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Nasdaq 100, S&P 500, US stocks FoF, Japan, Taiwan tech — 9 international mutual funds available to Indian investors, with returns, TER, and FY 26-27 tax treatment.
🥇 Most-used pick: Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 Fund of Fund — ~18-22% 5-yr CAGR, ~0.65% direct TER. All 9 funds compared below.
⚠️ Tax treatment changed in FY 2023-24
International funds are now taxed as debt — all gains at your slab rate, no LTCG benefit.
Per Finance Act 2023, international mutual funds (those investing < 65% in Indian equity) are taxed as DEBT funds — all gains at slab rate, no LTCG benefit, no indexation, regardless of holding period. Investments made BEFORE April 1, 2023 retain the older 20%-with-indexation treatment after 36 months. For a 30% slab investor, post-tax return drops by ~30% vs pre-2023.
Short answer: for any one index there is no "best fund" in the way the question assumes. Every Nifty 50 index fund has to hold the same 50 companies at the same weights — that is what makes it an index fund. So the fund house cannot differentiate on what it owns, only on what it charges and how tightly it tracks. Choose in this order:
We deliberately do not print a fund-by-fund expense-ratio table here. Those figures move, and SEBI already requires every fund house and AMFI to publish current ones — the section below shows you how to read them, which keeps working after any list goes stale.
| Index | What it holds | Role in a portfolio |
|---|---|---|
| Nifty 50≈53.7% of NSE free-float market cap | India’s 50 large-cap leaders on the NSE, weighted by free-float market capitalisation. | The core. For most people this is the first — and often the only — index fund they need. |
| Nifty Next 50≈11.2% of NSE free-float market cap | The 50 companies in the Nifty 100 that are not already in the Nifty 50. | A satellite. Tomorrow’s large caps, with noticeably deeper drawdowns than the Nifty 50. |
| Nifty Midcap 150Rebalanced twice a year (31 Jan / 31 Jul cut-offs) | Companies ranked 101–250 by full market capitalisation within the Nifty 500. | A mid-cap sleeve, never a core. The highest dispersion of the three. |
A ₹10,000 monthly SIP, held for 20 years, at an illustrative 12% gross annual return — the only variable changed between rows is the fund's expense ratio. Over that period you would have paid in ₹24,00,000, and the gap between a 0.10% fund and a 1.00% fund is ₹9.32 lakh. That is the whole case for reading the expense ratio before anything else.
| Expense ratio | After 10 years | After 20 years | Given up vs 0.10% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.10% | ₹22.28 lakh | ₹90.88 lakh | — |
| 0.20% | ₹22.17 lakh | ₹89.79 lakh | ₹1.09 lakh |
| 0.50% | ₹21.82 lakh | ₹86.60 lakh | ₹4.28 lakh |
| 1.00% | ₹21.24 lakh | ₹81.56 lakh | ₹9.32 lakh |
| 1.50% | ₹20.69 lakh | ₹76.83 lakh | ₹14.05 lakh |
Illustration, not a forecast: 12% is a round number chosen to isolate the effect of cost, and NAV returns are already net of the expense ratio, so the ratio is modelled as a straight deduction. Your own return will differ; the ranking of the rows will not.
India regulates passive funds more tightly than most markets, and the disclosures are mandatory and free. These five rules are the reason you never need to trust a "top 10 index funds" list, including ours:
Tracking error is capped at 2%
For equity ETFs and index funds, annualised tracking error — the standard deviation of the daily return gap against the index, on one-year rolling data — shall not exceed 2%. A fund above that is breaking a rule, not just underperforming.
Tracking error is published daily
Every ETF and index fund, including debt ones, must disclose tracking error daily on its AMC’s website and on AMFI. You never have to take a third-party list’s word for it.
Tracking difference is published monthly
The annualised return gap must be disclosed monthly on the AMC and AMFI sites for 1, 3, 5 and 10 years and since allotment. This is the number that tells you what tracking actually cost you.
