The fund's corpus has grown from Rs 8 crore since launch to Rs 70 crore as on date and its top holdings include Satyam Computer, Infosys, NIIT, Mastek, Digital and Ramco Systems Ltd constituting 64 per cent of the total corpus.

Speaking to the media after the announcement of the dividend, portfolio manager of the Infotech Fund R Sukumar said that India was today better placed to achieve NASSCOM's estimate of software exports to the tune of Rs 36,000 crore by 2002 compared to Rs 11,000 crore in 1998-99.

High growth rates, global competitiveness, high return on capital are some of the factors that make one take a bullishview of this industry.

Even as outsourcing of software service is gaining momentum, India has established itself as a quality software provider even better than certain US companies. This explains why American investors are willing to pay a premium for Infosys stock though there are many US stocks available in the market, he added.

The global competitiveness of the Indian software industry, Sukumar said, stems from the fact that the country has the largestpool of software professionals with the salary levels being one-fourth of that of the United States. Indian companies are also fast setting quality benchmarks such as level 5 certification etc and e-commerce and new technologies are opening fresh opportunities both in India and abroad, he said.

Vivek Reddy, chief executive added that with the devaluation of the Chinese currency being only a matter of time, the currencies of all Asian economies including India would be allowed to fall to maintain export competitiveness. This would immensely help thebottom line of the software companies, he said.

Kothari Pioneer Mutual Fund, according to Vivek, has emerged as the most preferred fund for individual investors with three of its funds figuring in the country's top five open end growth funds. Micropal, he added, had ranked Infotech Fund as number one for one year returns and Bluechip Fund as number one for five year returns.