Anurag Garg, CFA

NPS 2025 Rule Overhaul — Key Reforms - Major changes to make NPS more flexible, liquid and attractive compared to older rigid rules. - Designed to address long lock-ins, compulsory annuity barriers and limited investment choice. Exit & Withdrawal Flexibility a. Higher Lump Sum at Retirement - At retirement, subscribers can now withdraw up to 80% of the total corpus as a lump sum. - Only the remaining 20% is required to be used for annuity (pension). - For smaller retirement balances (up to ₹8 lakh approx), 100% can be withdrawn with no mandatory annuity. b. Earlier Exit Option - You can exit your NPS account after 15 years, even before reaching retirement age. c. Systematic Unit Redemption (SUR) - Option for structured withdrawals over time instead of a single lump sum. d. More Partial Withdrawals - Increased number of permitted partial withdrawals for specific needs (such as education, illness, etc.). Compulsory Annuity Requirement Reduced - Previously, a larger portion of corpus had to be used to buy pension annuity plans. - Now, only 20% of the retirement corpus needs to be annuitized, giving more cash in hand at retirement. Enhanced Investment Options a. 100% Equity Allocation - Subscribers can now choose to allocate 100% of their contributions to equities (previous cap was lower). - This provides potential for higher long-term returns but also higher market risk. b. Multiple Scheme Framework (MSF) - Allows creation of multiple sub-accounts within the same NPS account for different investment strategies. Extended Age of Participation - You can now stay invested in NPS up to age 85 (previously up to age 75), allowing for longer wealth accumulation. Liquidity & Process Improvements - Lock-in barriers reduced. - Streamlined exit and withdrawal processes compared to earlier rigid rules. Tax Considerations - The tax benefit structure remains, but treatment of additional withdrawal flexibility may be clarified further in future tax rules. Practical Examples Example 1 — Mid-Career Professional - Joined NPS at age 30. - After 15 years (age 45), eligible for early exit. - At retirement (age 60) with ₹12 lakh corpus: ₹9.6 lakh (80%) available as a lump sum. ₹2.4 lakh (20%) used for annuity pension. Example 2 — Small Corpus - If retirement corpus is ₹7 lakh: - 100% withdrawal allowed with no compulsory annuity. Example 3 — Young Investor Seeking Growth - Chooses 100% equity allocation at age 25: - More potential growth over time. - Also higher exposure to market volatility. Why These Changes Matter - Greater flexibility: More lump sum, earlier exit options. - Better liquidity: Structured withdrawals and increased partial withdrawals. - Personalisation: Tailored asset allocation choices including 100% equity. - Extended time horizon: Longer accumulation period up to age 85.

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Arjun Guha Thakurta, Executive Director & Unit Head, Mumbai shares his thoughts with The Economic Times on asset allocation strategy for mothers planning their futures, it’s time to move from instinct to insight—with data-led, goal-aligned investing.

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SEBI recently forced Active MFs to disclose their performance using the metric of 'Information Ratio'. The performance is terrible across all categories of Active MFs -- Largecap, Midcap and Smallcap Active MFs This is a short clip from my recent hour-long presentation about '20 Reasons to Invest in Index Funds'

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Thrilled to announce the launch of Ironclad Ventures Fund, our second investment product under Ironclad Asset Management — a ₹200 Cr SEBI-approved fund dedicated to Employee Secondaries. Why does this matter? In India, most venture-backed startups allocate 5–15% of their cap tables to ESOPs, yet liquidity for employees is rare and ad-hoc. For too long, ESOPs have been treated as “paper money,” leading to weaker belief in equity ownership and misaligned incentives. Ironclad Ventures is built to change that. We partner with leading VC-backed startups to offer structured, repeatable liquidity programs, so employees can partially monetize their equity while continuing to hold long-term upside. This liquidity massively increases employees' belief in ESOPs. For companies, this reduces the pressure to constantly increase cash salaries, strengthens retention, and sends a credible signal of wealth creation via ESOPs to future hires. We will take a diversified approach — backing 30–40 high-quality startups across fintech, consumer, SaaS, AI, and digital infrastructure with small ESOP secondary cheques of ₹1–4 Cr for Seed to Series B startups. Our aim is simple: 1. Improve the belief that employees have in ESOPs and unlock some wealth for the people building India’s breakout companies 2. Preserve founder alignment and cap-table integrity 3. Enable Indian HNIs & family offices to access the innovation economy This launch follows the success of our first product, the Ironclad Flexicap PMS, which has grown capital at ~20% since inception in Jan 2025, in a difficult year for capital markets. With Ironclad Ventures, we extend our disciplined investment philosophy into private markets. #Ironclad AMC #VentureCapital #ESOPs #Secondaries #WealthCreation #InnovationEconomy https://lnkd.in/gqWkh_-m