Index changes are tracked within 7 days
When the index itself changes constituents at a periodic review, the fund’s portfolio must be rebalanced within 7 calendar days.
The name must carry the index
A passive scheme’s name must include the underlying index, so “Nifty 50 Index Fund” genuinely tracks the Nifty 50 rather than something adjacent to it.
Where this page fits. Domestic index funds are the low-cost core; the international funds compared below are the satellite, and they are taxed far less kindly. If you are starting out, read how index funds work and how to buy them in India first, then come back for the global slice.
Last updated 16 September 2026. Primary sources: index definitions and free-float shares from NSE Indices (read 16 September 2026); tracking-error, tracking-difference, rebalancing and naming rules from the SEBI Master Circular for Mutual Funds as on 20 March 2026, clauses 4.5.4–4.5.7; LRS limit from the RBI FAQ on the Liberalised Remittance Scheme.
Before comparing funds, check whether the one you want is accepting new investment at all. Indian mutual funds invest overseas under a hard regulatory ceiling, and the industry has been pressed against it for years:
Because the industry sits near the aggregate limit, fund houses pause fresh subscriptions and SIPs when their own headroom runs out, and reopen only when existing investors redeem and capacity frees up. The practical result is that a large majority of international funds are shut to new money at any given time — reporting through early 2026 put it at roughly 12 of 66 funds open on one count, and around 28 funds plus 6 ETFs on another. The exact number moves week to week, which is the point: check the fund's current status on the AMC's own site before you plan around it.
Two practical consequences. A running SIP into an international fund can be paused by the fund house without you doing anything, so it is worth checking rather than assuming your instruction is still executing. And "best fund" lists — including the comparison below — are ranked on merit, not availability, so the top pick may simply not be purchasable today. Fund-of-fund structures investing in overseas ETFs are constrained by the separate USD 1 billion ETF sub-limit, which has historically been the tighter of the two.
June 2026 snapshot. 5-year CAGR is point-to-point — actual returns vary by start date. TER shown is direct plan (regular plans are typically 0.5-1.0% higher).
| Fund | Exposure | 5-yr CAGR | Direct TER |
|---|---|---|---|
| Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 Fund of FundMotilal Oswal · FoF (feeds into US Nasdaq 100 ETF)Editor's pick | US Nasdaq 100 — Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Tesla, etc. | ~18-22% (USD-denominated underlying + INR appreciation) | ~0.65% direct |
| ICICI Prudential US Bluechip Equity FundICICI Prudential · Direct active US large-cap fund | US large-cap stocks — actively managed, not index-tracking | ~14-17% | ~1.30% direct |
| Franklin India Feeder — Franklin US Opportunities FundFranklin Templeton · Feeder fund (into Franklin US Opportunities Fund) | US growth-oriented large + mid-cap | ~15-18% | ~1.50% direct |
| Mirae Asset NYSE FANG+ ETF Fund of FundMirae Asset · FoF (feeds into Mirae Asset NYSE FANG+ ETF) | 10-stock concentrated bet on US/global tech mega-caps — FAANG + Nvidia, AMD, Snowflake, ServiceNow, Tesla | ~25-30% (high but volatile) | ~0.65% direct |
| Nippon India US Equity Opportunities FundNippon India · Direct active US equity | US large + mid-cap, actively managed by Nippon Life affiliates | ~14-17% | ~1.65% direct |
| Nippon India Taiwan Equity FundNippon India · Direct active Taiwan equity | Taiwan tech megacaps — TSMC, MediaTek, Hon Hai, ASE, etc. | ~20-25% (driven by AI semiconductor cycle) | ~1.80% direct |
| Nippon India Japan Equity FundNippon India · Direct active Japan equity | Japan Nikkei 225 + diversified Japanese equities | ~10-14% | ~1.80% direct |
| Edelweiss US Technology Equity Fund of FundEdelweiss · FoF (US tech exposure) | US tech sector ETF underlying | ~17-21% | ~1.00% direct |
| HDFC Developed World Indexes Fund of FundsHDFC AMC · FoF (MSCI World ex-India equivalent) | Developed markets — US, Europe, Japan, Australia | ~13-16% | ~0.50% direct |
Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 Fund of Fund
India's most-used Nasdaq 100 vehicle. AUM ₹6,000+ cr. Feeds into the Invesco QQQ ETF in the US (or equivalent). New SIPs were paused 2023-24 due to SEBI's overseas investment cap but mostly reopened.
