Morgan Stanley Mutual Fund’s exit says a lot about India's regulatory regime, as much as about the fund companies.

Sucheta Dalal

Given the fanfare that marked the Morgan Stanley India Growth Fund’s arrival in India, in January 1994, its decision to throw in the towel exactly 20 years later, by selling out to HDFC Mutual Fund, ought to have attracted far more media discussion. That it has attracted less attention than Fidelity Mutual Fund’s exit, a couple of years ago, reflects that sorry state of India’s mutual fund industry. Of course, Morgan Stanley (MS) has itself to blame. It played on the ignorance of Indian investors to launch a whisper campaign in the ‘grey market’ that its units would soar like equity shares. People stood in long, serpentine queues to submit their applications and many even paid a premium for the forms.

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