In the second pre-budget meeting with market experts and economists today on June 20, Nilesh Shah Managing Director at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management called on the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to launch another round of the Jan Nivesh campaign, an investor awareness initiative. Nilesh Shah said that a Jan Nivesh campaign would help in the financial inclusion of crores of Indians who are stuck in Ponzi schemes and similar speculatory schemes.
Pre-budget meetings gather feedback and suggestions from key stakeholders that can be used to shape the upcoming Union Budget 2024-25 possibly to be tabled in the third week of July
Nilesh Shah Managing Director at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management said, "We thanked the Honourable Finance Minister and the Finance Ministry team for their great work, which made the Indian economy the fastest-growing major economy. Thanks to their efforts- our equity market is one of the best-performing markets in the world"
"I shared with the Honourable Finance Minister that under the aegis of capital markets regulator Securities and Exchanges Board of India (Sebi), mutual funds have spread financial awareness to the public. We have enlisted over four crore Indians to participate in the journey of Viksit Bharat and secure their financial freedom. We need to reach out to far more Indians now to secure their Financial Freedom," Shah said.
"We requested the Finance Minister to launch a Jan Nivesh campaign that will help in financial inclusion of crores of Indians who are stuck in Ponzi schemes and speculations," Shah added.
Under the aegis of the mutual funds trade association Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI), an Investment Awareness Program (IAP) campaign titled ‘Jan Nivesh’ was conducted in 2018 as they felt that mutual funds have failed to penetrate the rural households in India. It was launched in 2018, just on the back of the Mutual Funds Sahi Hai campaign in 2017, and the Jan Nivesh campaign urged citizens to take a pledge to invest one day's income in mutual funds every month.
The Jan Nivesh team travelled across the country in a span of 7 months to more than 100 cities and conducted over 100 camps to spread the positive message of mutual funds.
AMFI now to boost investment in debt mutual funds has been running the 'Fixed Income Mutual Funds Sahi Hai Campaign' since April 2024, with the advertisements of the campaign released during the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL).
Jan Nivesh's Campaign draws a parallel to the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana when the digital transformation of opening online accounts helped them to move away from offline accounts. Over 50 crore people were brought into the fold of a formal banking system that helped the government to easily perform direct benefit transfers, or give COVID-19 financial assistance, PM-KISAN or life and health insurance coverage at lower rates.
Similarly, mutual funds serve as an entry point for numerous investors who have limited familiarity with securities investment. They offer simplified securities market access through diversification, and professional management, and are easily accessible with a simple Know Your Customer verification.
