of whether the investor’s funds had actually reached the AMC’s account. The reform mandated that the applicable NAV be allotted only after the investor’s funds were realised in the AMC’s bank account, regardless of the time of application submission. This change eliminated a timing arbitrage mechanism that had been exploited by large institutional investors and treasuries in debt funds.

Navneet Munot

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Navneet Munot is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of HDFC Asset Management Company Limited, one of India’s two largest mutual fund houses by assets under management, a position he has held since February 2021. He succeeded Milind Barve, who led HDFC AMC for many years. Before joining HDFC AMC, Munot served for over a decade as Chief Investment Officer at SBI Funds Management Private Limited (SBI Mutual Fund), which he joined in 2008 and where he oversaw one of the most sustained periods of growth in SBI AMC’s history. He is regarded as one of India’s most accomplished fixed income investors, though his responsibilities span the full spectrum of equity, debt, and hybrid asset management at HDFC AMC.

Neelesh Surana

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Neelesh Surana is the Chief Investment Officer for Equities at Mirae Asset Investment Managers (India) Private Limited, the Indian arm of Mirae Asset Global Investments, the South Korean financial conglomerate. He has been associated with Mirae Asset India since its early years of operation in the Indian market and is credited with establishing the fund house’s investment framework and equity team. Under his oversight, Mirae Asset’s equity schemes, particularly Mirae Asset Large Cap Fund (formerly Mirae Asset India Equity Fund) and Mirae Asset Emerging Bluechip Fund, have delivered performance that is consistently cited as among the strongest in their respective categories over rolling multi-year periods.

Neil Parikh

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Neil Parikh is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PPFAS Asset Management Private Limited, the entity operating PPFAS Mutual Fund (Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services Mutual Fund). He is the son of the late Parag Parikh, the founder of PPFAS and one of India’s most respected advocates of behavioural finance and value investing. Neil Parikh took on the leadership of PPFAS AMC following his father’s passing in 2015 and has been instrumental in maintaining the firm’s distinctive culture, expanding its investor base, and managing its operational growth as Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund became one of India’s largest mutual funds by AUM under Chief Investment Officer Rajeev Thakkar’s investment leadership.

Net Asset Value (NAV) of a mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Net Asset Value (NAV) is the per-unit market value of a mutual fund scheme on a given valuation date, calculated by dividing the total market value of the scheme’s assets minus its liabilities by the total number of units outstanding. NAV is the single most important price reference for mutual fund transactions in India: all subscription, redemption, switch, and systematic investment plan (SIP) transactions are processed at the NAV applicable on the transaction date or the next business day, depending on the timing and the type of scheme.

New Fund Offer (NFO)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A New Fund Offer (NFO) is the initial subscription window through which an asset management company (AMC) raises capital from investors for a newly launched mutual fund scheme, before the scheme begins regular operations. During an NFO, units are offered at a fixed offer price, uniformly Rs 10 per unit for virtually all schemes, for a period specified in the Scheme Information Document (SID). After the NFO closes, the scheme launches with the corpus raised, begins investing per its stated mandate, and thereafter computes and publishes a daily Net Asset Value (NAV) against which future subscriptions and redemptions are processed.

NFO addendum for mutual funds in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An NFO addendum (New Fund Offer addendum) is a supplementary disclosure document issued by an Asset Management Company to amend or supplement the terms of an ongoing or upcoming New Fund Offer for a mutual fund scheme. The addendum modifies specific clauses in the Scheme Information Document (SID) or the Key Information Memorandum (KIM) without replacing those documents in their entirety. It must be filed with SEBI and published on the AMC’s website, and is read together with the original SID/KIM as an integral part of the offer documents. Addenda are also issued after the NFO is closed and the scheme is in the continuous offer period, for ongoing scheme amendments.

NIFTY 10-Year G-Sec Index

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The NIFTY 10-Year G-Sec Index is a fixed income benchmark published by NSE Indices Limited that tracks the total return performance of the on-the-run 10-year benchmark Government of India (GoI) security. The on-the-run benchmark is the most recently issued 10-year central government bond, which trades with the highest liquidity among all GoI securities. The index represents the pure sovereign credit risk-free segment of the Indian fixed income market and is used as the benchmark for gilt mutual fund schemes, long-duration debt funds, and other investment products with exposure to the long end of the Indian yield curve.

NIFTY 5-Year G-Sec Index

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The NIFTY 5-Year G-Sec Index is a fixed income benchmark published by NSE Indices Limited that tracks the total return performance of the on-the-run 5-year benchmark Government of India (GoI) security. The 5-year G-sec represents the middle segment of the Indian sovereign yield curve, sitting between shorter-dated money market instruments and long-dated gilt bonds. The index is used as a benchmark for medium-duration gilt mutual fund schemes and as the reference for 5-year target maturity fixed maturity plan (FMP) products in India.

NIFTY 50 index fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A NIFTY 50 index fund is a passive open-ended equity scheme that replicates the NIFTY 50 index by holding the same 50 stocks in the same proportions (by free-float market capitalisation weight) as the index, with the objective of generating returns equal to those of the NIFTY 50 Total Return Index (TRI) net of expenses and tracking error. SEBI’s October 2017 categorisation circular permits AMCs to operate multiple index funds tracking different indices, making NIFTY 50 index funds the most widely available and oldest passive equity category in India.

NIFTY 50 TRI (Total Returns Index)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The NIFTY 50 Total Returns Index (NIFTY 50 TRI) is the dividend-reinvested variant of the NIFTY 50 index, India’s flagship large-cap equity benchmark. Unlike the price return index (PRI), which tracks only capital appreciation, the TRI assumes that all cash dividends paid by constituent companies are immediately reinvested into the index portfolio on the ex-dividend date. The result is a higher index level over time, providing a more complete measure of the wealth created by holding an index-replicating portfolio. Administered by NSE Indices Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), the NIFTY 50 TRI has become the mandatory benchmark for evaluating large-cap equity mutual fund schemes in India following a SEBI circular issued in 2018.

NIFTY 500 TRI

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The NIFTY 500 Total Returns Index (NIFTY 500 TRI) is the dividend-reinvested variant of the NIFTY 500, the broadest major index in the NIFTY family. It covers the 500 largest companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) by full market capitalisation, representing approximately 96% of NSE’s total free-float market capitalisation. Published by NSE Indices Limited, the NIFTY 500 TRI includes companies from all three SEBI-defined market-cap segments – large-cap (top 100), mid-cap (101-250), and small-cap (251-500) – providing a single composite benchmark for broad-market equity mutual fund strategies.

NIFTY Bank TRI

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The NIFTY Bank Total Returns Index (NIFTY Bank TRI), also widely known as Bank Nifty TRI, is the dividend-reinvested variant of the NIFTY Bank index maintained by NSE Indices Limited. The NIFTY Bank index comprises the 12 most liquid and capitalised banking sector stocks listed on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), spanning private sector banks, public sector banks, and small finance banks. The underlying price return index, NIFTY Bank (Bank Nifty), is one of the most actively traded derivatives contracts in the world by open interest, while the TRI variant serves as the benchmark for banking sector mutual fund schemes and ETFs in India.

Nifty BeES, India's first exchange-traded fund (2001)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Nifty BeES (Nifty Benchmark Exchange-Traded Scheme), launched on 28 December 2001 by Benchmark Mutual Fund on the National Stock Exchange of India, was the first exchange-traded fund in India and the first equity-index ETF in Asia. It tracked the Nifty 50 index, with each unit representing one-tenth of the Nifty 50 index value, and was listed and continuously traded on the NSE during market hours at prices close to its net asset value. The launch of Nifty BeES preceded any mainland Chinese or Japanese equity ETF and inaugurated passive index investing as a viable instrument for Indian retail, institutional, and provident fund investors.

NIFTY FMCG TRI

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The NIFTY FMCG Total Returns Index (NIFTY FMCG TRI) is the dividend-reinvested variant of the NIFTY FMCG index, published by NSE Indices Limited. The index covers the 15 largest and most liquid fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE). The FMCG sector encompasses companies that produce household staples, packaged foods, beverages, personal care products, and over-the-counter consumer health products – all characterised by high sales volume, relatively low unit value, and repetitive purchase cycles. The NIFTY FMCG TRI serves as the benchmark for FMCG and consumption-themed mutual fund schemes and ETFs in India.

NIFTY IT TRI

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The NIFTY IT Total Returns Index (NIFTY IT TRI) is the dividend-reinvested variant of the NIFTY IT index, administered by NSE Indices Limited. The index tracks the 10 largest and most liquid information technology companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), encompassing India’s premier software services exporters, IT consulting companies, and digital transformation providers. It is among the most internationally linked of all sectoral Indian indices: the revenue and earnings of its constituents are predominantly denominated in US dollars and Euros, making the index sensitive to global technology spending cycles, the rupee-dollar exchange rate, and demand from US and European corporations.

NIFTY Midcap 150 TRI

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The NIFTY Midcap 150 Total Returns Index (NIFTY Midcap 150 TRI) is the dividend-reinvested variant of the NIFTY Midcap 150 index, maintained by NSE Indices Limited. The index covers the 150 companies ranked 101st to 250th by full market capitalisation among all NSE-listed stocks, constituting the mid-cap segment of the Indian equity market as formally defined by SEBI. As the canonical benchmark for the SEBI-mandated mid-cap equity category, the NIFTY Midcap 150 TRI is used by virtually every fund house that operates a midcap mutual fund scheme to measure and disclose scheme performance.

NIFTY Pharma TRI

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The NIFTY Pharma Total Returns Index (NIFTY Pharma TRI) is the dividend-reinvested variant of the NIFTY Pharma index, maintained by NSE Indices Limited. The index covers the 20 largest and most liquid pharmaceutical and healthcare-related companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE). India is the world’s third-largest pharmaceutical producer by volume and the largest supplier of generic medicines globally; the NIFTY Pharma index reflects this industry’s representation in the Indian equity market. The TRI variant is used as the performance benchmark for pharmaceutical and healthcare sector mutual fund schemes and ETFs.

NIFTY Smallcap 250 TRI

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The NIFTY Smallcap 250 Total Returns Index (NIFTY Smallcap 250 TRI) is the dividend-reinvested variant of the NIFTY Smallcap 250 index, published by NSE Indices Limited. The index covers the 250 companies ranked 251st to 500th by full market capitalisation among NSE-listed stocks – the small-cap universe as formally defined by SEBI. Highly volatile and relatively illiquid compared with large-cap or midcap indices, the NIFTY Smallcap 250 TRI is nonetheless a key benchmark for the growing small-cap equity mutual fund category in India.

Nilesh Shah

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Nilesh Shah is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company (Kotak AMC), one of India’s five largest mutual fund houses by assets under management, a position he has held since January 2014. One of the most publicly prominent figures in Indian asset management, Shah has been associated with capital markets for over three decades, having previously served as Deputy Managing Director at ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company and as a key figure in fixed income markets at Franklin Templeton Investments India. He is a past president and current board member of the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) and a prolific commentator on equity markets, investor education, regulatory reform, and India’s long-term economic trajectory. His tenure at Kotak AMC has been marked by sustained growth in assets under management from approximately Rs 30,000 crore at the time of his joining to over Rs 3.5 lakh crore by the mid-2020s, a strong emphasis on systematic investment plan (SIP) culture across the retail investor base, and outspoken advocacy for deepening domestic equity participation as a mechanism for household wealth creation.

Nimesh Shah

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Nimesh Shah is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company Limited, a joint venture between ICICI Bank and Prudential plc (UK) that is consistently among India’s two largest mutual fund houses by assets under management. He has served as MD and CEO of ICICI Prudential AMC since 2009 and is one of the longest-serving AMC chief executives in the country, making him a central figure in the institutional development of the Indian mutual fund industry over the past decade and a half.

