Announcing the launch of the `Tata life sciences and technology fund' Tata Mutual Fund chairman K M Atmaramani said, ``The fund is an open end one and will primarily invest in growth sectors like agro, pharma, healthcare and some investment will also be made in infotech, telecom and engineering from time to time.''

``We are expecting to collect about Rs 20 to 25 crore from this scheme,'' he said. The offer opened on June 7 and will close on June 18.

On the proportion of the funds that would be invested in each of these sectors, Atmaramani said ``while no specific proportion has been fixed, no sector will have an investment of more than 50 per cent at any time.''The sectoral allocation would depend on the growth prospects of the individual sectors and their over all valuations from time to time.Theinvestment objective of the scheme would be to provide medium to long term capital gains and tax free dividend income distribution, he said adding ``we are confident of declaring tax free dividend in the first year of operations itself.''

While no fees would be charged for entry into the scheme, exit within six months would attract a fee of one per cent, Atmaramani said.

The scheme would declare its portfolio as well as the net asset value on a quarterly basis. The scheme offers three options, with normal investment without any lock-in offerred under plan-I and investments with lock in but of different durations under plans II and III.

The mutual fund industry has been put on a growth path following better performance, more disclosures and the latest tax sops given to the industry, he said adding the industry was expected to perform much better in the current fiscal.

Tata Mutual Fund is sponsored by Tata Sons Ltd and Tata Investment Corporation Ltd and its schemes are managed by Tata Asset ManagementLtd - a joint venture with holding of 80 per cent by Tatas and 20 per cent by Dresdner RCM Global Investor Holdings (UK) Ltd. The fund has so far launched four open end and three closed end schemes of which two have also been converted into open end.