Investments in Mutual Fund in India have grown at a steady pace over the recent few years, and every analyst and financial magazine recommends investments in Mutual Funds as a way to get into equity, especially for those who are not comfortable with direct investments in equity; or are risk-averse to some degree, or don’t have the time to study the equity market or individual stocks.
In the midst of all, this Mutual Fund market faces a steady stream of criticism, related to charging high fees, or releasing a number of new funds on a regular basis so as to be able to take advantage of a higher amortization of marketing fees, or how selling agents will want to sell new Mutual Funds as the commission is more. There is the need for customer protection, and if the Mutual Fund industry does not do its own introspection, there will be higher regulation.
Well, it does not seem like there are many measure being taken in this regard. However, the Mutual Fund industry realizes the need to get more people invested into Mutual Funds, and maybe as more invest, there will emerge the need for more protection. Right now, the industry is geared towards getting more people invested into the market.

The fast growing mutual fund (MF) industry, for some time now, has realised that it should spend more on educating people about the virtues of investing through the fund route. This is so, because fund houses realise that going forward informed investors could become the main growth drivers for MF industry
The report has also proposed that the government could make some budgetary allocations for meeting the cost of investor education and bring the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF), currently with Ministry of Company Affairs, under the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). At present, the funds collected under IEPF is mainly the unclaimed dividend from companies. IEPF goes to the Consolidated Funds of India, a fund managed by the government. The CII report proposed that IEPF should be spent for investor awareness and not go to consolidated funds.

It is a good first step, but a lot more needs to be done. Mutual Funds are also the retirement vehicles for a number of people, and investor education really needs to be a high priority.