Nippon India Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Nippon India Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited (NAM India), and one of the largest mutual funds in India by assets under management. The AMC is sponsored by Nippon Life Insurance Company, one of Japan’s largest life insurers, which holds a majority stake. As of March 2024, the fund house managed assets exceeding Rs 4.5 lakh crore across over 100 schemes including equity, debt, hybrid, passive, and exchange-traded funds.

Nippon India Mutual Fund direct portal

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Nippon India Mutual Fund direct portal at nipponindiamf.com is the AMC-operated investment platform for direct plan investments in schemes managed by Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited (Nippon AMC), formerly known as Reliance Mutual Fund and later Nippon India Mutual Fund following Nippon Life Insurance Company’s acquisition of a majority stake from the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. Nippon AMC is listed on NSE and BSE (NSE: NAM-INDIA), making it another of the publicly traded AMCs in India.

Nippon Life acquisition of Reliance Mutual Fund (2019)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Nippon Life acquisition of a controlling stake in Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management in October 2019 transformed one of India’s oldest and largest asset management companies from an Anil Ambani group entity into a Japanese-controlled subsidiary of Nippon Life Insurance Company, one of the world’s largest insurance corporations. The transaction, consummated through open market purchases and block deals on NSE and BSE, saw Nippon Life increase its shareholding from approximately 42.88 percent to approximately 75 percent in Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management Limited (RNLAM), triggering a mandatory open offer and culminating in the company’s rebranding as Nippon India Mutual Fund. The acquisition resolved the governance uncertainty created by the deteriorating financial condition of Reliance Capital Limited, the promoter AMC shareholder, and stabilised one of India’s largest AMC franchises during a period of industry stress.

NISM Series V-A: Mutual Fund Distributors Certification Examination

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The NISM Series V-A: Mutual Fund Distributors Certification Examination is the mandatory professional qualification that any individual in India must pass before being eligible to apply for an AMFI Registration Number (ARN) and distribute mutual fund units to investors. The examination is administered by the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM), a public trust established under the aegis of SEBI in 2006. It is one of the most widely taken financial services examinations in India, with several hundred thousand active certificate holders at any given time.

NISM Series V-B: Mutual Fund Foundation Certification Examination

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

NISM Series V-B: Mutual Fund Foundation Certification Examination is a foundational-level competency test administered by the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM), an institution established by SEBI. The examination is positioned as a lower-barrier entry point into the NISM V series for individuals who wish to demonstrate basic familiarity with the Indian mutual fund industry but are not yet ready for, or do not need, the full NISM Series V-A Mutual Fund Distributors certification.

NISM Series V-C: Mutual Fund Distributors (Senior) Certification Examination

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

NISM Series V-C: Mutual Fund Distributors (Senior) Certification Examination is an advanced-level professional certification administered by the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM). It is designed for experienced mutual fund distributors who work with complex products, high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth investors, or institutional clients, and it sets a higher competency bar than the standard NISM Series V-A qualification.

A key regulatory significance of the NISM V-C is that holding a valid V-C certificate supersedes the NISM V-A requirement for ARN issuance and renewal. Distributors who hold V-C do not need to separately maintain a V-A certificate; the V-C qualification covers all activities permitted under V-A and additionally qualifies the holder for distribution of certain higher-complexity products.

NPS scheme overlap with MFs

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The National Pension System (NPS) and mutual funds are both market-linked investment vehicles regulated by government authorities, investing in equity, debt, and alternative assets. However, they differ fundamentally in their legal structure, tax treatment, liquidity, and purpose. Understanding the overlap and the differences is essential for investors allocating retirement savings across the two vehicles.

Overview of the National Pension System

The NPS is a contributory pension scheme administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) under the National Pension System Trust. It was introduced for central government employees in 2004 and extended to all citizens in 2009. Key structural features:

NRI MF investor, NRE route

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A non-resident Indian (NRI) investing in mutual funds through the NRE route channels funds held in a Non-Resident External (NRE) rupee bank account into SEBI-registered mutual fund schemes. The NRE route is the preferred pathway for NRIs who remit foreign earnings to India, because redemption proceeds and dividends are freely repatriable in full without any annual cap and without requiring a chartered accountant certificate. The route operates under the Foreign Exchange Management (Non-Debt Instruments) Rules, 2019, and is treated as a repatriable investment in the mutual fund’s records.

NRI MF investor, NRO route

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A non-resident Indian (NRI) investing in mutual funds through the NRO route uses a Non-Resident Ordinary rupee bank account as the source and destination of investment funds. The NRO route is distinct from the NRE route in that redemption proceeds and dividends are subject to limited repatriation and attract higher withholding tax rates. Understanding the NRO route is essential for NRIs who have legacy Indian income (rent, pension, interest) or who receive funds from within India that cannot be credited to a Non-Resident External (NRE) account.

NSE NMF II (National Stock Exchange Mutual Fund Platform)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

NSE NMF II (National Stock Exchange Network for Mutual Funds, second platform) is the National Stock Exchange of India’s exchange-based mutual fund transaction platform, accessible through NSE-authorised participants and directly at nmfii.nse.com. NSE NMF II provides transaction processing infrastructure for mutual fund purchases, redemptions, switches, and SIP registrations across participating AMCs, serving AMFI-registered distributors, stockbrokers with ARN registrations, and since SEBI’s EOP framework, direct retail investors.

NSE NMF II was introduced as a successor to the original NMF platform, incorporating upgraded technology, broader AMC participation, and expanded transaction capabilities. It operates alongside NSE’s NSCCL (NSE Clearing Limited) for settlement processes and routes confirmed transactions to CAMS and KFin Technologies for folio-level processing.

Open-ended mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An open-ended mutual fund is a category of mutual fund scheme that, under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, offers continuous subscription and continuous repurchase of units at the prevailing Net Asset Value (NAV), without any fixed maturity date. Regulation 2(s) defines an open-ended scheme as a scheme of a mutual fund that offers units for sale without specifying any duration for redemption. The scheme corpus is therefore variable, expanding with net inflows and contracting with net outflows.

Overnight mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An overnight mutual fund in India is an open-ended debt scheme that invests exclusively in debt and money-market instruments with a maturity of exactly one business day (overnight), under SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular. The fund’s entire portfolio is redeployed each business day into new overnight instruments, ensuring that at no point does the fund carry any instrument with a maturity beyond the next business day. This structure makes overnight funds the safest category within the Indian mutual fund universe: they carry effectively zero interest-rate duration risk and near-zero credit risk.

Partnership / LLP MF investor

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A partnership firm or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) as a mutual fund investor is a non-corporate business entity that pools resources of two or more persons to carry on business. Both general partnership firms registered under the Indian Partnership Act, 1932, and LLPs incorporated under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008, are eligible investors in SEBI-registered mutual funds. Investment in mutual funds by such entities is typically used for treasury management of surplus funds, not for the core business activity.

Passive Investing Wave in India (Post-2018)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The passive investing wave in India describes the structural shift that occurred after 2018 in which index-tracking mutual fund schemes – comprising exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and index funds – grew from a marginal segment to one commanding Rs 11 lakh crore in assets under management by March 2025. The wave was driven by a convergence of factors: growing evidence that most actively managed large-cap funds underperformed benchmark indices over rolling periods, EPFO’s large and predictable equity ETF mandates, the entry of low-cost digital investment platforms, and SEBI’s MF Lite framework that lowered the entry barrier for passive-only AMCs.

Penetration of Mutual Funds vs Bank Deposits in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The penetration of mutual funds relative to bank deposits in India illustrates the fundamental challenge of financial deepening in a large, heterogeneous economy: despite two decades of consistent growth, mutual fund assets remain a small fraction of bank deposit liabilities, reflecting structural barriers of trust, access, financial literacy, and tax treatment that continue to favour deposit-based savings for the majority of Indian households.

Scale comparison

As of March 2025:

Instrument	Approximate outstanding stock
Scheduled commercial bank deposits	Rs 220 lakh crore
Post Office deposits and small savings	Rs 25 lakh crore
Mutual fund AUM (all categories)	Rs 67 lakh crore
Life insurance reserves	Rs 55 lakh crore
EPF and GPF balances	Rs 25 lakh crore

Source: RBI Handbook of Statistics, AMFI, DPIIT, IRDAI (approximate).

Pension Fund Overlap with Mutual Funds in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The overlap between pension funds and mutual funds in India arises from several structural connections: shared asset management companies that manage both mutual fund schemes and National Pension System (NPS) pension fund schemes; regulatory frameworks that share common principles despite different regulators; investment universes that are largely identical; and the parallel role both instrument types play in long-term retirement wealth accumulation for Indian households.

Key players in India’s pension landscape

India’s pension ecosystem comprises several distinct institutions:

PGIM India Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

PGIM India Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as PGIM India Asset Management Private Limited, and the Indian operations of PGIM, the global investment management business of Prudential Financial Inc. (Newark, New Jersey, USA). The fund house operates as the successor to Pramerica Mutual Fund (historical), having rebranded in 2020 when Prudential Financial aligned its global asset management operations under the unified PGIM brand.

As of March 2024, PGIM India AMC managed assets of approximately Rs 25,000–30,000 crore, placing it in the smaller-to-mid bracket of Indian AMCs. The fund house is entirely owned by PGIM with no domestic co-sponsor.

PIO/OCI MF rules

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) are two distinct immigration/citizenship categories with overlapping rights to invest in Indian mutual funds. Since 2015, the Government of India has merged the PIO card scheme with OCI, making OCI the operative category for most purposes. However, legacy PIO cardholders continue to hold their status for financial purposes until they obtain OCI cards. This article explains the regulatory framework, the similarities and differences between PIO and OCI for mutual fund investment, and the practical requirements.

Pledge of mutual fund units

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Pledging mutual fund units is the process by which an investor creates a security interest over a specified quantity of units in a mutual fund scheme in favour of a lender or broker, as collateral for a loan, an overdraft facility, or trading margin. The pledge does not involve a transfer of ownership: the investor retains beneficial ownership and continues to earn returns on the pledged units, but cannot redeem or switch those units while the pledge remains active.

Portfolio turnover ratio in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Portfolio turnover ratio (PTR) is a measure of how actively a mutual fund trades its portfolio over a given year, expressed as a percentage of the fund’s average net assets. A portfolio turnover ratio of 100 per cent indicates the entire portfolio was replaced (bought and sold) once during the year; a ratio of 200 per cent means the average holding was replaced twice. Low turnover indicates a buy-and-hold philosophy; high turnover indicates frequent repositioning.

PPFAS Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

PPFAS Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as PPFAS Asset Management Private Limited, and sponsored by Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services Limited (PPFAS). The fund house is among the most distinctively positioned AMCs in India, operating a small but highly regarded scheme portfolio anchored by the Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund, a global, equity-oriented fund that combines Indian equities with a meaningful allocation to international stocks, including US-listed companies such as Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Amazon, alongside a cash and arbitrage overlay.

Prashant Jain

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Prashant Jain is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of 3P Investment Managers, a SEBI-registered portfolio management and investment advisory firm established in 2023. He is best known for his 21-year tenure as Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer at HDFC Asset Management Company, one of India’s two largest mutual fund houses, which he left in 2022. During his time at HDFC AMC, Jain was the lead fund manager for HDFC Equity Fund, HDFC Top 100 Fund (formerly HDFC Top 200 Fund), and HDFC Flexicap Fund (formerly HDFC Equity Fund), among the most widely tracked actively managed equity funds in Indian mutual fund history. He is regarded as one of the defining figures of Indian equity fund management over a career spanning more than three decades.

Provident fund and superannuation MF investing

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Provident fund trusts and superannuation fund trusts are specialised employee benefit vehicles that may invest in Indian mutual fund schemes subject to the investment pattern prescribed by the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the restrictions imposed by the Income Tax Act, 1961. These trusts are distinct from the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), which is a statutory body with its own investment mandate (see EPFO equity ETF channel). This article covers private employer-maintained provident fund and superannuation fund trusts that hold employee benefit corpus and invest in mutual funds.

