As part of the customer service initiative, the fund is launching a new website through which the investors can undertake transactions provided they have accounts in ICICI Bank or HDFC Bank. Besides, it is also launching another website (piamc.com), which will focus on its distributors and retail investors. This site will be a storehouse of information for the uninitiated investor. The fund has already launched Instacheque, which enables an investor to collect the redemption cheque over the counter. This facility is available under its income plan in select cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai and Bangalore.

The timing of the launch of an MIP would coincide with that of UTI's plan to launch its third MIP series in the current year. Besides, Kothari Pioneer has also lined up a regular income scheme. ``There is demand for a monthly income plan,'' says Srinivasan pointing out that there are two classes of investors with one looking for a slightly better return while the other looking for a regular monthly income. In the non-equity segment, Pru-ICICI manages a liquid plan, an income plan and Gilt treasury and investment plans. Pru-ICICI Income Plan, which has an asset base of Rs 1960 crore, invests primarily in high quality debt. Almost 87 per cent of the corpus is invested in AAA and equivalent quality paper.