Equity Scheme (E)
Invests in a diversified basket of large-cap and index equities. Highest long-term growth potential, but the largest short-term swings. NPS caps Equity at 75% of the portfolio and tapers it as you approach retirement.
About the equity scheme
Scheme E invests in listed Indian equities — mainly large-cap and index stocks. It is the growth engine of NPS: the highest long-term returns of the three schemes, but the sharpest year-to-year swings. Equity is capped at 75%, and Auto Choice tapers it as you near 60.
What it holds
A diversified basket of large-cap and index equities, held for long-term growth rather than short-term trading.
Return & risk
The highest return potential in NPS, and the highest volatility — it rewards a 10-year-plus horizon that lets compounding smooth the swings.
Where it fits
The wealth-builder: lean on it early for growth, then shift towards debt as retirement nears.
Return for the volatility taken
Each dot is a Pension Fund Manager, plotted by return against risk for the chosen period. The dashed lines mark the peer average — the top-left quadrant (more return, less risk) is the sweet spot.
Risk is the annualised standard deviation of returns; higher means larger swings. Return is the annualised (CAGR) figure over the same window, from the NPS master data. Managers without enough history for the chosen period appear in the XIRR table but may not plot here.
What a monthly SIP would have earned
Both the SIP outcome and its XIRR in one view: pick a monthly instalment and a start–end window, and the chart ranks every Pension Fund Manager by the SIP’s XIRR — the money-weighted annual return, closer to a regular investor’s experience than point-to-point CAGR. Each bar is sized to the projected corpus your SIP would grow to, so you can see how the funds compare at a glance; the rupee value sits beside each bar and the highlighted chip on the right reports each fund’s XIRR.
Method: a fixed instalment is invested at the first available NAV each month from the start to the end month; units accumulate and are valued at the end-month NAV. XIRR is the money-weighted annual return of those dated cashflows (independent of the instalment size). Funds whose NAV history starts after the chosen start month are excluded for that window. Monthly NAVs from the NPS master data; past performance does not guarantee future results.