Quant Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Quant Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as Quant Money Managers Limited, and one of the fastest-growing AMCs in India during the 2020–2024 period. The fund house is sponsored and controlled by Sandeep Tandon, its founder, promoter, and Managing Director. As of March 2024, Quant MF managed assets exceeding Rs 90,000 crore, having grown from under Rs 1,000 crore in 2020, an AUM increase exceeding 90 times in approximately four years.

Quantum Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Quantum Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as Quantum Asset Management Company Private Limited, founded by Ajit Dayal and sponsored by Quantum Advisors Private Limited. The fund house is distinguished in Indian mutual fund history for having pioneered the no-commission, direct-plan model well before SEBI mandated direct plans industry-wide in 2013. Quantum MF launched its schemes in 2006 as direct-only products without distributor commissions, operating on the principle that investors should not bear the cost of distribution within the scheme’s expense ratio.

R-squared in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

R-squared (\(R^2\)), or the coefficient of determination, measures the proportion of a mutual fund’s return variance that is explained by variance in its benchmark index. It ranges from 0 to 1 (or 0 to 100 per cent). An R-squared of 1.0 (100 per cent) means all return variation is explained by the benchmark; an R-squared of 0 means the fund’s returns have no statistical relationship with the benchmark.

R-squared is an essential companion to beta because beta is only a reliable predictor of fund behaviour when R-squared is high. A fund with a calculated beta of 1.20 but an R-squared of 0.40 cannot be relied upon to behave in line with that beta, much of its movement is independent of the benchmark.

R. Janakiraman

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

R. Janakiraman is a senior equity fund manager at Franklin Templeton Asset Management (India) Private Limited, the Indian subsidiary of Franklin Templeton Investments. He is known as a long-tenured manager of Franklin India Prima Fund, one of India’s more established mid-cap equity funds, and as a contributor to Franklin Templeton India’s equity investment process under the CIO oversight of Anand Radhakrishnan. His career at Franklin Templeton India spans multiple decades, making him one of the longest-serving individual fund managers in the Indian mutual fund industry.

Radhika Gupta

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Radhika Gupta is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Edelweiss Asset Management Limited, the asset management subsidiary of the Edelweiss Group, a position she has held since 2017. She is widely regarded as one of the most publicly prominent mutual fund executives in India, a status built through prolific media engagement, an authored book on personal finance and resilience, and an unusually direct communication style that addresses both investment philosophy and personal narrative. Gupta is an advocate for fixed income investing, passive strategies, and systematic investing for retail participants, and has been a central figure in building the Edelweiss AMC franchise from a relatively small position in the industry into a more recognisable brand among urban retail investors. She is a past president of the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) and serves on several financial sector regulatory advisory bodies.

Rajeev Thakkar

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Rajeev Thakkar is the Chief Investment Officer and Director of PPFAS Asset Management Private Limited, the asset manager operating PPFAS Mutual Fund, established by the late Parag Parikh. He is the lead fund manager of Parag Parikh Flexi Cap Fund, which has grown from a small, niche offering into one of India’s largest mutual funds by AUM, reflecting a sustained period of strong investor confidence in its approach. Thakkar is one of the most prominent advocates of a long-term, value-oriented investment philosophy in Indian asset management, incorporating both domestic Indian equities and global equity positions in a single open-ended flexi-cap structure, an approach that was unusual at the time of the fund’s launch and has since been recognised as innovative by the broader industry.

Regular plan vs direct plan mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every mutual fund scheme offered by an asset management company (AMC) in India is required to provide two separate plan options: a regular plan and a direct plan. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) mandated the availability of direct plans through a circular dated 22 October 2012, effective from 1 January 2013. The two plans invest in an identical portfolio of securities under the same fund manager, but differ in the expense ratio charged to investors, reflecting the presence or absence of distributor commission.

Reliance Mutual Fund (historical)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Reliance Mutual Fund was the brand name used by Reliance Capital Asset Management Limited, the asset management subsidiary of Reliance Capital Limited within the Reliance ADA Group (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group), from its establishment in 2004 until the rebranding to Nippon India Mutual Fund in October 2019. The fund house grew to become one of India’s largest AMCs during the mid-2000s to mid-2010s and operated a range of equity, debt, hybrid, and exchange-traded fund schemes. The historical Reliance Mutual Fund entity no longer exists as a separate brand; all its schemes, assets, and investor accounts are now part of Nippon India Mutual Fund.

Resident individual MF investor

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A resident individual mutual fund investor is a natural person who is a tax resident of India within the meaning of Section 6 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, and who invests in units of a mutual fund registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Resident individuals constitute the largest and most heterogeneous category of mutual fund investors in India, accounting for the majority of retail assets under management (AUM) across equity, debt, and hybrid schemes. Their participation is governed by the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, AMFI guidelines, and the relevant provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Retail Investor Participation in Mutual Funds in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Retail investor participation in Indian mutual funds encompasses the ownership of mutual fund units by individual investors (as opposed to institutional investors such as corporates, banks, foreign portfolio investors, and provident funds). India’s mutual fund industry has undergone a sustained democratisation since 2013, with the number of unique individual investors – measured by Permanent Account Number (PAN) – growing from approximately 1.2 crore in 2014 to over 5 crore by March 2025. Retail investors are the primary driver of SIP inflows and account for the majority of equity scheme AUM.

RIA (Registered Investment Adviser) for mutual funds in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A SEBI-registered investment adviser (RIA) is an individual or entity registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India under the SEBI (Investment Advisers) Regulations 2013 to provide investment advice to clients for a fee. In the context of mutual fund distribution, RIAs represent the fee-based advisory model as distinct from commission-based mutual fund distributors (MFDs). SEBI introduced the RIA framework to create a formal category of fiduciary advisers who charge clients directly for advice rather than receiving commissions from product manufacturers.

Riskometer framework, Indian mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The riskometer is the SEBI-mandated graphical risk-labelling mechanism for mutual fund schemes in India, displayed as a speedometer-style dial on every Scheme Information Document (SID), Key Information Memorandum (KIM), and advertisement. It communicates the scheme’s principal risk level to investors in a single standardised visual, enabling quick comparison across fund categories. First introduced in 2013, the riskometer was comprehensively upgraded by SEBI circular SEBI/HO/IMD/DF3/CIR/P/2020/197 dated 5 November 2020, which expanded the scale from five to six levels, introduced a product-specific risk value (PRV) computation methodology, and mandated a monthly riskometer update obligation. The framework is embedded within the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 and is administered by the SEBI Investment Management Department.

Riskometer, the six-band risk scale for mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The riskometer is a standardised risk-disclosure tool mandated by SEBI for all mutual fund schemes in India, represented graphically as a dial or gauge with six risk bands, Low, Low to Moderate, Moderate, Moderately High, High, and Very High, that communicate the level of risk associated with a scheme’s portfolio to prospective and existing investors. Every mutual fund scheme in India is required to display its riskometer label on the Scheme Information Document (SID), Key Information Memorandum (KIM), fund factsheets, and all scheme advertisements.

Robo-Advisory in Indian Mutual Funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Robo-advisory in Indian mutual funds refers to automated, algorithm-driven investment advisory and execution platforms that provide personalised mutual fund portfolio recommendations, systematic investment plan (SIP) management, and portfolio rebalancing with minimal human intervention. These platforms emerged between 2015 and 2020, driven by the availability of direct plan mutual funds, digital KYC infrastructure, and the SEBI Investment Advisers Regulations, 2013. India’s robo-advisory sector occupied a distinctive position: it developed primarily as a direct plan distribution and advisory platform rather than as a purely automated advice engine, reflecting the regulatory framework that governs investment advice in India.

Rolling returns vs trailing returns in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Rolling returns and trailing returns are two methods of computing mutual fund performance over a given time horizon (say, 3 years or 5 years). Both express the fund’s return as a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over the measurement period. The fundamental difference is: a trailing return is a single snapshot measured from a specific past date to today, while rolling returns compute that same CAGR for every possible starting date in the historical record, producing a distribution of returns rather than a single number.

S&P 500 as an Indian Mutual Fund Benchmark

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The S&P 500 (Standard and Poor’s 500) is the most widely referenced large-cap US equity benchmark, covering approximately 500 of the largest publicly listed US companies by market capitalisation. In the context of Indian mutual fund investing, the S&P 500 – specifically its total return variant – serves as the benchmark for Indian AMC-offered feeder funds and fund-of-funds (FoFs) that provide Indian investors with exposure to US large-cap equities. The index is maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices, a division of S&P Global.

Sailesh Raj Bhan

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sailesh Raj Bhan is the Deputy Chief Investment Officer and a senior equity fund manager at Nippon India Mutual Fund (Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited), one of India’s largest mutual fund houses. He is known for his long tenure managing Nippon India Growth Fund (formerly Reliance Growth Fund), one of India’s older actively managed equity schemes with a strong historical performance record, and Nippon India Multi Cap Fund. Bhan’s association with the fund house dates to the Reliance Capital AMC era, making him one of the longest-tenured senior equity fund managers in Indian mutual fund history at a single organisation.

Samir Arora

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Samir Arora is the founder and chief investment officer of Helios Capital Management Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based hedge fund that invests primarily in Indian equities. He is one of India’s most recognised foreign-domiciled India-focused fund managers and a highly active social media commentator on Indian equity markets. Before founding Helios, he served as Managing Director and Head of Equities for India and South Asia at Alliance Capital Management (later AllianceBernstein), managing large foreign institutional investor (FII) positions in Indian equities.

Sandeep Tandon

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sandeep Tandon is the founder, Managing Director, and Chief Investment Officer of Quant Mutual Fund, formerly known as Escorts Mutual Fund, a SEBI-registered mutual fund house headquartered in Mumbai. He is one of the most distinctive figures in Indian asset management, having pioneered a proprietary quantitative and predictive analytics framework, referred to internally as the VLRT (Valuation, Liquidity, Risk Appetite, and Time) framework, as the primary basis for investment decisions across Quant Mutual Fund’s equity, debt, and hybrid schemes. Quant Mutual Fund transformed from a small, relatively obscure fund house into one of the fastest-growing AMCs in India by AUM during the 2020–2024 period, largely on the back of strong performance across its equity schemes.

Sankaran Naren

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sankaran Naren (commonly referred to as S. Naren) is the Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer of ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company, one of India’s two largest mutual fund houses by assets under management. He is widely regarded as one of the most consistently articulate advocates of value and contrarian investing within the Indian mutual fund industry. Naren is the lead fund manager or co-manager of several of ICICI Prudential AMC’s largest schemes, including ICICI Prudential Value Discovery Fund, ICICI Prudential Balanced Advantage Fund, and ICICI Prudential Multicap Fund. His philosophy of buying assets when they are unloved and avoiding assets when they are euphoric has made him a reference point for value-oriented investors in India across multiple market cycles.

Saurabh Mukherjea

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Saurabh Mukherjea is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Marcellus Investment Managers, a SEBI-registered Portfolio Management Service (PMS) and Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) provider established in 2018. He is known for the Consistent Compounders investment strategy, which seeks to identify Indian listed businesses with durable competitive moats and consistently high returns on capital, and for a substantial body of authored work on Indian equity markets and investing. Prior to founding Marcellus, Mukherjea served as CEO of Ambit Capital’s institutional equities business and as head of equities at Clear Capital. He is one of the more prolific authored voices in Indian investment management.

SBI Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

SBI Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company incorporated as SBI Funds Management Limited (SBIFM), sponsored by the State Bank of India in association with AMUNDI S.A. of France. It is the largest mutual fund in India by assets under management, with an AUM exceeding Rs 9 lakh crore as of March 2024. The AMC was the first non-UTI mutual fund entity in India, having launched its first scheme in June 1987, and has operated continuously since, accumulating a scheme portfolio of over 100 open-ended funds across equity, debt, hybrid, passive, and solution-oriented categories.