ICICI Prudential US Bluechip Equity Fund
One of the oldest US equity options for Indians. Direct stock-picking approach (not FoF). AUM ₹3,000+ cr.
Franklin India Feeder — Franklin US Opportunities Fund
Mature franchise — one of the first India-domiciled US feeder funds. AUM ₹3,500+ cr.
Mirae Asset NYSE FANG+ ETF Fund of Fund
Concentrated bet — only 10 stocks. Suitable as a tactical satellite holding, not core. Highest CAGR among India-listed international options but also highest concentration risk.
Nippon India US Equity Opportunities Fund
Active management vs the passive Nasdaq 100 FoF option. Higher TER but with potential alpha. AUM ₹1,500+ cr.
Nippon India Taiwan Equity Fund
Only India-listed direct Taiwan exposure. Concentrated bet on the global semiconductor supply chain. Higher volatility than US large-cap; trend Breakout in 2025 trends data.
Nippon India Japan Equity Fund
Sole India-listed Japan exposure. Japan is Asia's biggest market with low correlation to Indian equity — useful diversification.
Edelweiss US Technology Equity Fund of Fund
Tech-specific FoF. Smaller AUM (₹500+ cr). Newer launch — track record limited to ~5 years.
HDFC Developed World Indexes Fund of Funds
Broadest geographical diversification among India-listed international funds. Index-tracking approach.
Conservative — 5%
Just a hedge against domestic concentration. Single Nasdaq 100 FoF SIP of ₹2,000-5,000/month.
Moderate — 10-15% (recommended)
Meaningful diversification + global tech exposure. Mix of Nasdaq 100 + S&P 500 (or HDFC Developed World) + small Taiwan / Japan tilt.
Aggressive — 25%+
Heavy tilt for those bullish on global tech / against INR. Includes direct US stocks via LRS. Higher tax drag at 30% slab — model carefully.
Richify tracks domestic equity, international MFs, and direct US stocks (via Vested / Indmoney) in one portfolio view. Felix flags when your international allocation drifts above your target.
Download Richify — It's FreeStart with a Nifty 50 index fund, in the direct plan, from whichever fund house charges the lowest total expense ratio. The reason is structural rather than a matter of taste: every Nifty 50 index fund is required to hold the same 50 companies at the same free-float weights, so no fund house can differentiate on what it owns.
What is left to compare is cost, tracking error and plan type. Cost compounds: on a Rs 10,000 monthly SIP held for 20 years at an illustrative 12% gross return, the difference between a 0.10% and a 1.00% expense ratio is roughly Rs 9.3 lakh of final corpus, on identical portfolios.
Then check tracking error, which SEBI requires every AMC and AMFI to publish daily, and make sure you are buying the direct plan rather than the regular one — the regular plan of the same scheme holds the same stocks and pays a distributor commission out of your returns every year.
These are different levels of risk, not different levels of quality, so the honest answer depends on what the money is for. The Nifty 50 is India’s 50 large-cap leaders and represents roughly 53.7% of the free-float market capitalisation listed on the NSE; it is the natural core holding and, for many investors, the only index fund they need.
The Nifty Next 50 is the 50 companies in the Nifty 100 that are not in the Nifty 50 — about 11.2% of NSE free-float market cap — and behaves like a higher-beta satellite with deeper drawdowns. The Nifty Midcap 150 covers companies ranked 101 to 250 by full market capitalisation within the Nifty 500, rebalanced twice a year with 31 January and 31 July cut-offs; it has the widest dispersion of the three and belongs in a portfolio as a mid-cap sleeve, never as the core.
