"My team has also been around for a fairly long time," says Milind Barve. "Our stable and high performing team puts us on a better footing," adds Anil Bamboli, a fund manager with HDFC. On HDFC MF's investment approach, Barve says: "We would always like to be a no-surprise fund." For instance, HDFC MF launched just three schemes, including a gold fund, during the boom time of 2003 to 2008, while its rivals launched four to five schemes each year. "You have to keep your product simple," says Barve. "Our new products are driven by the investment team, not the marketing team." A year ago, Barve took up chairmanship of Association of Mutual Funds of India. "The penetration of mutual funds is very low in India despite large AUMs of the industry," he says. "We all need to work on it." It is a new orbit for the head of India's best fund house.