The mutual fund, which plans to bring world class standards of servicing, transparency, speed, innovativeness, service and products to India has already filed with Sebi prospectus to launch an open-ended income fund and an open-ended liquid fund.

Zurich India has a 74 per cent stake in the asset management company and is in the process of changing the name of its AMC to Zurich Asset Management Company (India Ltd) and the trustee board will be converted into a trustee company to be called Zurich Trustee Company (India Pvt Ltd).

"We have consolidated all the changes after Zurich stepped in. Now, we plan to launch new schemes and set branches all over the country", said Zurich India Mutual Fund president SV Prasad.The fund plans to set up branches in 8-10 cities (four metros and Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune) in a year to provide servicing centres.

The board of AMC would include Allen Parsonson (chairman of the AMC), Frank Schnewlin (corporate executive board member), Rajindra Chitale (chartered accountant), Mahesh Vyas (CMIE), Lira Goswami (Lawyer) and Afzal Raza (a singapore based consultant).

The board of trustees will comprise of Robert Sulzer (chairman incharge of India), AP Kurian (Amfi chairman), Ajai Thakkar (CA) and will be shortly adding a lawyer on the board of trustees.

The fund at present manages four schemes, namely, an open-ended equity fund Zurich India Equity Fund, Zurich India Prudence Fund, Zurich India tax fund and a close-ended Zurich India Quantum Fund. The fund plans to launch the income fund and the liquid fund by the end of June or July.

After making Zurich India Prudence Fund into an open-ended scheme on the date of its redemption, the fund plans to do the same with theQuantum fund when it comes up for redemption in 2,000.

"We will bring a lot of innovations into the market. Zurich signifies solidity and credibility, and we will set new industry norms and standards. Zurich is absolutely committed to India and is keen to promote the Zurich brand in the country", said Prasad.

For this purpose, the company has already hired Ulka advertsising agency as its advertising agency and the advertising plank will be to build a clean corporate, focussed campaign. The focus for positioning of products will be on being a `solution provider' to needs of customers and the unique selling proposition (USP) would be the fact that the company is a consistent performer.

Reflecting on the capital markets, Prasad said that India has leap-frogged, as compared to other emerging markets and is emerging as a very strong market for foreign investors. Markets moving towards demat environment in a speedy and efficient manner provides the much-needed clean environment for both the retail and theinstitutional investor. "Screen-based trading and improvement in the quality of research with other positive factors thrown in, makes our markets good for investments", he said.