SBI Mutual Fund direct portal

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The SBI Mutual Fund direct portal at sbimutualfund.com is the AMC-operated investment platform for direct plans of mutual fund schemes managed by SBI Funds Management Limited (SBIFM), the asset management company of the State Bank of India group. The portal allows KYC-compliant investors to invest in direct plans without routing through a distributor, thereby accessing the lower expense ratios of direct plans across SBIFM’s equity, debt, hybrid, and passive scheme range.

Scheme Information Document (SID), Indian Mutual Funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A Scheme Information Document (SID) is the principal statutory offer document that an asset management company (AMC) must file with SEBI and make available to investors before launching any new mutual fund scheme in India. Mandated under Regulation 29 of the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, the SID serves a function analogous to a prospectus in the equity markets: it discloses the scheme’s investment objective, asset allocation, risk factors, benchmark, fund manager, fee structure, and tax implications in a standardised format prescribed by SEBI. Investors are entitled to a free copy on request. The SID must be read alongside the Statement of Additional Information (SAI), which contains statutory and house-level information common to all schemes of the fund house, and the Key Information Memorandum (KIM), a one-to-two page summary designed for point-of-sale distribution.

Scheme performance vs benchmark report for mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A scheme performance vs benchmark report is the standardised comparative return disclosure that SEBI requires every mutual fund scheme to publish, showing the scheme’s point-to-point and CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate) returns alongside the returns of its primary benchmark and an additional benchmark over specified standard periods. This disclosure is embedded in the scheme factsheet, the scheme annual report, and the performance tables on AMFI’s website, enabling investors to assess whether the scheme has added value over passive investing in the benchmark.

Scripbox

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Scripbox is an Indian robo-advisory and direct mutual fund investment platform operated by Scripbox Advisors Private Limited, accessible at scripbox.com. Founded in 2012, Scripbox is one of India’s earliest mutual fund robo-advisers and is distinguished by its opinionated, curation-based approach: instead of offering the full universe of mutual fund schemes, Scripbox presents a small, researched selection of recommended funds for each investor goal category, simplifying the decision for investors who prefer guidance over complete open-choice.

SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 are the principal statutory instrument governing the establishment, registration, operation, and winding-up of mutual funds in India. Notified by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 9 December 1996 and published in the Gazette of India (Extraordinary) Part III, Section 4, the Regulations superseded the earlier SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1993. Framed under sections 30 and 11(2)(g) of the SEBI Act, 1992, they establish a three-tier principal structure, sponsor, trustee, and asset management company (AMC), and prescribe the minimum conditions for every aspect of the mutual fund life-cycle: registration, scheme launch, investment restrictions, valuation, disclosure, and investor protection. As of May 2026, the Regulations have been amended more than 70 times, with landmark amendments introduced in 1998, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

SEBI compliance audit report for mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A SEBI compliance audit for a mutual fund AMC is a formal regulatory examination conducted by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) or by a SEBI-empanelled independent auditor (typically a Chartered Accountant firm), to assess whether the AMC, its schemes, and the Board of Trustees are adhering to the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, SEBI circulars, and AMFI guidelines. The output is an inspection/audit report that identifies findings, deficiencies, and recommended corrective actions. SEBI may initiate enforcement action (show-cause notice, penalty, or remedial direction) based on audit findings.

SEBI debt MF taxation amendment FY24 (India)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The debt mutual fund taxation amendment of FY24 refers to the changes introduced by the Finance Act, 2023 (Union Budget 2023–24, enacted in March 2023) that eliminated the long-term capital gains (LTCG) benefit for debt mutual fund schemes in India with effect from 1 April 2023. Prior to this change, debt mutual fund investments held for more than three years qualified for LTCG tax at 20% with indexation benefit, a preferential rate that made debt funds significantly more tax-efficient than fixed deposits for investors in the 30% tax bracket. The 2023 amendment aligned the tax treatment of debt fund gains with that of interest income: gains are now taxed as per the investor’s applicable income tax slab rate, regardless of holding period. The amendment affected the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 indirectly through required updates to scheme disclosures, and was noted prominently in all Scheme Information Documents (SIDs), SAIs, and KIMs. The SEBI Investment Management Department required AMCs to update their documents immediately.

SEBI EOP regulations 2023 (India)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The SEBI EOP (Entry on Exit Point) regulations of 2023 refer to the framework introduced by SEBI circular SEBI/HO/IMD/IMD-PoD-1/P/CIR/2023/11 dated 6 January 2023 that enables asset management companies (AMCs) to offer a structured exit option at regular intervals to investors in close-ended equity mutual fund schemes. Prior to this framework, close-ended scheme investors could exit only through the stock exchange (where units are listed but frequently trade at a significant discount to NAV, reflecting thin liquidity) or by waiting until the scheme’s maturity date. The EOP framework provides an NAV-based exit option at periodic intervals, significantly enhancing investor liquidity and addressing a longstanding criticism of close-ended fund structures in India. The framework is anchored in the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 and is administered by the SEBI Investment Management Department.

SEBI fund manager qualification and scheme limits (India)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

SEBI’s fund manager qualification and scheme limits framework for mutual funds in India prescribes the minimum qualifications required for individuals appointed as fund managers by asset management companies (AMCs), the maximum number of schemes a single fund manager may manage simultaneously, and the disclosure requirements relating to fund manager assignments in the Scheme Information Document (SID) and Statement of Additional Information (SAI). The framework is embedded in the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 (particularly Regulation 25) and the SEBI Master Circular, and is administered by the SEBI Investment Management Department.

SEBI half-yearly trustee report for mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The SEBI half-yearly trustee report is a six-monthly compliance and governance report that the Board of Trustees (or Trustee Company) of each mutual fund in India is required to submit to SEBI under Regulation 27(2) of the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996. The report covers the half-year periods ending 31 March and 30 September. It is a supervisory accountability document in which the trustees certify to SEBI that all schemes under the mutual fund were managed in accordance with SEBI regulations, investment mandates, and applicable guidelines during the covered period.

SEBI Investment Management Department

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The SEBI Investment Management Department (IMD) is the internal department of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) responsible for regulating and supervising collective investment vehicles and investment management intermediaries in India. These include mutual funds (governed by SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996), portfolio managers, investment advisers, alternative investment funds (AIFs), and venture capital funds. The IMD is SEBI’s primary policy and oversight arm for the Indian mutual fund industry, processing every scheme registration, scrutinising offer documents (including the Scheme Information Document and Statement of Additional Information), and issuing the thematic circulars that continuously update regulatory standards.

SEBI investor charter for mutual funds (India)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The SEBI investor charter for mutual funds is a standardised document mandated by SEBI circular SEBI/HO/IMD/IMD-PoD-1/P/CIR/2021/622 dated 13 August 2021 that each mutual fund asset management company (AMC) must display prominently on its website, include in the Statement of Additional Information (SAI), and make available to investors at every point of interaction. The investor charter sets out, in plain language, the rights of investors and the obligations of the AMC and its service providers in relation to those rights. It is one of SEBI’s investor-education and grievance-prevention tools and complements the SCORES portal and the SEBI Investor Protection Fund as the triad of investor protection mechanisms for mutual fund investors in India. The charter is grounded in the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 and the SEBI Act, 1992.

SEBI multi-cap reclassification 2020

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The SEBI multi-cap reclassification of 2020 refers to the reform introduced by SEBI circular SEBI/HO/IMD/DF3/CIR/P/2020/236 dated 6 November 2020, which amended the definition of multi-cap funds within the SEBI scheme rationalisation circular 2017 framework to mandate a minimum 25 per cent allocation each to large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap stocks, with the remaining 25 per cent at the fund manager’s discretion. Prior to this amendment, multi-cap funds were required to invest only a minimum 65 per cent in equity, with no cap-wise sub-allocation, allowing fund managers to hold predominantly large-cap portfolios in a “multi-cap” fund. SEBI simultaneously introduced a new category, the Flexicap Fund, to provide an unconstrained equity allocation option. The circular was issued by the SEBI Investment Management Department and is grounded in the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996.

SEBI multi-cap reclassification circular (September 2020)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The SEBI multi-cap reclassification circular of 11 September 2020, formally Circular No. SEBI/HO/IMD/DF3/CIR/P/2020/185, mandated that all mutual fund schemes categorised as “multi-cap funds” must invest a minimum of 25 percent each in large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap stocks, with no more than 25 percent in any category left to fund manager discretion. Before this circular, multi-cap funds had operated with complete investment flexibility across market capitalisations, and in practice most had accumulated predominantly large-cap heavy portfolios with minimal mid and small-cap allocations despite their multi-cap category designation. The circular required these funds to substantially increase their small-cap and mid-cap allocations, triggering one of the largest mandatory portfolio rebalancing events in the history of the Indian mutual fund industry. It also prompted the Securities and Exchange Board of India to create a new “flexi-cap fund” category to preserve the option of genuinely flexible equity mandates without the new minimum allocation requirements.

SEBI Mutual Fund Lite framework (India)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The SEBI Mutual Fund Lite (MF Lite) framework is a simplified registration and operational regime introduced by SEBI in 2024 to encourage new entrants to establish asset management companies (AMCs) that offer exclusively passive investment products, index funds and Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), without the full regulatory burden applicable to active fund management. The MF Lite framework was finalised through SEBI’s circular and amendments to the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 in 2024, following consultation papers issued in 2022 and 2023. The primary policy objective is to increase competition in India’s passive fund segment (which has historically had fewer participants than the active segment), lower costs for investors, and enable fintech, technology, and financial services companies with strong distribution capabilities to enter the market without meeting the full net worth and track record requirements of traditional AMC registration. The framework is administered by the SEBI Investment Management Department.

SEBI mutual fund overseas investment cap (India)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The overseas investment cap for Indian mutual funds refers to the aggregate and per-fund limits placed on the amount of foreign assets that Indian mutual fund schemes may hold, set jointly by SEBI under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 and by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999. As of May 2026, the aggregate industry-level cap is USD 7 billion for all overseas securities investments by mutual funds, with an additional separate cap of USD 1 billion for investments in overseas Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). The framework is administered by the SEBI Investment Management Department and has been subject to multiple revisions, including a significant suspension and resumption cycle in 2022.

SEBI mutual fund sponsor eligibility rules (India)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

SEBI mutual fund sponsor eligibility rules prescribe the minimum financial, managerial, and ethical qualifications that an entity must satisfy to sponsor a mutual fund in India. The sponsor is the entity that establishes the mutual fund, provides the initial capital to the asset management company (AMC), and bears ultimate accountability for the fund’s constitution. Sponsor eligibility is governed by Regulations 7–9 of the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, supplemented by SEBI’s “fit and proper” criteria framework and amended most recently in 2021–2022 to accommodate new entrants including fintech-backed sponsors. The SEBI Investment Management Department evaluates all sponsor applications.

SEBI NAV applicability rule 2021

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The SEBI NAV applicability rule of 2021 refers to the reform introduced by SEBI circular SEBI/HO/IMD/IMD-PoD-1/P/CIR/2021/555 dated 17 February 2021, which unified the NAV applicability framework for all mutual fund scheme subscriptions so that the applicable Net Asset Value (NAV) is determined by the date on which the subscription amount is realised in the AMC’s bank account, regardless of when the transaction was submitted. Previously, different NAV cut-off rules applied to different scheme types (equity versus debt versus liquid), and large investors could exploit time zone differences and payment settlement windows to gain a day’s NAV advantage. The rule took effect from 1 February 2021 for new investors and from 17 March 2021 for all investments. It is anchored in SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 and administered by the SEBI Investment Management Department.

SEBI scheme merger and conversion rules (India)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

SEBI scheme merger and conversion rules in India govern the process by which two or more existing mutual fund schemes are amalgamated into a single surviving scheme (merger), or a scheme is converted from one type or category to another (conversion). These rules are embedded in Regulation 18(15A) and Regulation 18(15B) of the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, and elaborated through SEBI’s Master Circular. All scheme mergers require SEBI’s prior approval and a mandatory exit window for unitholders; the framework was heavily used during the SEBI scheme rationalisation circular 2017 compliance wave and the SEBI multi-cap reclassification 2020 exercise. These rules are administered by the SEBI Investment Management Department.

