‘Imagine when this 5% becomes 50%’: Expert on how India’s market participation could unlock massive investing

Kirttan Shah, co-founder of FPA Edutech and founder of Truvanta Wealth, shared insights on career opportunities and long-term investing in India during a podcast with entrepreneur Raj Shamani. Shah spoke about how changing work patterns, rising digital adoption and disciplined investing habits can help Indians build wealth.

Talking about finance as a career option, Shah said wealth management and capital markets offer significant potential. “If you want to build a career in finance, capital markets have massive opportunities,” he said. He pointed out that less than 5% of India’s population currently invests in capital markets, compared to 47–48% in the US. “Imagine when this 5% becomes 50% of India investing,” Shah said, highlighting the scale of opportunity that lies ahead. Even at current participation levels, platforms such as Zerodha and Groww are already generating strong profits.

Shah also highlighted digital marketing as a fast-growing career path. “The world is moving digitally, so there is no reason why digital marketing will not do well,” he said, adding that skilled professionals are increasingly hard to find. For those working in operations, he described logistics as “a great opportunity,” noting that it remains a problem area India is actively trying to fix.

On investing, Shah said people should think beyond short-term market movements and focus on a five-to-seven-year horizon. He divided investors into three categories—conservative, moderate and aggressive—and explained that each group requires a different strategy.

For conservative investors, Shah cautioned against relying solely on fixed deposits, explaining that tax and inflation erode real returns. He suggested small finance bank deposits, post office schemes and arbitrage mutual funds as better alternatives. Explaining arbitrage funds, he said, “The chances of you losing money are very, very low,” while pointing to their liquidity and tax rate of 12.5% if held for more than a year.

For moderate investors willing to accept some ups and downs, Shah recommended equity savings funds, balanced advantage funds and multi-asset funds. These funds invest across equities, debt and commodities and can deliver returns ranging from 8% to 12% over time.

Aggressive investors, Shah said, should focus on diversification rather than trying to predict which market segment will perform best. He suggested allocating 20% of the portfolio to gold and splitting the remaining amount equally across large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap equities. “You don’t know what will perform next year,” he said.

Emphasising the importance of gold, Shah said it works as a strong hedge during market downturns. Referring to market crashes in 2000, 2008, 2013–14, 2018 and 2020, he said, “Eventually, the market always comes back.” Gold, he explained, often remains stable or rises during such periods, giving investors the flexibility to buy equities when prices are low.

According to Shah, building wealth in India is less about timing the market and more about staying invested, spreading risk and thinking long term.