Mumbai: Religare Mutual Fund has launched two new funds - Religare Monthly Income Plan (MIP) Plus - India's first monthly income plan with an asset allocation to Gold and Religare Monthly Income Plan - the traditional monthly income plan, reports moneycontrol.com. Religare MIP Plus is a departure from the traditional breed of monthly income plans, which combine fixed income and equities. This innovative fund introduces one additional asset class i.e. Gold (through Gold ETF's), with the aim of improving diversification and enhancing performance. Gold has a low or negative correlation with most other asset classes, which means that its price changes are independent of price changes in other asset classes like equities and debt. Adding gold provides the fund manager with the flexibility to tilt the allocation made between asset classes so that the fund is positioned to take full advantage of prevailing market conditions. The fund seeks to generate regular income through a portfolio of fixed income securities, Gold ETFs, equity and equity related instruments. The fund will invest a minimum of 65 percent of its assets in debt and money market instruments (exposure range 65-90 percent); in addition a minimum 10 percent of assets will be invested in Gold ETFs (exposure range 10-35 percent). The fund, to generate moderate capital growth will invest upto 25 percent in equity and equity related assets. The fund manager will adopt the bottom up investment approach to select stocks. The fund is benchmarked against CRISIL MIP Blended Index and Price of Gold. Religare Monthly Income Plan is the traditional MIP product offering that seeks to generate regular income through a portfolio of predominantly high quality fixed income securities and with a small exposure to equity and equity related instruments. The fund will invest 75-100 percent in debt and money market instruments and 0-25 percent in equity and equity related instruments. The fund is benchmarked against CRISIL MIP Blended Index. For both Religare MIP Plus and Religare Monthly Income Plan, the minimum application amount during NFO under the Growth option is 5,000 and in multiples of Re.1 thereafter. Under the Dividend option, the minimum application amount is 25,000 and in multiples of Re.1 thereafter. Entry load charge will be nil for the scheme, whereas exit load will be one percent in respect of each purchase/switch-in of units, is payable if units are redeemed/switched-out on or before one year from the date of allotment. Speaking on the occasion Saurabh Nanavati, Chief Executive Officer, Religare MF said, "Traditionally, Indian Investors have always found comfort with fixed income and gold. Including Gold in a traditional MIP provides the retail investor with added convenience of being able to invest in 1 scheme as compared to investing and tracking of three different asset classes. It also brings in distinctly different risk/return characteristics. Gold-s low or inverse correlation with other major asset classes like equity and debt helps to improve, stablise the risk/ return profile during declining financial markets and poor economic climates."