SEBI scheme rationalisation circular 2017

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The SEBI scheme rationalisation circular of 2017, formally SEBI circular SEBI/HO/IMD/DF3/CIR/P/2017/114 dated 6 October 2017, is the most consequential structural intervention in the history of the Indian mutual fund industry. It mandated a comprehensive categorisation and rationalisation of open-ended mutual fund schemes, establishing 36 defined scheme categories (subsequently revised to 37, and later updated to reflect new category types) with precise investment mandates tied to verifiable financial parameters. Each AMC was permitted to operate only one scheme per category (with limited exceptions). The circular required all AMCs to merge or convert their existing schemes into the prescribed category framework within six months of SEBI’s acceptance of each AMC’s rationalisation proposal. The framework reduced the number of open-ended schemes from over 2,000 to approximately 550 across 44 AMCs by early 2018 and provided investors with the ability to compare schemes across AMCs within a category on a like-for-like basis. The circular is grounded in SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 and was issued by the SEBI Investment Management Department.

SEBI Specialised Investment Funds (SIF) framework

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

SEBI Specialised Investment Funds (SIF) are a new category of investment vehicle introduced by SEBI circular SEBI/HO/IMD/IMD-PoD-1/P/CIR/2024/26 dated 7 March 2024, occupying a regulatory space between mutual funds (which are widely accessible, including to retail investors) and Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), which are accessible only to sophisticated investors with a minimum commitment of ₹1 crore. SIFs are designed for “sophisticated” or “knowledgeable” investors with a minimum investment ticket of ₹10 lakh, enabling strategies that are not permissible under the standard SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 investment restrictions. SIFs are offered by existing registered mutual fund AMCs under the same regulatory umbrella as mutual funds, without requiring a separate AIF registration. The framework is administered by the SEBI Investment Management Department.

SEBI stress testing framework for small/mid-cap mutual funds (2024)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The SEBI stress testing framework for small/mid-cap funds refers to the requirements introduced by SEBI circular SEBI/HO/IMD/IMD-PoD-1/P/CIR/2024/14 dated 27 February 2024 that compel asset management companies (AMCs) managing small-cap and mid-cap mutual fund schemes to conduct monthly portfolio liquidity stress tests and publicly disclose the estimated number of business days required to liquidate 25 per cent and 50 per cent of their small-cap and mid-cap portfolios, respectively, under prevailing market conditions. The framework was SEBI’s response to sharp inflows into small-cap and mid-cap funds in 2022–2023 that created concerns about liquidity mismatch and the potential for a destabilising redemption rush if markets corrected sharply. It is grounded in the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 and administered by the SEBI Investment Management Department.

SEBI swing pricing framework for debt mutual funds (India)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Swing pricing in the context of Indian mutual fund regulation is an anti-dilution mechanism that adjusts the NAV at which large redemptions or subscriptions are processed to reflect the market impact cost (transaction cost) that the redemption or subscription imposes on the existing portfolio. SEBI introduced a framework for swing pricing in debt mutual funds through circular SEBI/HO/IMD/IMD-PoD-1/P/CIR/2022/87 dated 27 June 2022, with the full rollout originally scheduled for 1 March 2023. The mechanism was subsequently revised for phased implementation. Swing pricing addresses the “first-mover advantage” problem in debt funds, where investors who redeem early in a market stress episode benefit at the expense of long-term holders who remain in the fund and bear the full liquidation costs. The framework is grounded in the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 and is administered by the SEBI Investment Management Department.

Section 54F exemption on MF redemption proceeds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Section 54F of the Income Tax Act 1961 provides an exemption from long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax where an individual or HUF transfers a long-term capital asset other than a residential house and reinvests the net sale consideration in the purchase or construction of a new residential property in India within specified time limits. Mutual fund units (whether equity-oriented or debt-oriented) are long-term capital assets when held beyond the applicable holding period, and LTCG arising from their redemption qualifies for Section 54F exemption if the conditions are satisfied. This makes Section 54F a useful provision for investors who redeem a large equity or ELSS fund corpus to fund a property purchase.

Section 80C deduction for ELSS

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Equity-Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS) is a category of open-ended equity mutual fund regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations 1996. It is the only mutual fund category that qualifies for a tax deduction under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act 1961. An investor may claim a deduction of up to Rs 1,50,000 per financial year on investments in ELSS, subject to the overall Section 80C ceiling. ELSS units carry a statutory lock-in period of three years from the date of allotment of each unit. Upon redemption after the lock-in, any capital gains are long-term capital gains (LTCG) taxed under Section 112A at 12.5% on gains exceeding Rs 1,25,000 per financial year (rates as revised by the Finance Act 2024, effective 23 July 2024).

Sectoral and thematic mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sectoral and thematic mutual funds in India are open-ended equity schemes that invest a minimum of 80% of their total assets in equity and equity-related instruments of companies within a specific sector or within a defined investment theme. SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular placed these categories in a single bucket (“Sectoral/Thematic Funds”) but permits each AMC to operate multiple such schemes as long as each tracks a different sector or theme – the sole exception to the one-scheme-per-category rule that applies to most other equity categories.

Segregated portfolio, Indian mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A segregated portfolio in the context of Indian mutual fund regulation is a sub-portfolio created within a debt scheme to isolate a distressed or defaulted security from the rest of the scheme’s assets. SEBI formally permitted and defined the segregated portfolio structure through circular SEBI/HO/IMD/DF2/CIR/P/2018/160 dated 28 December 2018, the same circular that introduced the side-pocketing framework for debt mutual funds. The segregated portfolio is the structural vehicle through which side-pocketing is implemented: the “main portfolio” (also called the “continuing portfolio”) holds the performing assets, and the “segregated portfolio” holds the distressed security. Both portfolios are maintained as sub-sets of the same mutual fund scheme; they are not separate schemes.

Settlement cycles for mutual fund transactions (T+1/T+2/T+3)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Settlement cycles for mutual fund transactions refer to the number of business days within which redemption proceeds or allotment confirmations must be delivered to investors following a transaction. In India, SEBI prescribes separate settlement timelines for different types of mutual fund schemes, with faster settlement for liquid and overnight funds (which invest in very short-duration, highly liquid instruments) and longer timelines for equity and debt funds.

Settlement in mutual funds is primarily relevant to redemptions (the payment of redemption proceeds to the investor’s bank account) and unit allotments (confirmation that purchased units have been credited). Unlike equity market settlement, where a central counterparty (NSE Clearing or ICCL) nets and settles trades, mutual fund settlement occurs directly between the AMC/RTA and the investor’s bank.

Shankar Sharma

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Shankar Sharma is the co-founder and Vice Chairman of First Global, an Indian financial services, securities, and research firm co-founded with Devina Mehra. He is one of the more outspoken and independent voices in Indian capital markets, known for making sharply contrarian calls on Indian equities, global macroeconomics, and emerging markets, often at variance with the mainstream consensus view. While not a traditional mutual fund manager, First Global operates primarily as a securities broking and quantitative investment management firm rather than as an AMFI-registered mutual fund house, Sharma has been a highly visible figure in Indian financial markets commentary for over three decades and has exerted influence on how institutional and sophisticated retail investors think about Indian and global equity markets.

Sharpe ratio in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Sharpe ratio is a measure of risk-adjusted return that quantifies how much excess return (return above the risk-free rate) a mutual fund has delivered per unit of total risk, where total risk is measured by the standard deviation of the fund’s returns. Named after Nobel laureate William F. Sharpe who introduced it in 1966, it remains the most widely cited single performance statistic in the Indian mutual fund industry.

Short-duration mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A short-duration mutual fund in India is an open-ended debt scheme that must maintain a portfolio Macaulay duration of 1 to 3 years, under SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular. The Macaulay duration is a measure of the weighted average time to receive a bond’s cash flows, and serves as a proxy for interest rate sensitivity. A portfolio with Macaulay duration of 1 to 3 years is moderately sensitive to interest rate changes – more sensitive than ultra-short duration or money-market funds but significantly less sensitive than medium-duration, medium-to-long-duration, or long-duration funds.

Side-pocketed scheme in debt mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A side-pocketed scheme (formally called a segregated portfolio) in a debt mutual fund is a regulatory mechanism under which a stressed or defaulted debt security is separated from the main portfolio into a distinct sub-portfolio, allowing the fund to quarantine the troubled asset while continuing normal operations for the remaining healthy portfolio. SEBI introduced the segregated portfolio framework through Circular SEBI/HO/IMD/DF2/CIR/P/2018/160 (dated 28 December 2018), effective immediately, in response to the IL&FS crisis that year.

Side-pocketing introduction in Indian mutual funds (2018)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Side-pocketing, formally termed “segregated portfolio” in Indian regulatory terminology, is a mechanism that allows a mutual fund scheme to separate debt or money market instruments affected by a credit event into a distinct sub-portfolio, ring-fencing the impaired assets from the main portfolio and protecting ongoing investors from dilution by redemption outflows. The mechanism was introduced in India by the Securities and Exchange Board of India through Circular No. SEBI/HO/IMD/DF2/CIR/P/2018/160, issued on 28 December 2018, directly in response to the valuation and fairness challenges exposed by the IL&FS default of September 2018. Side-pocketing had been debated in the Indian mutual fund industry for several years before the Association of Mutual Funds in India recommended its adoption in the wake of the IL&FS crisis.

Side-pocketing rules for debt mutual funds (India)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Side-pocketing in the context of Indian mutual fund regulations refers to the practice of separating a distressed or defaulted debt security from the rest of a scheme’s portfolio into a distinct “segregated portfolio,” thereby ring-fencing the credit event’s impact on the main portfolio and preventing a run on the fund by existing investors who seek to redeem before the distress crystallises. SEBI formally permitted side-pocketing through circular SEBI/HO/IMD/DF2/CIR/P/2018/160 dated 28 December 2018, framed in response to the IL&FS group defaults of September–October 2018 which severely impacted several debt mutual fund schemes. The framework was incorporated into the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 and subsequently elaborated in the dedicated article on segregated portfolios.

SIP Growth Story in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) growth story in India is among the most significant developments in the country’s financial history: a product designed to make mutual fund investing affordable and habit-forming for ordinary savers has grown from negligible volumes in the late 1990s to monthly inflows of over Rs 25,000 crore by early 2025, supported by over 10 crore active SIP accounts. The SIP’s rise transformed mutual fund investing from an event-driven, lump-sum activity of affluent investors into a recurring financial behaviour of the middle class.

SIP pause and SIP cancellation

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

SIP pause and SIP cancellation are two mechanisms through which an investor in India can temporarily or permanently stop Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) instalments in a mutual fund folio. The two processes differ in their permanence and operational requirements:

Pause: A temporary suspension of SIP instalments for a specified period (up to three months under standard industry practice), after which the SIP automatically resumes.
Cancellation: A permanent termination of the SIP mandate; no further debits are executed. A new SIP registration is required to restart investments.

SIP pause

SEBI and AMFI guidelines allow investors to pause a SIP for a maximum of three consecutive instalments (equivalent to three months for monthly SIPs). The pause facility is designed for situations where the investor faces temporary cash-flow constraints (illness, job loss, large one-time expense) but wishes to resume investing without the friction of re-registration.

SIP vs lump sum mutual fund investment

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Systematic investment plan (SIP) and lump-sum investment are the two primary modes through which investors allocate capital to mutual fund schemes in India. In a SIP, the investor commits to investing a fixed amount at regular intervals (typically monthly), while in a lump-sum investment the entire amount is deployed at a single point in time. Both modes purchase units of the same scheme at the prevailing net asset value (NAV) on the investment date, and both are subject to the same expense ratio, exit load, and tax rules.

