Active Multicap Funds vs Index Investing — Is There a Clear Winner?

Active Multicap Funds vs Index Funds — which is better for Indian investors? Multicap fund vs Nifty 500 Index Fund vs Nifty 500 Multicap 50:25:25 Index, compared on 3-year rolling returns, not just CAGR. Active multicap funds look like they've beaten the Nifty 500 TRI hands down on CAGR. But SEBI's multicap mandate requires at least 25% each in large cap, mid cap and small cap — so is that outperformance the fund manager, or just the structure? In this video I compare 27 active multicap mutual funds (direct plans) against BOTH the Nifty 500 TRI and the Nifty 500 Multicap 50:25:25 TRI — the index with the same recipe — and the picture changes completely. What you'll learn: ✅Why Nifty 500 TRI is the wrong benchmark for multicap funds ✅The rolling 3-year return "pendulum": 21 years of Multicap 50:25:25 vs Nifty 500 — the tilt won on average, but lost in 28% of all 3-year windows ✅Why point-to-point CAGR misleads, and how to read rolling returns consistency ✅Mahindra Manulife Multicap vs Quant Multi Cap ✅ICICI Prudential, Nippon India, Invesco, Baroda BNP, HDFC, Kotak, Axis multicap funds — who actually beat their benchmark consistently ✅Should you choose an active multicap fund or a multicap index fund? "Pre-2021 fund history was earned under the old multicap rules (the grandfathered schemes became today's Flexi Cap category)." Data: AMFI NAVs and NSE index TRI values to 10 Aug 2026. Pre-2021 index values are back-calculated by NSE. Pre-2021 fund history was earned under the old multicap rules (today's flexicap). 0:00 Active multicap vs index — the question 0:17 CAGR vs Nifty 500 TRI: case closed? 0:38 SEBI multicap mandate: 25/25/25 rule 0:53 Nifty 500 vs Multicap Index - CAGR 1:32 The pendulum: 21 years of Multicap vs Nifty 500 4:09 13 Active Multicap funds vs Multicap Index - Rolling Returns 4:44 Mahindra Manulife Multicap fund 5:42 CAGR vs Rolling Return Consistency - Fund Selection Criteria 6:05 Two important caveats 6:41 Summary - One chart you should see