More often than not, we end up putting funds available for low-risk investments into fixed deposits with banks or in government small savings schemes, some of which may even have tax benefits.
Given the conservative approach of Indian investors, a large part of their investments comprises debt or fixed income products. It, therefore, becomes important to understand what the options are. The debt markets are not limited to just fixed deposits, giving investors many other choices. While equity mutual funds have many advantages, debt oriented mutual fund schemes are more important as there are many investment alternatives like Commercial Papers, Corporate Bonds etc. that are not directly available to individual investors. This is primarily because such products deal in minimum ticket sizes of Rs 5 crore and are more suited for institutional investment.