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We have ~1 crore Indians with ₹1 crore+ in investible wealth, but only 10,853 relationship managers (RMs) across the entire industry. That's nearly 1,000 wealthy families per RM. While wealth management in India races toward $2.3 trillion in assets under management by 2029, the math is stark, we have a massive talent deficit. So we're taking the harder path—the better path. This month, we welcomed our latest batch of 96 Management Trainees at Dezerv, bright and hungry minds from India's top B-schools who now represent 20% of our workforce and, more importantly, a small but important part of the future of wealth management in India. Developing full-service private banking professionals demanded we rethink training entirely. We assembled teams from investments, client relations, product, tech, governance, and compliance to design our MT program from scratch, what we believe is the most comprehensive in the industry. The result? A program mastering first principles, from capital markets foundations and portfolio construction science to the ethics of fiduciary advice. Our most experienced RMs are dedicating 4-5 hours daily mentoring them through real client interactions, teaching them to "see the chessboard" across every asset class and risk premium. Because wealth management ultimately solves one problem: preserve and compound a client family's total balance-sheet, across generations, while removing friction and anxiety. It's painstaking. It's resource-intensive. But it's what this industry desperately needs. As someone who's spent two decades in this space, I know that great wealth managers aren't born, they're carefully crafted. And that investment in human capital? It's the most important one we make. Kudos to the entire team who've worked tirelessly behind this initiative: Smitha Channabasavaiah, Aditya Surana, Sonal Singh, Suhail Vadgaokar, Jigme Bhutia, Aditya Jain, Meghraj Ghogre, Vivek Gupta, Shyla Mathur, Nikhil Ramesh, Avinaash Modi, Krishna B S #Fintech #WealthManagement #Leadership #Dezerv #FutureOfFinance #Relationship

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No more windfall cheques. SEBI wants distributors to earn it the hard way. On 8th August 2025, SEBI scrapped the “transaction fee” that AMCs paid distributors on investments above ₹10,000. Sounds big? In practice, it wasn’t. Distributors earned a flat ₹100–150 per subscription — whether the cheque was ₹10,000 or ₹1,00,000. Compare that with trail commissions: typically 0.5%–1% of AUM annually (₹500–1,000 every year per lakh invested). That’s where the real money sits. So yes — this transaction fee was more a rounding error than a business model. Why SEBI killed it anyway Because symbolism matters. Extra fees, no matter how small, complicate the structure and quietly drag investor returns. Scrapping them signals a clean shift: - Distributors are agents of AMCs, already compensated via commissions. - Investors deserve transparency — every rupee working for them, not funding redundant payouts. - The industry moves firmly toward a trail-only, relationship-driven model. Mutual fund distribution in India is now about playing the long game. You don’t get paid for bringing in a big cheque once. You get paid for keeping clients invested, building trust, and growing AUM year after year. SEBI just buried the last shortcut. From here on, only advice-driven businesses will thrive. #SEBI #MutualFunds #Investing #WealthManagement #Distributors

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How Long Can a Good Fund Underperform Its Benchmark? -- We show that even a very skilled manager would, over a span of 100yrs, underperform their benchmark for a period of 20yrs at some point during that time. -- The standard performance-measurement periods, such as 3, 5, or 10yrs, are far too short to evaluate a manager w/ confidence. via Morningstar

