Indian mutual fund industry is in its growth phase and possesses a tremendous scope for development. There are some crucial issues which need to be investigated. First and foremost, the performance of mutual funds in terms of their efficiency with their set of input and output should be checked. Also, the impact of attributes on the performance of mutual funds should be explored. Further, the perception of investors towards mutual funds and other investment options should be studied. This will answer the question, ‘where the mutual funds stand with respect to other investment options and due to which factors they adopt this position’.

One more research issue to explore is various steps or measures to be taken by the mutual fund companies and policy makers so that investors might be motivated towards mutual fund investment. In this way, the present study will be of vital importance as it might help to understand why an investor invests in a particular security and his likely reaction to the uncertainty in investing while still satisfying the individual preferences. Investors with positive perception and attitude will continue to invest in a particular investment option while the one with negative perception will discontinue the investment. Therefore, through this study, mutual fund companies and policy makers would be benefited by knowing the needs, attitude, perception, knowledge and awareness of investors about mutual funds individually and with respect to other investment options. Also it would help mutual fund companies, investors, researchers and policy makers to get an idea of the performance of mutual funds in India.

KEYWORDS: Mutual Funds, Bank & Non-Bank Sponsored Mutual Funds, Individual preferences.