Starting today, our readers will notice a big change on our website, as well as in Value Research's publications. Our fund categorisation system has undergone a massive change, which is the biggest single overhaul it has had since it was first started in 19XX. This change is not voluntary--it was triggered by a complete reorganisation of fund types that has been enforced by the market regulator SEBI. There are pluses as well as minuses of SEBI's action, but on the whole, it should be a positive for fund investors.
The table below gives you an idea of how things have changed. There are a few things we would like to point out:
- We have not followed the SEBI system precisely. We have distributed the official 'Focussed', Index/ETF, Funds of Funds, and 'Solution-Oriented' funds into whichever categories they fitted in as per their portfolio. We believe this serves investors' needs much better.
- You will notice that our star ratings have changed substantially. This is inevitable, as these ratings are category-wise and the categories have changed extensively.
- A small number of funds which used to be rated earlier are no longer rated. There are two reasons for this:
- Some funds' basic characteristics have changed. In these cases, the funds will be rated only when they have built up a long enough track-record in their new avatar. This is 18 months for debt funds and 3 years for equity and hybrid funds.
- We do not rate categories that are smaller than ten funds as the sample for comparison has to be a certain minimum size. Since, under the new system, there are a larger number of generally smaller categories, many funds which were formerly rated are now in small categories.
Roughly Equivalent Categories
| Old Category | Funds | New Category | Funds |
| Debt: Banking and PSU | 17 | ||
| Debt: Corporate Bond | 19 | ||
| Debt: Credit Opportunities | 25 | Debt: Credit Risk | 18 |
| Debt: Dynamic Bond | 22 | Debt: Dynamic Bond | 28 |
| Debt: Floater | 6 | ||
| Debt: FMP | 805 | Debt: FMP | 805 |
| Debt: Gilt Short Term | 4 | Debt: Gilt | 26 |
| Debt: Gilt Medium & Long Term | 29 | Debt: Gilt with 10 year Constant Duration | 5 |
| Debt: Liquid | 52 | Debt: Liquid | 39 |
| Debt: Long Duration | 2 | ||
| Debt: Low Duration | 26 | ||
| Debt: Medium Duration | 17 | ||
| Debt: Medium to Long Duration | 17 | ||
| Debt: Money Market | 14 | ||
| Debt: Overnight | 4 | ||
| Debt: Short Term | 43 | Debt: Short Duration | 32 |
| Debt: Ultra Short Term | 59 | Debt: Ultra Short Duration | 20 |
| Debt: Income | 54 | ||
| Equity: Tax Saving | 69 | Equity: ELSS | 68 |
| Equity: International | 39 | Equity: International | 39 |
| Equity: Large & MidCap | 22 | ||
| Equity: Large Cap | 131 | Equity: Large Cap | 111 |
| Equity: Mid Cap | 67 | Equity: Mid Cap | 30 |
| Equity: Multi Cap | 124 | Equity: Multi Cap | 121 |
| Equity: Banking | 19 | Equity: Sectoral-Banking | 19 |
| Equity: FMCG | 2 | Equity: Sectoral-FMCG | 2 |
| Equity: Infrastructure | 21 | Equity: Sectoral-Infrastructure | 22 |
| Equity: Pharma | 6 | Equity: Sectoral-Pharma | 6 |
| Equity: Technology | 5 | Equity: Sectoral-Technology | 5 |
| Equity: Small Cap | 37 | Equity: Small Cap | 37 |
| Equity: Thematic | 13 | ||
| Equity: Thematic-Consumption | 8 | ||
| Equity: Thematic-Dividend Yield | 5 | ||
| Equity: Thematic-Energy | 4 | ||
| Equity: Thematic-MNC | 3 | ||
| Equity: Thematic-PSU | 3 | ||
| Equity: Value Oriented | 16 | ||
| Equity: Others | 26 | ||
| Hybrid: Equity-oriented | 57 | Hybrid: Aggressive Hybrid | 38 |
| Hybrid: Arbitrage | 20 | Hybrid: Arbitrage | 20 |
| Hybrid: Balanced Advantage | 2 | ||
| Hybrid: Debt-oriented Aggressive | 40 | Hybrid: Balanced Hybrid | 12 |
| Hybrid: Debt-oriented Conservative | 211 | Hybrid: Conservative Hybrid | 241 |
| Hybrid: Asset Allocation | 9 | Hybrid: Dynamic Asset Allocation | 17 |
| Hybrid: Equity Savings | 16 | ||
| Hybrid: Multi Asset Allocation | 16 | ||
| Hybrid: Others | 15 | ||
| Gold: Funds | 23 | Commodities: Gold | 23 |