Index funds in India

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Index funds in India are passive open-ended mutual funds that replicate a recognised market index by holding its constituent securities in the same weights, regulated by SEBI under the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations 1996 . They are the principal passive vehicle in the Indian fund industry alongside exchange-traded funds , aiming to match an index return minus a small expense ratio rather than beat it.

Passive assets in India, index funds plus ETFs, crossed about Rs 14 lakh crore by December 2025, roughly 17 per cent of total mutual fund industry assets, per AMFI monthly data. That share was in the low single digits a decade earlier. The growth tracks three forces: the 2013 arrival of direct plans , which stripped distributor commission out of the expense ratio; rising awareness that most large-cap active funds lag their benchmark net of fees; and a steady fall in index-fund TER to the 0.05 to 0.30 per cent band on direct plans.

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 Index Fund on WebNotes

Index funds in India

NIFTY 50 index fund