SIP vs recurring deposit (RD)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) and a Recurring Deposit (RD) are both monthly savings mechanisms that require the investor to commit a fixed amount periodically. A SIP invests in mutual fund units at the prevailing NAV, while an RD is a bank deposit product earning interest at a predetermined rate. The two instruments differ fundamentally in risk profile, return potential, and tax treatment.

Definitions

SIP in a mutual fund

A SIP is an instruction to invest a fixed amount (minimum typically Rs 100-500) at a recurring date in a specified mutual fund scheme. The amount is debited via NACH or UPI AutoPay and invested in units of the scheme at the NAV on the execution date. SIPs are available for equity, debt, hybrid, and other fund categories.

Small-cap mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A small-cap mutual fund in India is an open-ended equity scheme that must, under SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular, invest a minimum of 65% of its total assets in equity and equity-related instruments of small-cap companies. SEBI defines small-cap companies as all companies ranked 251st and beyond on the full-market-capitalisation list published by AMFI every six months. The small-cap category represents thousands of listed companies, providing an extremely wide investment universe that includes early-stage businesses, niche market leaders, turnaround candidates, and regional franchises.

Smallcase Managers vs Mutual Fund Managers: Regulatory Contrast

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The regulatory contrast between smallcase managers and mutual fund managers in India reflects two distinct regulatory frameworks under SEBI: smallcase portfolio strategies are offered by entities registered primarily as Research Analysts (RAs) or Investment Advisers (IAs) under the respective SEBI regulations, while mutual fund schemes are managed by Asset Management Companies (AMCs) registered under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996. These distinct regulatory identities carry materially different obligations with respect to investor protection, capital requirements, disclosure norms, and fee structures.

Smallcase mutual fund baskets

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Smallcase mutual fund baskets is a product offered by Smallcase Technologies Private Limited that allows investors to invest in a curated combination of direct-plan mutual fund schemes as a single, thematic investment basket. In this product, the basket is a pre-defined allocation across multiple mutual fund schemes sharing a common theme (e.g., retirement, international diversification, aggressive equity), and the investor purchases the basket as a unit rather than selecting each scheme individually.

Sole proprietorship MF investor

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A sole proprietorship mutual fund investor is a business entity, a sole proprietorship, investing in units of SEBI-registered mutual fund schemes. A sole proprietorship is not a separate legal person distinct from the individual who owns it; legally, the sole proprietor and the proprietorship are one and the same person. This characteristic distinguishes sole proprietorship investing from corporate body or partnership/LLP investing, and has significant implications for KYC, account setup, and taxation.

Sortino ratio in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Sortino ratio is a risk-adjusted performance measure that refines the Sharpe ratio by substituting total standard deviation with downside deviation, a measure computed only from returns that fall below a minimum acceptable return (MAR), typically the risk-free rate or zero. The intuition is straightforward: investors are harmed by downside volatility but benefit from upside volatility, so penalising both equally (as the Sharpe ratio does) misrepresents the true cost of risk.

Stamp duty on mutual fund units

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Stamp duty on mutual fund units is a statutory charge levied at the time of purchase or switch of mutual fund units in India, introduced by an amendment to the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 through the Finance Act, 2019 and made effective from 1 July 2020. The rate is 0.005 per cent of the investment amount on purchases and on the notional value of units on switches. Stamp duty reduces the number of units allotted to the investor and is credited to the state government of the investor’s registered address.

Standard deviation as a mutual fund risk metric

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Standard deviation in the context of mutual funds is the annualised measure of how much a fund’s periodic returns deviate from its average return. It captures total risk, both upside and downside volatility, making it a symmetric risk measure. It is the denominator in the Sharpe ratio and appears in every AMC’s monthly factsheet as a standard AMFI-mandated risk disclosure.

A higher standard deviation indicates a more volatile fund whose returns fluctuate widely around the mean; a lower standard deviation indicates steadier, more predictable returns.

Statement of accounts after each mutual fund transaction

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The statement of accounts (SOA) issued after each mutual fund transaction is a regulatory document dispatched by the Registrar and Transfer Agent (RTA) – CAMS or KFintech – to the investor within five business days of processing any transaction on a folio. It confirms the details of the transaction (amount, NAV, units) and displays the updated unit balance post-transaction. The SOA is the investor’s primary real-time acknowledgement that a mutual fund transaction has been correctly processed and recorded on the folio.

Statement of Additional Information (SAI), Indian Mutual Funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Statement of Additional Information (SAI) is the statutory supplementary disclosure document that every Indian mutual fund house must maintain and file with SEBI, incorporating legal, organisational, and governance disclosures common to all schemes of that fund house. Introduced alongside the Scheme Information Document (SID) and the Key Information Memorandum (KIM) by SEBI circular SEBI/IMD/CIR No. 9/120982/08 dated 14 January 2008, the SAI consolidates information that would otherwise be duplicated across every scheme’s SID. Mandated under Regulation 29 of the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, the SAI must be filed with SEBI and updated at least annually. It is publicly available on the AMC’s website and the SEBI SCORES/SEBI website, and investors are entitled to a free copy on request.

STCG on equity mutual funds (Section 111A)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Short-term capital gains (STCG) on equity-oriented mutual funds are taxed under Section 111A of the Income Tax Act 1961 at a flat rate that is independent of the investor’s income-tax slab. The Finance Act 2024 raised the Section 111A rate from 15% to 20% with effect from 23 July 2024. Section 111A applies only where Securities Transaction Tax (STT) has been paid on the redemption transaction. Where STT has not been paid, the STCG is excluded from Section 111A and is added to total income at the applicable slab rate.

Step-up SIP (Top-up SIP)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A step-up SIP (also called a top-up SIP) is a variant of the Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) in which the periodic instalment amount automatically increases by a fixed sum (absolute step-up) or a fixed percentage (percentage step-up) at specified intervals, typically annually. The increment is registered at the time of SIP creation and is applied without requiring the investor to submit a fresh instruction each time.

Step-up SIPs are designed for investors who expect their income and savings capacity to grow over time, allowing their investment to scale in alignment with their earnings trajectory.

STT on equity-oriented mutual fund redemption

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Securities transaction tax (STT) is a direct tax levied on the value of transactions in specified securities, including units of equity-oriented mutual funds. For mutual funds, STT applies on the redemption of equity-oriented fund units at the rate of 0.001 per cent of the redemption value. It was introduced by the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2004 and is administered under Chapter VII of that Act.

STT is a Central Government tax collected at the point of transaction by the AMC (acting as a responsible person), and is credited to the Consolidated Fund of India. It is separate from, and in addition to, capital gains tax on the same transaction.

Sundaram acquisition of Principal Mutual Fund (2021)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Sundaram Asset Management Company acquisition of Principal Asset Management (India) Private Limited in 2021 represented the exit of the US-headquartered Principal Financial Group from its Indian mutual fund joint venture and the absorption of its approximately Rs 6,800 crore AUM into the Sundaram Mutual Fund franchise. The acquisition, announced in April 2021 and completed later that year, was one of several AMC consolidation transactions in the 2019–2022 wave that reshaped the composition of the Indian asset management landscape by eliminating sub-scale standalone AMC entities.

Sundaram Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sundaram Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as Sundaram Asset Management Company Limited, sponsored by Sundaram Finance Limited, the Chennai-headquartered non-banking financial company and one of the oldest vehicle finance companies in India. As of March 2024, the fund house managed assets exceeding Rs 60,000 crore, including schemes transferred from Principal Mutual Fund (historical) following Principal’s exit from the Indian mutual fund market in 2022.

Sundaram MF is one of the few Indian AMCs headquartered outside Mumbai, reflecting its southern India commercial roots. The fund house has maintained a consistent equity investment philosophy and operated a focused product range, without the aggressive scheme proliferation seen in some larger AMCs.

Sundeep Sikka

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sundeep Sikka is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Nippon India Mutual Fund, operating through Nippon Life India Asset Management Limited (Nippon India AMC), one of India’s largest mutual fund houses by retail investor folios and assets under management. He has led the organisation through a significant ownership and rebranding transition, from its identity as Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management (when the Anil Ambani Group’s Reliance Capital held a majority stake) to its current form as a Nippon Life Insurance-majority-owned entity following a staged acquisition.

Sunil Singhania

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sunil Singhania is the founder and Managing Partner of Abakkus Asset Manager LLP, a SEBI-registered Portfolio Management Service (PMS) and Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) provider established in 2018. Before founding Abakkus, he served as Chief Investment Officer for Equities at Reliance Capital Asset Management, subsequently renamed Nippon India Mutual Fund following Nippon Life Insurance’s acquisition of a controlling stake from the Anil Ambani Group. Singhania is widely regarded as one of India’s most accomplished mid-cap equity investors, with a career spanning more than two decades in institutional fund management and a track record at Reliance AMC that placed several of its equity schemes among the best performers in their categories.

Suresh Soni

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Suresh Soni is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Baroda BNP Paribas Asset Management India Private Limited, the mutual fund operating company that manages Baroda BNP Paribas Mutual Fund. The fund house is a joint venture between Bank of Baroda, one of India’s large public sector banks, and BNP Paribas Asset Management, the asset management arm of the French banking group BNP Paribas. It was formed through the merger of the erstwhile Baroda Mutual Fund and BNP Paribas Mutual Fund in India.

Switch in mutual funds (intra-AMC, inter-scheme, inter-AMC)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A switch in the context of Indian mutual funds is a transaction in which an investor redeems units from one scheme and simultaneously uses the proceeds to subscribe to units of another scheme, without the money passing through the investor’s bank account as an intermediate step. The two legs, redemption from the source scheme and subscription into the destination scheme, are treated as a single instruction by the AMC or its Registrar and Transfer Agent (RTA), though they are legally and fiscally two separate transactions.

Systematic Investment Plan (SIP)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) is a facility offered by mutual fund schemes in India that allows an investor to invest a fixed or variable amount at predetermined regular intervals, typically monthly, though weekly, fortnightly, quarterly, and annual frequencies are also available, at the Net Asset Value (NAV) prevailing on each instalment date. Instead of deploying a large corpus in a single transaction, the investor commits to a recurring schedule of smaller contributions, spreading the purchase across multiple NAV points over time.

Systematic Transfer Plan (STP)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A Systematic Transfer Plan (STP) is a facility under which an investor periodically transfers a fixed amount or a fixed number of units from one mutual fund scheme (the source scheme) to another scheme (the destination scheme) of the same AMC at regular intervals, without the money passing through the investor’s bank account. Each STP instalment is treated as a redemption from the source scheme and a simultaneous subscription to the destination scheme.

Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP) is a facility offered by mutual fund schemes in India that enables an investor to redeem a fixed amount of money, or a fixed number of units, from their holdings at regular intervals (monthly, quarterly, or any defined frequency), with the redemption proceeds credited automatically to their registered bank account. SWP is the mirror image of a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP): while a SIP builds a corpus through periodic investments, an SWP converts a corpus into a regular income stream.

Tata Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Tata Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as Tata Asset Management Private Limited, sponsored by Tata Sons Private Limited and Tata Investment Corporation Limited. As of March 2024, the fund house managed assets exceeding Rs 1.5 lakh crore across over 50 schemes spanning equity, debt, hybrid, and passive categories. Tata Mutual Fund commenced operations in 1995 and is among the few Indian AMCs that are sponsored exclusively by domestic private sector entities without a foreign joint venture partner.

Tata Mutual Fund direct portal

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Tata Mutual Fund direct portal at tatamutualfund.com is the AMC-operated investment platform for direct plan investments in schemes managed by Tata Asset Management Limited (Tata AMC), part of the Tata Group financial services ecosystem. Tata AMC is owned by Tata Sons Private Limited and Tata Investment Corporation Limited, both entities of the Tata Group.