A common, defensible structure is a Nifty 50 core with a smaller Next 50 or Midcap 150 allocation alongside it.
You do not have to rely on any third-party list, because SEBI mandates the disclosure directly. Under the SEBI Master Circular for Mutual Funds, tracking error — defined as the annualised standard deviation of the difference in daily returns between the index and the fund’s NAV, on one-year rolling data — must be disclosed daily by every ETF and index fund, including debt ones, on the AMC’s own website and on AMFI.
Tracking difference, the annualised return gap, must be disclosed monthly for one, three, five and ten years and since the date of allotment, in the same two places. There is also a hard limit: for equity ETFs and index funds, tracking error shall not exceed 2%, and a breach caused by genuine force majeure has to be reported to the trustees.
So the check is: open the AMC page for the scheme, read today’s tracking error and the monthly tracking difference, and compare like-for-like against another fund on the same index.
Because of a regulatory ceiling, not because the funds are full or performing badly. Indian mutual funds may invest overseas only within an industry-wide cap of USD 7 billion, with a separate USD 1 billion cap for investment into overseas ETFs and a further USD 1 billion limit on each individual AMC.
The industry has been pressed against the aggregate limit for years, so when inflows push a fund house close to its own headroom it stops accepting fresh lump sums and SIPs, and reopens only when existing investors redeem and capacity frees up. Reporting through early 2026 put the number of open funds at roughly 12 out of 66 on one count and about 28 funds plus 6 ETFs on another — the figure genuinely moves week to week.
Two things follow for you: check the fund's current status on the AMC's own website before planning around it, and be aware that an existing SIP can be paused by the fund house without any action from you, so it is worth confirming your instruction is still executing rather than assuming it is.
Yes — through Fund of Funds (FoF) or feeder funds that route Indian investor money into US-listed ETFs or US mutual funds. The most-used option is Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 Fund of Fund, which feeds into the US-listed Invesco QQQ ETF tracking the Nasdaq 100 index.
You don't need a US broker account — your money stays within the Indian MF system. You also don't need to track LRS separately for FoFs (the AMC handles the overseas remittance within their bulk limits).
Alternative routes: direct LRS investing via Indmoney / Vested / Groww-US into individual US stocks, but those count against your personal LRS limit of USD 250,000 per financial year.
The Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) limit is USD 250,000 per individual per financial year (April–March), per the RBI. The limit is set in dollars, not rupees: at roughly ₹95.5 to the dollar in September 2026 that is about ₹2.4 crore a year.
It is often misquoted as ₹2.5 lakh, which comes from reading the Indian-format figure “USD 2,50,000” as rupees — the real allowance is around a hundred times larger. This applies to direct LRS remittances for buying foreign stocks via Vested, Indmoney, Groww-US, etc. International mutual funds bought through Indian AMCs do NOT typically count against your personal LRS limit — the AMC operates within its own bulk LRS allocation (which SEBI sometimes pauses for new flows when the industry approaches the aggregate ceiling, as happened in 2022-23 for Nasdaq 100 FoFs).
When SEBI pauses new flows, existing investors can still redeem but cannot make new SIPs/lumpsum into international FoFs.
Per Finance Act 2023 (effective April 1, 2023), international mutual funds — defined as funds investing less than 65% in Indian equity — are taxed as DEBT FUNDS. This means: (1) ALL gains are taxed at slab rate (5%/10%/15%/20%/25%/30%) added to your other income, regardless of holding period. (2) NO LTCG benefit at 12.5%. (3) NO indexation. (4) Earlier (pre-April 2023) holdings DO retain the older LTCG treatment (20% with indexation after 36 months — keep proof of original investment date).
This makes international MFs significantly less tax-favoured than domestic equity MFs (which get LTCG at 12.5% with ₹1.25 lakh exemption). The trade-off is global diversification — historically US has delivered ~13-15% USD returns + ~3-5% INR depreciation = ~16-20% INR returns over the past decade.
