FII means an institution established or incorporated outside India, which proposes to make investments in Indian securities and is registered with SEBI.

Yes. NRI’s can maintain accounts in rupees as well as in foreign currency. Accounts in foreign currencies can, however be maintained in India with authorized dealers only.

Yes. The following summary outlines the various provisions related to investments by Non-Resident Indians (‘NRIs’), Persons of Indian Origin (‘PIOs’) and Foreign Institutional Investors (‘FIIs’) in the Schemes of the Mutual Fund and is based on the relevant provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (‘the Act’), regulations issued under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 (collectively called ‘the relevant provisions’).

NRIs can invest in Mutual funds on a Repatriable/Non-Repatriable basis as per the provisions of Schedule 5 of the Foreign Exchange Management (Transfer or issue of Security by a Person Resident Outside India) Regulations, 2000 (‘the Regulations’) as explained below.

A Common Application Form duly completed along with cheque or bank drafts should be submitted at Investor Service Centres. The cheque should be made payable at a city where the application is accepted.

A Mutual Fund is a body corporate registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), that pools up the money from individual / corporate investors and invests the same on behalf of the investors /unit holders, in equity shares, Government securities, Bonds, Call money markets etc., and distributes the profits. In other words, a mutual fund allows an investor to indirectly take a position in a basket of assets

Even in the US the concept of mutual funds has started picking up only in the last decade. This whole process of investor education and investor awareness takes a lot of time. But Indian investors are now beginning to understand the benefits of investing through the mutual funds route and hence the collections are beginning to pick up.

Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is the regulatory body for all the mutual funds mentioned above. All the mutual funds must get registered with SEBI. The only exception is the UTI, since it is a corporation formed under a separate Act of Parliament.

For a retail investor who does not have the time and expertise to analyze and invest in stocks and bonds, mutual funds offer a viable investment alternative. This is because:

• Mutual Funds provide the benefit of cheap access to expensive stocks
• Mutual funds diversify the risk of the investor by investing in a basket of assets
• A team of professional fund managers manages them with in-depth research inputs from investment analysts.
• Being institutions with good bargaining power in markets, mutual funds have access to crucial corporate information which individual investors cannot access.