India, Oct. 9 -- Passive investors are generally looked down upon. Aggressive is in. It is by taking charge that one makes money, lots of it. Allowing the money to lie idle in the banks stales returns. However, things have changed in the recent past. Passive investing, or seemingly-docile and inert stock-buying strategies, which were once shunned or considered niche and quaint, has become mainstream. This is especially true in India's mutual fund landscape.

A recent investors' survey by a brokerage house, Motilal Oswal, on passive funds, which covered a small respondents' base of 3,000, shows a structural shift in retail investment. According to it, just above three-fourths of the surveyed individuals were aware of passive funds, of whic...