Rapped by the markets regulator for rolling out new funds that are clones of existing ones, Indian fund houses have retreated into a shell in recent times.

New fund launches have become sporadic and the only ones that happen are new editions of boring capital protection funds, fixed maturity plans or gold funds.

However, we think the industry hasn't really exhausted the gamut of products that investors may want. We speak for investors, as we suggest five new products that people would like to see in the market.

Inflation-plus Fund : Inflation is soaring, but returns on most of our investments aren't keeping up. Traditional debt options such as bank deposits and small savings schemes are offering higher rates than a year ago, but rates are still not much higher than inflation.

Gold and equity may be a good inflation hedge for the long haul, but for the short term they are quite volatile.

Could fund houses come up with a product that delivers a reasonable ‘real' return, by combing different assets? How about inflation plus 3 per cent at all times?

Indian Food Fund : Many Indian households would like to hedge themselves against rising prices and growing shortages of agri-commodities.

Yet, the only commodity funds available to Indian investors are those that invest in gold or commodity stocks listed overseas.

The one commodity fund investing in India - Magnum Comma Fund, tracks listed commodity companies, a rather restricted universe. So could we have a commodity fund that tracks items consumed in the Indian food basket — say, pulses, poultry, milk, cooking oil, sugar, wheat and rice? Contracts on all these commodities are available either in the Indian or global markets.

Silver and Platinum ETF : Having already poured so much of our savings into gold jewellery, bars and coins, we have grown a little tired of gold as an investment option.

Why not allow us to buy platinum or silver through the ETF route? Silver has done even better than gold in the last five years, but is a pain to store. A silver-tracking ETF would be welcome.

Platinum is now available at a price that is on par with gold. How about a platinum ETF? Who knows, we may trade it in for the real thing 10 years later.

Diversified Debt Fund : In the equity space, after trying out sector funds, theme funds and various market caps, we've come to the conclusion that the plain diversified equity fund does the job best.

Could we have similar ‘go-anywhere-do-anything' funds in debt please? After all, most investors don't track the interest rate cycle or the yield curve. So how do you expect them to know when to buy a short-term fund or a floater fund?

We have a few dynamic debt funds in the market but the choice is too restricted. Every fund house should have one diversified debt fund that investors can hold for five years-plus.

Real Estate Fund : This is one fund idea that simply hasn't gotten off the starting block. Funds that invest in real estate projects through debt or equity are available to high net worth investors in the garb of private equity funds.

However, the ticket sizes are prohibitive for retail investors. Could we have funds that invest in property but more suited to retail investors?

Returns in the form of steady rental yields, a la REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) would be most welcome. And no, we don't want these funds to dabble in real estate stocks. We've already tried that and lost a packet!

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