Why Rajeev Thakkar Is Calling Parag Parikh's Large Cap Fund 'Dal Chawal'

While the market chases thematic and small-cap frenzies, Parag Parikh Mutual Fund is going the other way, betting on India's most stable and overlooked segment: large caps.

The fund house will launch a plain vanilla large-cap fund in January 2026, a move that Chief Investment Officer Rajeev Thakkar says is designed for investors tired of fund manager heroics and market timing hype.

Speaking on the B Wealthy podcast, Thakkar said, “This is not an exotic defence or pharma theme. It's a straightforward product investing in the top 100 companies of India what we used to call a blue-chip fund. It's like dal-chawal for your portfolio, simple, stable, and essential.”

Unlike Parag Parikh's Flexi Cap fund, known for active, high-conviction calls, the large-cap strategy will be deeply diversified, with minimal sector or stock-level bets. 

“In Flexi Cap, we might like or dislike a sector, or pick 30–35 stocks we really believe in. But in this new fund, the mandate is clear: deploy across 100 large Indian companies from the Nifty 100 index,” Thakkar explained.

The fund will also rely heavily on execution inputs from dealers, especially during index rebalancing, demergers, or futures market shifts. “Here, fund management and dealer strategies go hand in hand. The sectoral or company-specific calls will be limited. It's meant for investors who want low exposure to individual fund manager opinions,” he added.

So why launch now?

According to Thakkar, large caps are currently an under-owned and undervalued category. “Over the last few years, maximum inflows have gone to small-cap and mid-cap schemes. People look at the last six or twelve months of returns and pile in. But the reality is 70% to 75% of India Inc's profits still come from these top 100 companies,” he said.

Unlike sectoral or thematic funds launched at performance peaks, this fund is entering at a time when large caps are being ignored. “This fund isn't about market timing. It's about addressing a need, for a highly diversified, low-drama investment option,” he said.

Thakkar also took aim at the *structural flaws of index funds*, saying passive strategies often lag behind during portfolio reshuffles. “Index committees announce changes 15 days in advance. By the time index funds rebalance, everyone else has already acted. If a company is demerged and pushed out of the index, index funds are forced to dump it on day one, often at bad prices,” he explained.