After FMCG companies and manufacturers of two-wheelers and small cars, it's the mutual fund industry that is making serious moves to step outside of India and reach out to Bharat. In a marked departure from the age-old tradition of English names for investment schemes, mutual fund houses are launching plans with Hindi names so that people in rural and semi-rural areas could easily connect with the schemes' objectives.
In the last four days, Mahindra Mutual Fund, the latest entrant in the fund space, and Reliance Mutual Fund, the third largest fund house in terms of assets, filed with Sebi to launch schemes named 'Kar Bachat Yojana', a tax saving fund, 'Bal Vikas Yojana', a balanced scheme aimed at saving for children's future, along with 'Bachat Yojana' and 'Nivesh Lakshya', both low-risk fixed-income schemes. The fund houses have thought up names like these to reach out to people outside of the metros and cities, that is, mainly the towns and villages. "People in towns and villages do not understand anything about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc. So funds need to reach out to them through the language they understand," said the head of a local fund house. Ashutosh Bishnoi, MD, Mahindra MF, said, "We are aiming at a wider reach with such names. That's why we are selecting words in Hindi which have strong 'Sanskrit' roots."
Currently, only about one-sixth of the Rs 13.5-lakh-crore MF industry operates beyond the top 15 Indian cities. The aim is to expand this pie with some fund houses taking the lead.