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₹10 crore in Nifty made ₹90 lakh Same money in PE made ₹2.2 crore While the Nifty 50 yielded 9% returns in 2024, private equity funds generated 22%, but 92% of rich Indians never invested in PE. After 25 years of experience in this industry, I saw the biggest money shift in Indian history last year. Big investors put ₹3.6 lakh crore into private companies while most wealthy Indians stuck to the same old investments. Here's what happened: → Private equity deals grew 9% in 2024 → Startups funding doubled to $6 billion → Real estate private deals jumped 70% → Foreign funds poured record money into India The crazy part? 87 out of 100 top global funds are now investing in India. Blackstone wants to double their India money from $50 billion to $100 billion. But rich Indians have less than 10% of their money going to private investments. Rich people in Singapore and Dubai put their 25-30% in private deals. The pattern is crystal clear across every client I have advised - successful business owners who can spot opportunities in their industries but go completely blind when it comes to their own wealth allocation. Meanwhile, institutional money is making moves: → Kedaara raised ₹14,000 crore - oversubscribed instantly → ChrysCapital closed ₹17,500 crore - the largest Indian PE fund ever → Control deals now dominate 51% of total PE investments Traditional wealth managers can't access these opportunities. They are limited to selling mutual funds and insurance when you need institutional-grade solutions. As in 2025, minimum investment thresholds are climbing. Premium deals are becoming exclusive to larger tickets. The wealth creation gap between informed and traditional investors is widening at breakneck speed. Your next ₹10 crore shouldn't go where your first ₹10 crore went. Follow me (Vikrant Agarwal) for more insights on private markets, AIFs, and exclusive investment opportunities. #PrivateEquity #WealthCreation #AlternativeInvestments 

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We’re excited to share our blog on Premji Invest’s recent investment in Baseten. In it, Vedant Agrawal breaks down the key questions we had to answer—why now and why Baseten—and offers insights into how we track markets, build conviction, and decide when it’s the right time to lean in. High-level takeaways: 👉 Inference optimization as a point solution quickly becomes a race to the bottom. Baseten is different: it delivers a reliable, developer-centered inference system with strong stickiness and pricing power. 1⃣ We waited for the right moment In early 2024, inference infrastructure was crowded and chaotic with dozens of startups chasing narrow optimizations. We held back until lasting market traction emerged. 2⃣ The market matured, and Baseten stood out As the field narrowed, Baseten differentiated itself with enterprise-grade, model-agnostic, cloud-agnostic reliability and deep customer integration. 3⃣ Reliability, workflow, and sticky enterprise traction With 99.99–99.999% uptime across regions, Baseten is built on trust, not just speed. Its developer-first tools embed directly into engineering workflows, creating durable attachment. 4⃣ A level beyond what hyperscalers can offer Beyond compute and storage, Baseten provides redundancy, versioning, autoscaling, and rollback features that matter even more in the wake of recent cloud outages. 5⃣ A strong team and thoughtful business model Founders Tuhin Srivastava, Amir Haghighat, and Philip Howes embody enterprise discipline and product depth. The model scales without owning hardware, and with leaders like Dannie Herzberg driving go-to-market, enterprise adoption looks compelling. Read the full post here: https://lnkd.in/gS92F_BW Premji Invest - US Premji Invest

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EPFO to auto-settlement from ₹1L to ₹5L. Once its proposal are approved by Central Board of Trustees (CBT) EPFO would launch this feature. 💰 The new ₹5L auto-settlement is 5X the previous limit and processes within 72 hours, not weeks 🔑 Success secret: Your UAN must be activated and linked to Aadhaar, PAN and bank account with IFSC code - most people miss this step 📱 Medical claims now need digital certificates, while housing needs ownership proof - upload through e-Sewa portal before applying ⚠️ Don't touch PF for expenses you can plan by other investments. Shared SahajMoney® view on this development with Sanjeeb Baruah for readers of Dainik Bhaskar English. Ever had money locked away when you desperately needed it? What's your emergency fund strategy? LinkedIn Guide to Creating LinkedIn News India

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The 2015-18 vintage of India-focused PE/VC funds is wrapping up, with public markets driving historic exits. Top-tier funds achieved stellar 3.5x-4.0x Net DPIs through strategic ownership, timely exits, and a focus on profitable leaders. Meanwhile, median and lower-quartile funds struggled, delivering 1.0x-2.5x due to dilution and poor sector bets. In 2024, IPOs raised ₹1.23 lakh crore, with 68% from Offer for Sale (OFS), reflecting a market prioritizing exits over growth funding. By 2025, investors demand profitability and reasonable valuations, creating a two-tier market. The Indian PE/VC landscape is reset, with new funds prioritizing unit economics and conservative valuations. #PrivateEquity #VentureCapital #IndianMarkets #IPO #Investing #Finance #CapitalMarkets #BusinessStrategy #InvestmentTrends #IndiaEconomy

