How funds are grouped
SEBI's categories, what each one commits a fund to hold, and why funds are compared within a category.
This explains how things work. It is not advice about what to buy, sell or hold.
The 2017 rules
In October 2017 SEBI sorted every open-ended scheme into five groups: equity, debt, hybrid, solution-oriented and other. Within each group it defined categories and the kind of holdings each must mostly have. A fund house may offer only one scheme in each category; the exceptions are index funds and ETFs that track different indices, funds of funds with different underlying schemes, and sector or theme funds covering different sectors or themes. These are the SEBI fund categories.
Equity categories by company size
Several equity categories are defined by company size. The 1st to 100th listed companies by full market value count as large cap, the 101st to 250th as mid cap, and the rest as small cap. AMFI publishes the list twice a year and funds rebalance to it within a month. Under the 2017 rules a mid cap fund and a small cap fund each kept at least 65% of assets in its own band.
Debt categories by duration and credit
Debt categories are defined mainly by how long the fund's holdings run. An overnight fund holds securities maturing in a day, a liquid fund up to 91 days, and the duration funds (ultra short, low, short, medium and long) are set by the Macaulay duration of their portfolios. Other debt categories are set by the borrowers they lend to, such as government securities only.
Why the category matters here
Because a category fixes what a fund may hold, its funds do much the same job, and comparing them with each other is like with like. This site takes each fund's category from AMFI's scheme list and shows its Rank in category among the funds of that category. Funds in different categories are not ranked against each other.
Sources
- SEBI www.sebi.gov.in/sebi_data/attachdocs/oct-2017/1509103633344.pdf checked 02 Oct 2026
- Zerodha Varsity zerodha.com/varsity/chapter/the-equity-scheme-part-1/ checked 02 Oct 2026
- SEBI www.sebi.gov.in/sebi_data/faqfiles/sep-2024/1727242783639.pdf checked 02 Oct 2026