To put the India figues into a global context, figures issued a few weeks ago showed that total AuM of the world's asset management sector stood at $32.81 trillion (see here).

Corporate entities continued to be the main buyers of mutual funds, accounting for almost half - 49.2 per cent - of assets under management as at the end of September last year. They mainly invest in money market funds and debt funds-together they accounted for more than three-quarters of AuM in the market in 2013, Cerulli said in a report on the state of the industry.

After corporates, high-net-worth individuals accounted for 28.1 per cent of mutual fund AUM at end-September 2013.

Retail investors accounted for 20.3 per cent of AuM at end-September, it said.

“The share for retail investors is low, and even more worrying is that the share of AuM attributed to them dropped by 3.1 percentage points between September 2012 and September 2013,” Cerulli said.

Industry leaders like the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Association of Mutual Funds in India are conscious of the fall in retail participation, and concerted efforts are being made to revive retail investor interest in mutual funds, Cerulli said.
"Many Indians remain unconvinced about the benefits of investing in mutual funds," Yoon Ng, Asia research director with Cerulli, said.
"This means that comprehensive investor education initiatives, including winning back investor confidence and trust, have to be part of the process to gather more assets," she added.