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GIFT AIF vs. Domestic AIF: A Strategic Guide for Fund Managers For fund managers, choosing between GIFT or Domestic AIF structures is a strategic decision. While both geographically operate from India, they represent fundamentally different regulatory universes, currency frameworks, and operational issues. The following outlines some of the key distinctions—though it is important to note that this is not an exhaustive list, and many more nuances exist. 1. Governing Regulator & Regulations: GIFT AIF: Regulator is IFSCA Domestic AIF: in contrast, is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India 2. Minimum Corpus and investor ticket size: GIFT : Restricted schemes must have a corpus of at least USD 3 million with general minimum ticket size of each investor being USD 1,50,000. Domestic AIF schemes are required to raise at least ₹20 crore with general minimum ticket size of each investor being at least INR 1 crore.   3. Platform Play (Third-Party Fund Management) GIFT: IFSCA explicitly permits Third-Party Fund Management allowing regulated global managers to “plug and play” via an FME Domestic: SEBI regulations do not provide an equivalent platform construct. 4. Currency & Capital. GIFT AIFs: operates in freely convertible foreign currency (primarily USD), allowing for easy pooling of foreign capital. Critically, transactions within GIFT & outside India are not considered as transactions between person resident in India & person resident outside India. Domestic AIF: operates in INR, where inbound foreign capital is subject to FEMA regs. 5. Investor Base: GIFT: GIFT inbound funds are optimized for non-resident/foreign capital seeking exposure of Indian markets . GIFT outbound funds are optimized to provide Indian residents an environment with fewer FEMA restrictions. Domestic: naturally suit India-resident capital and purely India-focused mandates 6. Investment Scope : GIFT AIF: has a Global Mandate, allowing it to invest freely in India, overseas, or a combination of both, offering significant diversification. Domestic: primarily Domestic Mandate, where the majority of the corpus must be invested in India and overseas investments are heavily restricted and capped. 7. Tax Regime: GIFT: A distinct, favorable tax regime with Tax Holiday of 100% tax exemption for 10 consecutive years out of the first 15 years. Concept of Specified Fund with significant tax advantages Domestic: Subject to Standard domestic tax laws 8. Product Scope and Leverage GIFT : No restriction on leverage in GIFT City based funds Domestic: Significant restrictions on Category I & II (shortfall in drawdowns) and Cat. III based on exposure 9. Jurisdiction & FEMA Restrictions. GIFT Funds: operates under a foreign jurisdiction fiction, meaning there are no FEMA restrictions and capital can move freely between GIFT IFSC and the rest of the world. Domestic: fully under domestic jurisdiction and is subject to all FEMA restrictions.

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As the Budget 2026 approaches, the focus is shifting to fiscal prudence, domestic market resilience, and smarter portfolio construction. Nitin Agrawal, CEO – Mutual Funds, InCred Money, in conversation with NISHANT KUMAR of Mint, shares what matters most for markets and investors. The discussion also explores how multi-asset strategies can help portfolios stay resilient through volatile market cycles. Read the full interview here👉 https://lnkd.in/dv4kxQ_A . . . #incredmoney #budget2026 #investing #personalfinance

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#SEBI Changes Implications / What It Means Investor Protection: Lower exit loads help in protecting retail investors who need to exit funds early; reduces cost of exit. Financial Inclusion: By incentivising new investors (especially women and those in smaller towns / B-30 cities), SEBI is pushing towards increasing participation in mutual funds. Clarity & Transparency: The rules around distributor incentives become more specific (new investors, caps, etc.), which should reduce opacity and mis-selling risk. Better Product Classification: Reclassifying REITs as equity can lead to better visibility, better tracking (e.g. inclusion in equity indices), possibly more inflows into REITs since they now compete/present as equity instruments. Cost for AMCs / Distributors: Some changes may reduce revenue margins for distributors (if they were charging higher exit loads or getting incentives from all inflows, not just new ones). Mutual funds may need to adjust strategy. www.dilzer.net

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