The fund house believes global markets currently offer a stronger growth proposition than domestic equities
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Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services Ltd (PPFAS) has put on hold the launch of two India-focused investment schemes from GIFT City amid ongoing geopolitical tensions in West Asia, even as its recently launched outbound funds investing in US markets have benefited from the market recovery that followed the conflict.The fund house had planned to simultaneously launch inbound and outbound products through its GIFT City arm, PPFAS Alternate Asset Managers IFSC Pvt Ltd. While the outbound funds were launched in March, the inbound schemes remain on hold despite receiving regulatory approval. “We are planning to bring in two inbound schemes because there are many investors who are looking to invest in India. We have already received approval for our inbound schemes. But due to the war situation these products got stalled, otherwise our earlier plan was to launch both inbound and outbound schemes together,” Hema Thakkar, Head-Business Development at PPFAS Alternate Asset Managers IFSC said during her visit to Ahmedabad on Tuesday.Geopolitical impactThe delay highlights how geopolitical uncertainty is affecting fund managers’ efforts to tap overseas investors through GIFT City, which has emerged as India’s key international financial services hub. According to Nirmal Bari, Principal Officer and Director at the company, the conflict has also complicated marketing efforts in the West Asia, a key target market for GIFT City-based investment products. “Secondly, the war situation also makes it difficult for us to travel to the West Asia region for marketing our schemes,” Bari said.The company launched two outbound fund-of-funds products in March 2026 — the Parag Parikh IFSC S&P 500 Fund of Fund and the Parag Parikh IFSC Nasdaq 100 Fund of Fund — which provide exposure to US equities through global exchange-traded funds and UCITS structures. The schemes are targeted at retail investors seeking global diversification, family offices and high-net-worth individuals, with a minimum investment threshold of $5,000.Ironically, the same geopolitical tensions that complicated the launch of the inbound products appear to have aided the performance of the outbound schemes. “When we launched our two funds, the war was at its peak. The returns that we got in the last two months have been good,” Bari said. He attributed the gains to the sharp recovery in US equity markets following the selloff triggered by the conflict. “The returns were largely due to the war. The markets went down significantly at that time. We were lucky to have got the timing right,” he said, adding that the underlying indices have gained more than 20 per cent since then.Growth prospectsThe fund house believes global markets currently offer a stronger growth proposition than domestic equities. “In India, the markets have been flat for the last one-and-a-half years. In comparison, there has been good growth in Nasdaq and S&P. The companies that are part of them have better prospects,” Thakkar said.While the S&P 500 fund is designed as a core global diversification product, the Nasdaq 100 fund is aimed at investors seeking exposure to innovation-led sectors, including technology and artificial intelligence. “These are index-based funds that are passive in nature. Those wanting to invest in companies in the AI sector would go for Nasdaq,” she said. Unlike many domestic investment products, the GIFT City schemes do not carry entry loads, exit loads or lock-in requirements, a feature that the fund house believes could appeal to globally oriented investors.For PPFAS, however, the bigger opportunity may lie in inbound funds that channel overseas capital into India. The launch timeline for those products will now depend on how quickly geopolitical conditions stabilise and international marketing efforts can resume, officials added.Published on June 2, 2026