Tata AMC manages equity, debt, liquid, hybrid, and passive schemes. The fund house ranks among India’s mid-large AMCs by AUM. Tata AMC was an early entrant in the Indian mutual fund industry, having been operational since the 1990s.

Taxation of arbitrage funds (equity-oriented)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Taxation of arbitrage funds in India mirrors the taxation of equity-oriented mutual funds because SEBI mandates that arbitrage funds maintain at least 65% of their assets in equity (through simultaneous long cash and short futures positions), placing them within the equity-oriented classification for income-tax purposes. Capital gains on arbitrage fund units are taxed under Section 111A (STCG at 20%, effective 23 July 2024) if held for 12 months or less, or under Section 112A (LTCG at 12.5% above Rs 1,25,000) if held for more than 12 months. This tax treatment makes arbitrage funds materially more efficient than liquid funds or ultra-short-duration debt funds for investors in higher income-tax brackets, especially for parking short-term surpluses for periods of three months or more.

Taxation of debt mutual funds (post-April 2023)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Taxation of debt mutual funds in India underwent a fundamental change with effect from 1 April 2023 under the Finance Act 2023. Before that date, debt mutual fund units held for more than 36 months qualified as long-term capital assets and were taxed at 20% with the benefit of indexation under Section 48 of the Income Tax Act 1961. The Finance Act 2023 inserted the third proviso to Section 50AA (later renumbered as applicable amendments in the Schedule), which provides that the capital gains on specified mutual funds – those investing less than 65% of their assets in domestic equity – shall be treated as short-term regardless of the actual holding period, and shall be included in total income and taxed at the investor’s applicable income-tax slab rate. The regime for units acquired on or after 1 April 2023 is now uniformly slab-rate taxation with no indexation and no concept of long-term holding for such funds.

Taxation of equity mutual funds in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Taxation of equity mutual funds in India is governed principally by Sections 111A and 112A of the Income Tax Act 1961, with rates last revised by the Finance Act 2024 with effect from 23 July 2024. An equity-oriented mutual fund, as defined under Section 112A(10), is a fund that invests at least 65% of its total proceeds in equity shares of domestic companies. Capital gains on such funds are split into short-term capital gains (STCG) if the units are held for twelve months or less, and long-term capital gains (LTCG) if held for more than twelve months. As of 23 July 2024, STCG is taxed at 20% under Section 111A and LTCG exceeding Rs 1,25,000 per financial year is taxed at 12.5% under Section 112A, without the benefit of indexation. Dividend income distributed by equity funds, renamed Income Distribution cum Capital Withdrawal (IDCW) by SEBI in 2021, is taxed as ordinary income at slab rates.

Taxation of Fund of Funds (revised 2024)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Taxation of Fund of Funds (FoFs) in India was revised by the Finance Act 2024, effective 23 July 2024, to create a favourable classification for domestic equity FoFs that invest predominantly in equity-oriented domestic mutual funds. Under the pre-2024 framework, all FoFs – regardless of whether they invested in equity or debt underlying funds – were classified as non-equity and taxed either under Section 112 (LTCG with indexation, pre-April 2023) or as specified mutual funds at slab rate (post-April 2023, per Finance Act 2023). The Finance Act 2024 introduced a new sub-category: a domestic equity FoF that invests at least 90% of its assets in equity-oriented domestic mutual funds now qualifies as equity-oriented and is taxed under Sections 111A and 112A like a direct equity mutual fund.

Taxation of gold ETFs and silver ETFs in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Taxation of gold ETFs and silver ETFs in India is governed by the same framework as other “specified mutual funds” introduced by the Finance Act 2023. Gold ETFs hold physical gold (or gold-backed instruments); silver ETFs hold physical silver. Neither holds domestic equity, so both fail the 65% equity test and are classified as specified mutual funds. For units acquired on or after 1 April 2023, all capital gains are treated as short-term regardless of holding period and taxed at the investor’s income-tax slab rate. For units acquired before 1 April 2023, gains on units held for more than 36 months are LTCG at 20% with indexation under Section 112.

Taxation of hybrid mutual funds in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Taxation of hybrid mutual funds in India is determined primarily by the equity allocation of the fund, which places it into one of three tax buckets: equity-oriented (more than 65% in domestic equity), specified mutual fund (35% or less in domestic equity), or a residual intermediate category that existed briefly before the Finance Act 2023 reforms. Hybrid funds span the spectrum from aggressive hybrid funds (65-80% equity) to conservative hybrid funds (10-25% equity), and their tax treatment tracks the actual allocation rather than the category label. With the Finance Act 2023 eliminating the LTCG with indexation benefit for funds below the 65% equity threshold, and the Finance Act 2024 revising STCG and LTCG rates on equity-oriented funds, hybrid fund investors must pay particular attention to the equity allocation at the time of investment and at the time of redemption.

Taxation of international funds in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Taxation of international mutual funds in India changed fundamentally with the Finance Act 2023, which classified most internationally-oriented funds as “specified mutual funds” for units acquired on or after 1 April 2023. Before that date, international funds investing in overseas equity enjoyed the same 20%-with-indexation LTCG treatment as domestic debt funds (after a 36-month holding period). From 1 April 2023, gains on new units of international funds are treated as short-term capital gains regardless of holding period and are taxed at the investor’s income-tax slab rate with no indexation benefit.

Taxation of SIPs (FIFO method)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Taxation of Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) in India follows the same capital gains framework as lump-sum mutual fund investments, but with a critical difference in lot tracking: each SIP instalment creates a separate lot of units with its own acquisition date and purchase NAV. When units are redeemed, the tax computation must identify which lot is being redeemed and what the holding period of that lot is. The income-tax rules and mutual fund industry practice both apply the FIFO (First In, First Out) method, meaning the earliest-purchased units are treated as sold first. This creates a situation where a SIP investor who redeems a portion of their holdings may have a mix of long-term and short-term units in the same redemption transaction.

Taxation of STP transactions in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Taxation of Systematic Transfer Plan (STP) transactions in mutual funds follows the same capital gains framework as any partial redemption. An STP is a facility that automatically transfers a fixed amount (or fixed units) from one mutual fund scheme (the “source” fund) to another scheme (the “target” fund) of the same AMC at regular intervals. Each STP transfer is treated as a partial redemption from the source fund and a simultaneous fresh purchase in the target fund. Capital gains crystallise on the source-fund units redeemed at the STP transfer date, and the target-fund units acquire a new holding period starting from the transfer date. There is no provision for deferred taxation or rollover relief for STP transactions under the Income Tax Act 1961.

Taxation of SWP withdrawals from mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Taxation of Systematic Withdrawal Plan (SWP) withdrawals from mutual funds follows the standard capital gains framework applied to partial redemptions. A SWP is a facility offered by mutual fund houses that allows investors to redeem a fixed amount (or fixed number of units) at regular intervals – typically monthly, quarterly, or annually. Each SWP instalment is treated as a partial redemption of units, and capital gains (or losses) crystallise on the redeemed units at the time of each withdrawal. The FIFO method is applied to identify which lot of units is being redeemed in each instalment, and the holding period of the identified lot determines whether the gain is short-term or long-term. SWP withdrawals are fundamentally different from IDCW (dividend) distributions in their tax treatment: unlike IDCW, which is taxed at slab rates as income from the fund, SWP withdrawals return a mix of capital (original investment) and capital gains, of which only the gains element is taxable.

TDS on MF dividend (IDCW) for residents (Section 194K)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

TDS on IDCW from mutual funds for resident investors is governed by Section 194K of the Income Tax Act 1961, introduced by the Finance Act 2020 effective 1 April 2020. Section 194K requires a mutual fund to deduct tax at source at 10% on any income (specifically IDCW – Income Distribution cum Capital Withdrawal, formerly called dividend) credited or paid to a resident investor, where the aggregate IDCW from that mutual fund scheme exceeds Rs 5,000 in a financial year. IDCW income is included in the investor’s total income under Section 56(2)(i) and taxed at the applicable slab rate; the 10% TDS is a withholding that is credited against the investor’s total tax liability.

TDS on MF redemption for NRIs (Section 195)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) on mutual fund redemptions for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) is governed by Section 195 of the Income Tax Act 1961. Unlike resident investors who are not subject to TDS on capital gains from mutual fund redemptions, NRI investors are subject to TDS withheld by the fund house (AMC) at the time of redemption, before the net proceeds are credited to the investor’s NRE or NRO account. The TDS rate depends on the type of capital gain (short-term or long-term) and the fund classification (equity-oriented or non-equity), and is applied on gross redemption proceeds without deducting the Rs 1,25,000 annual LTCG exemption. Excess TDS can be reclaimed by the NRI by filing an income-tax return in India.

Total Expense Ratio (TER) regulation and slabs, Indian mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Total Expense Ratio (TER) is the annual percentage of a mutual fund scheme’s net assets that the asset management company (AMC) is permitted to charge as expenses for managing the scheme. In India, TER slabs are prescribed under Regulation 52 of the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996 and are enforced by SEBI through the Investment Management Department. The current slab framework was significantly revised by SEBI circular SEBI/HO/IMD/DF2/CIR/P/2018/137 dated 22 October 2018, effective 1 April 2019, which reduced maximum permissible TERs for larger schemes and introduced a performance-linked additional TER for B30 cities. TER is the single largest determinant of the net return received by investors in the long run; regulatory compression of TER since 2012 has been one of SEBI’s most impactful investor protection measures.

Total expense ratio in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The total expense ratio (TER) is the annual charge that a mutual fund levies on its scheme’s assets to recover all costs of running the fund, expressed as a percentage of the scheme’s average daily net assets (AUM). It is the single most important cost number investors should examine before selecting a fund, because it is deducted from returns every day before the net asset value (NAV) is published.

What the TER covers

SEBI regulations (Regulation 52 of the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, as amended) permit a mutual fund to recover the following expenses from scheme assets:

Tracking difference in index funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Tracking difference is the cumulative return of an index fund’s benchmark minus the fund’s cumulative return over a specified period, expressed in percentage points. Unlike tracking error (the standard deviation of periodic return differences), tracking difference is a single signed number that directly measures the magnitude of the fund’s under- or over-performance relative to its benchmark over the full measurement period.

Tracking difference is arguably the more investor-relevant metric for cost comparison among passive funds: it shows the actual wealth impact of owning the fund relative to the benchmark, not just the volatility of daily deviations.

Tracking error in index funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Tracking error is the annualised standard deviation of the difference between a mutual fund’s periodic returns and the returns of its benchmark index over the same period. It is the primary metric for evaluating how accurately an index fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) replicates its target benchmark. A tracking error of zero would imply perfect replication, in practice, every fund has some non-zero tracking error driven by costs, cash drag, and rebalancing lags.

Trail commission in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Trail commission is an ongoing, recurring fee paid by an AMC (or from the scheme’s regular plan expense structure) to a mutual fund distributor as long as the investor’s assets remain invested through that distributor. Trail commission is expressed as a percentage of the investor’s daily average assets under management (AUM) and is accrued daily by the AMC, then paid to the distributor periodically (typically monthly).

Trail commission is the primary (and from 2018, the only permissible) form of distributor remuneration in India, following SEBI’s ban on upfront commissions.

Transmission of mutual fund units on death

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Transmission of mutual fund units is the process by which the ownership of mutual fund units held by a deceased unitholder is transferred to the nominee registered in the folio, or in the absence of nomination, to the legal heirs of the deceased as established by succession law. Transmission is distinct from a switch or redemption; it is not a transaction initiated by the investor but a post-death legal process initiated by the claimant(s) upon providing proof of death and identity to the AMC or its Registrar and Transfer Agent (RTA).

Treynor ratio in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Treynor ratio (also called the reward-to-volatility ratio or Treynor measure) is a risk-adjusted performance measure that divides a fund’s excess return (return above the risk-free rate) by its beta, a measure of systematic market risk, rather than by total standard deviation as in the Sharpe ratio. Developed by Jack Treynor in 1965, it is based on the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) framework and is appropriate when the mutual fund is evaluated as a component within a larger, well-diversified portfolio.

