Dundee Investment Management and Research (DIMR), the asset management company which manages the scheme will launch its first mutual fund scheme, Dundee Liquidity Scheme, on the fourth of January, chairman of DIMR, Danesh Varma told PTI.

The Dundee Liquidity Scheme will invest only in government securities and commercial papers, he said. "Being a risk free investment, the returns provided by government securities can be considered the best," Varma said adding that the scheme would concentrate on short-term government securities with a maturity of less than one year.

The scheme would have special benefits for non-resident Indians (NRIs) allowing them to repartriate returns from the scheme fully, he said. Dundee Mutual Fund, which manages several schemes in Canada including gold and real estate funds, is also planning to launch agold fund later next year."Country's largest mutual fund, Unit Trust of India (UTI) has announced its plan to start a gold fund. We are hopeful that private players will also be allowed to start gold funds soon after UTI launches its scheme," Varma said.He said by March next year, Dundee may launch a gold linked mutual fund scheme, subject to government approval. Varma said Dundee Mutual Fund was also planning a real estate fund in India.

"Dundee group is one of the largest real estate fund managers in the world and once government opens up the sector, we are hopeful of starting a fund here," he said.

The Toronto-based Dundee Group is also advising its foreign institutional investor (FII) division to invest in shares of Indian companies.The FII has investment worth $ 20 million in the Indian stock market and all the investments are in the information technology companies, Varma said. Registered with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in September this year, Dundee Mutual Funds manages about 30schemes in Canada having assets worth $ 7.7 billion.

Varma said the company is also planning to foray in to other business segments including merchant banking, leasing and hire purchase business. The company has already received the regulatory approvals from Sebi and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to start operations here, he added.