Mathematically: Nasdaq 100 has delivered ~17-20% CAGR in USD over the past 10 years (well above the broader S&P 500's ~12-14%). For Indian investors, INR-denominated returns include the additional ~3-5% INR depreciation tailwind.
The case for: (1) exposure to the global tech mega-caps Indian markets lack (Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Tesla). (2) Hedge against domestic concentration risk — Indian markets are 65%+ financials + commodities + FMCG, with limited true global-tech representation. (3) Diversification benefit lowers portfolio volatility for a small (5-15%) allocation. The case against: (1) Taxed at slab rate (no LTCG benefit) — for 30% slab investors, post-tax return drops by ~30%. (2) Already heavily owned by the same FAANG companies that dominate global indices. (3) Currency hedging — if INR strengthens against USD, returns reverse.
Most balanced view: 10-15% of equity allocation in Nasdaq 100 FoF as a tactical satellite, not core.
Both are India-domiciled mutual funds that invest in foreign securities, but the mechanism differs slightly. (1) Fund of Funds (FoF): the Indian AMC scheme invests in another mutual fund (e.g., Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100 FoF invests in the Invesco QQQ ETF in the US). FoF structure adds a layer of expense — you pay the FoF's TER (~0.65%) plus the underlying ETF's TER (~0.20%) = ~0.85% effective. (2) Feeder fund: similar concept — the Indian scheme 'feeds' all money into a single overseas master fund managed by the AMC's overseas affiliate (e.g., Franklin India Feeder feeds into Franklin US Opportunities Fund managed in the US).
Higher transparency but typically higher TER (~1.30-1.65%). From a tax and operational perspective, both are treated identically — debt-fund taxation under Finance Act 2023, no LRS impact on investor.
S&P 500 represents the broader US large-cap market (500 companies, ~80% of US equity market cap). Nasdaq 100 is concentrated in the 100 largest non-financial NYSE/NASDAQ companies, dominated by tech (Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, etc.).
Returns: Nasdaq 100 has outperformed S&P 500 by ~3-4pp annually over the past decade due to the tech-led bull market — but with higher volatility and deeper drawdowns (Nasdaq 100 dropped ~30% in 2022 vs S&P 500's ~20%). For diversified US exposure: S&P 500 (via Mirae Asset S&P 500 ETF FoF or similar).
For tech-tilted bet: Nasdaq 100 FoF. Some investors hold both at a 70/30 S&P / Nasdaq split — captures the broader market plus tech concentration without overcommitting to one factor.
Yes — most international FoFs and feeder funds support SIP just like domestic MFs. Minimum SIP is typically ₹500-1,000/month.
The main caveat: when SEBI temporarily pauses new flows into international funds (due to aggregate LRS ceiling being hit at the industry level), new SIP setups may be blocked but existing SIPs continue. This happened in early 2022 for Nasdaq 100 FoFs and was partially lifted in 2023.
Check the latest scheme status before setting up a SIP — most platforms (Groww, Coin, Kuvera, MFCentral) display 'New investments paused' if applicable.
Direct US stocks (via Vested, Indmoney, Groww-US): (1) Counts against your personal LRS limit of USD 250,000 per financial year. (2) LTCG at 12.5% above ₹1.25L exemption if held > 24 months (per post-July-2024 rules — same as Indian property). STCG at slab rate. (3) Dividends taxable at slab + US TDS 25% withheld. (4) Buy individual stocks (Apple, Nvidia, Meta etc.) — concentrated bets if you want.
International mutual funds (via Indian AMCs): (1) No personal LRS impact. (2) Slab rate on all gains (Finance Act 2023). (3) Diversified via index or active management. (4) Cannot pick individual stocks. The trade-off: direct route gives better tax treatment + stock-picking, mutual fund route gives diversification + simpler tax filing + no LRS tracking.
For most retail investors, MF route is simpler; for stock-pickers with sophisticated tax records, direct route is more tax-efficient.
