NJ Asset Management Private Limited (NJ Asset Management) will soon be launching its first retail mutual fund scheme from GIFT City, making it only the second mutual fund house after DSP Mutual Fund to set up a retail scheme at India’s offshore hub, said persons familiar with the development.
Sources further added that PPFAS Mutual Fund is also preparing to launch a retail mutual fund from GIFT City, but the process is still at the documentation stage. "The PPFAS process could take at least four months before a formal launch,” one of the persons cited above said.
The entry of NJ Asset Management and PPFAS Mutual Fund marks a significant moment for the fund management ecosystem at GIFT City, where retail mutual fund schemes have struggled to take off despite the regulatory framework being introduced by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) in 2022.
According to official data, GIFT IFSC now has about 140 registered Fund Management Entities (FMEs), but only around 10 of these are authorised to operate retail schemes. DSP Mutual Fund remains the only asset manager to have actually launched a retail mutual fund product so far, with its DSP Global Equity Fund rolling out in June.
Industry watchers said NJ’s move indicates that the regulatory environment is beginning to stabilise after years of uncertainty. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) clarified the tax framework for IFSC retail schemes in 2024 and the Union Budget 2025 further extended incentives, but operational ambiguities still remain.
The broader ecosystem has still a lot of scope for allowing conduciveness, say experts. Custodians, trustees, and registrar & transfer agents (RTAs) have scaled up their presence at GIFT City, while SEBI and IFSCA have aligned several norms to facilitate smoother fund operations.
According to the Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) 2025 report, GIFT City is increasingly being used by Indian asset managers to globalise their offerings, with offshore investors and the Indian diaspora showing rising interest in Category III AIFs and, now, retail mutual fund structures.
Against this backdrop, the NJ and PPFAS initiatives suggest that the retail mutual fund segment at GIFT City may finally be inching forward after two years of sluggishness, opening a new channel for both outbound investments by resident Indians under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) and inbound participation from non-resident Indians (NRIs) and overseas citizens of India (OCIs).
Meanwhile, email queries sent to NJ Asset Management and PPFAS MF remained unanswered till the time of publishing this story.
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