Trigger-based investing in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Trigger-based investing in mutual funds refers to a facility through which an investor pre-defines a specific condition (the trigger) that, when met, automatically executes a prescribed transaction, a switch, redemption, or additional purchase, without requiring manual intervention at the time of execution. Triggers are supported by some AMCs and platforms as a convenience feature for investors who have a clear view of the conditions under which they wish to change their investment position.

Trust as MF investor

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A trust as a mutual fund investor refers to any public or private trust constituted under the Indian Trusts Act, 1882, or under state public charitable trust legislation, that invests corpus or surplus funds in units of SEBI-registered mutual fund schemes. Trusts are a common vehicle for long-term wealth preservation in India, and their investment activity in mutual funds is governed by the trust deed, applicable law, and the investment guidelines issued by the Income Tax Department for registered trusts.

Ultra-short-duration mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An ultra-short-duration mutual fund in India is an open-ended debt scheme that must maintain a portfolio Macaulay duration of 3 to 6 months, under SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular. This duration band places ultra-short funds between the near-zero duration of liquid funds and overnight funds on one side, and the 6-12 month duration of low-duration funds on the other. Ultra-short funds are commonly used as a higher-return alternative to liquid funds for investors with slightly longer holding horizons (1 to 6 months) who can tolerate marginally more interest rate and credit risk.

Unclaimed Mutual Fund Redemption and Dividends in India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Unclaimed redemption proceeds and dividends in Indian mutual funds refer to amounts generated by investor redemptions or dividend declarations that could not be credited to the investor’s registered bank account and subsequently remained unclaimed by the investor. SEBI’s framework for managing unclaimed mutual fund proceeds has evolved through multiple circulars, culminating in a regime that requires AMCs to invest unclaimed amounts in a specified manner, attempt investor outreach, and ultimately transfer long-standing unclaimed amounts to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF).

Unit Trust of India

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Unit Trust of India (UTI) was a statutory body established under the Unit Trust of India Act, 1963, by the Government of India in partnership with the Reserve Bank of India. It operated from 1964 until its bifurcation under the Unit Trust of India (Transfer of Undertaking and Repeal) Act, 2002. UTI was India’s first and, for over two decades, its only mutual fund entity, mobilising household savings through its network of agents and unit offices across the country. At its peak in the late 1990s, UTI managed assets of approximately Rs 78,000 crore and held unit accounts for tens of millions of small investors.

Upfront commission in mutual funds, banned in 2018

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An upfront commission in mutual funds was a one-time payment made by an AMC to a distributor at the time of initial investment as a percentage of the amount invested by the investor through that distributor. Unlike trail commission, which is paid on an ongoing basis as long as assets remain invested, upfront commission was paid immediately upon subscription irrespective of how long the investor held the investment.

SEBI banned upfront commissions on mutual fund investments through Circular SEBI/HO/IMD/DF2/CIR/P/2018/137 (dated 22 October 2018), with effect from 1 October 2018, transitioning the distribution industry to a trail-only commission model.

UPI AutoPay for SIPs in Indian Mutual Funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

UPI AutoPay is a recurring payment mandate facility on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) infrastructure, developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and launched commercially in 2020. For mutual fund Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs), UPI AutoPay enables investors to register a recurring debit mandate on their bank account in real time using any UPI-enabled application, without visiting a bank branch or submitting physical forms. UPI AutoPay’s instant activation, frictionless mobile experience, and broad ecosystem integration have made it the dominant SIP registration mechanism for new investors from 2021 onwards, displacing the NACH e-mandate system that previously served this function.

Upside capture ratio in mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The upside capture ratio measures how much of a benchmark index’s positive return a mutual fund captures when the benchmark delivers a gain. It is the counterpart of the downside capture ratio and is computed using only the months (or periods) in which the benchmark posted a positive return. A ratio above 100 means the fund rose more than the benchmark during up markets, an indicator of upside participation, while a ratio below 100 indicates the fund lagged the benchmark even in favourable conditions.

Upstox mutual fund platform

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Upstox’s mutual fund platform is the mutual fund investment feature integrated into the Upstox discount broking application, operated by RKSV Securities India Private Limited (trading as Upstox), accessible at upstox.com and through the Upstox Android and iOS apps. Upstox holds an AMFI ARN registration enabling it to distribute direct plan and regular plan mutual fund schemes from participating AMCs as part of its broader financial services offering.

Upstox is a large Indian discount broker, consistently ranking among India’s top five stockbrokers by NSE-active client count. The company is backed by Tiger Global Management, Ratan Tata, and GIC (Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund).

UTI Master Index Fund (1998), India's first index fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

UTI Master Index Fund, launched in 1998 by the Unit Trust of India, was India’s first passive index-tracking mutual fund. Structured as an open-end scheme that replicated the composition of the BSE Sensex (the Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark 30-stock index), the fund offered investors proportionate exposure to India’s large-cap equity market at lower cost than active equity funds, without relying on a fund manager’s stock-selection decisions. Its launch predated the Nifty BeES ETF of December 2001 by approximately three years, making it the foundational product in the history of passive investing in India.

UTI Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

UTI Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as UTI Asset Management Company Limited (UTI AMC), and the institutional successor to the market-linked mutual fund business of the Unit Trust of India following the statutory bifurcation in 2003. The AMC manages assets across equity, debt, hybrid, passive, and solution-oriented categories. As of March 2024, UTI AMC managed assets in excess of Rs 2.8 lakh crore and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange following its IPO in September–October 2020.

UTI Mutual Fund direct portal

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The UTI Mutual Fund direct portal at utimf.com is the AMC-operated investment platform for direct plan investments in schemes managed by UTI Asset Management Company Limited (UTI AMC), one of India’s oldest and largest asset management companies. UTI AMC traces its institutional lineage to the Unit Trust of India, the government-sponsored investment entity established under the Unit Trust of India Act 1963, which dominated Indian mutual fund investing for several decades before deregulation.

UTI Mutual Fund IPO (2020)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The UTI Asset Management Company Limited IPO of October 2020 was the initial public offering of India’s oldest and historically most prominent asset management company, bringing to public markets an institution that traced its lineage to the Unit Trust of India Act of 1963. The IPO listed UTI AMC on both the National Stock Exchange of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange on 12 October 2020, at a price of Rs 500 per share, implying a market capitalisation of approximately Rs 6,357 crore at the time of listing. The offering followed the HDFC AMC IPO of 2018, which had established a market precedent for the valuation of asset-light fund management businesses in India.

UTI US-64 crisis (2001)

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The UTI US-64 crisis of July 2001 was a systemic failure of Unit Trust of India’s flagship US-64 scheme that forced an emergency suspension of repurchases, a government-funded bailout exceeding Rs 14,500 crore, and a fundamental restructuring of India’s oldest and largest mutual fund organisation. The crisis exposed the dangers of offering guaranteed or price-supported returns to retail investors through vehicles that lacked mark-to-market accounting, concentrated equity exposures, and transparent governance. It triggered the eventual dissolution of UTI as a unified statutory body, compelled sweeping regulatory amendments by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, and reshaped investor expectations of the mutual fund industry in India for the subsequent decade.

Value mutual fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A value mutual fund in India is an open-ended equity scheme that must follow a value investment strategy – selecting stocks that are trading at a discount to their estimated intrinsic value – and maintain a minimum of 65% of its total assets in equity and equity-related instruments. SEBI’s October 2017 scheme categorisation circular mandated that value funds be distinct from growth, blend, or other investment-style funds, requiring AMCs to specify and adhere to a value investment philosophy in their scheme information documents. Each AMC may operate only one value fund or one contra fund (but not both).

Vetri Subramaniam

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Vetri Subramaniam is the Chief Investment Officer of UTI Asset Management Company Limited (UTI AMC), one of India’s oldest and historically most significant mutual fund houses, a position he has held since 2017. Before joining UTI AMC, he served as Head of Equities at Invesco Asset Management India (formerly Religare Invesco AMC). He is known for his disciplined, valuation-conscious equity investment philosophy, his willingness to hold higher cash or defensive positions during periods of market overvaluation, and his direct and data-driven public commentary on market conditions.

Vinit Sambre

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Vinit Sambre is the Head of Equities and a senior fund manager at DSP Investment Managers Private Limited, the entity operating DSP Mutual Fund. He is best known as the lead fund manager of DSP Small Cap Fund, one of India’s more recognised small-cap mutual fund offerings, which he has managed for over a decade. He has been with DSP for an extended tenure, contributing to the AMC’s equity investment process across small-cap and mid-cap mandates.

Wealthy.in

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Wealthy.in is an Indian direct mutual fund investment platform and SEBI-registered investment adviser (RIA), accessible at wealthy.in. The platform offers commission-free direct plan investing in mutual fund schemes from all major AMCs, alongside NPS (National Pension System) investing and financial planning tools. Wealthy.in targets self-directed investors who prefer a clean, direct-plan interface without the premium subscriptions or bundled services of larger platforms.

Wealthy.in is operated by Parsec Technologies Private Limited and holds a SEBI RIA registration and an AMFI ARN registration, consistent with other direct-plan advisory platforms such as Kuvera and ET Money.

WhiteOak Capital Mutual Fund

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

WhiteOak Capital Mutual Fund is an Indian asset management company, formally incorporated as WhiteOak Capital Asset Management Limited, and one of the newer entrants to the regulated Indian mutual fund industry, having received SEBI registration and commenced scheme operations in 2022. The fund house is sponsored and led by Prashant Khemka, who previously served as Lead Portfolio Manager for Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s India and emerging market equity strategies, and subsequently founded White Oak Capital Management as a portfolio management service entity in 2017 before converting it into a mutual fund.

Yes Bank AT1 bond writedown impact on mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Yes Bank AT1 bond writedown of March 2020 was a regulatory action by the Reserve Bank of India under a Yes Bank crisis resolution scheme that reduced the value of approximately Rs 8,415 crore of Yes Bank’s Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bonds to zero. For Indian mutual fund schemes and other institutional investors that held these instruments, the writedown caused immediate, total, and permanent NAV losses on that exposure. The episode raised fundamental questions about the risk classification, disclosure, and distribution of AT1 instruments in Indian markets and prompted the Securities and Exchange Board of India to impose new restrictions on mutual fund holdings of AT1 and Tier 2 bank bonds.

Yield to maturity for debt mutual funds

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Yield to maturity (YTM) of a debt mutual fund is the weighted average internal rate of return (IRR) of all the bonds held in the portfolio, assuming each bond is held until maturity, all coupon payments are received on schedule, and all principal amounts are repaid in full. It represents the pre-expense annual return the portfolio is expected to generate, expressed as a percentage per annum. YTM is a forward-looking expected return estimate, not a historical return.

Mutual funds on Zerodha (Coin)

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Coin is Zerodha’s mutual fund investment platform, operated as part of the Zerodha product suite. Launched in 2017, Coin allows investors to buy and sell direct-plan mutual fund units without paying any distributor commission. All units purchased through Coin are held in the investor’s demat account at CDSL rather than in a foliostatement form with the Asset Management Company (AMC). Coin is accessible through the Coin mobile application, the Coin website (coin.zerodha.com), and from within Kite’s sidebar.

Zerodha Fund House

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Zerodha Fund House is the registered mutual fund brand (the name of the SEBI-registered mutual fund trust) operated by Zerodha AMC Private Limited, a member of the Zerodha group of financial services companies. Launched in 2023, Zerodha Fund House offers a range of passive index funds and debt schemes, distributed primarily through Zerodha’s own Coin platform and the major mutual fund exchange platforms.

The brand name distinguishes the investor-facing mutual fund trust from its asset management company. In Indian regulatory terminology, the AMC manages funds on behalf of the trust, and investors purchase units in the trust’s schemes. Zerodha Fund House is thus the name under which scheme information documents, key information memoranda, and unit confirmations are issued.