A decade back, Morgan Stanley - the first foreign asset manager to enter India - made a disastrous start when it faced the ire of retail investors.
Unfamiliar with the risks of investing in equity funds, these investors had seen their savings shrink with a falling market.
Learning from those early mistakes, and helped along by tax breaks to mutual funds and troubles at giant state-controlled asset manager Unit Trust of India, foreign fund managers have had an impressive run of growth.
Foreign companies, including joint ventures, now manage 35% of the $21 billion assets under management. After over a century of operations in India, 42 foreign banks have just around an 8% market share of assets. Not surprisingly then, HSBC, ABN Amro, Standard Chartered Grindlays and Deutsche are ready to enter the fray.