Mumbai, Aug. 20 -- If you've come across an advertisement about the benefits of investing in debt mutual funds, it is part of a concerted push by the industry to nudge people towards fixed income products.

At the heart of this is a former banker who spent nearly four decades at India's largest lender State Bank of India's (SBI) and rues the lack of liquidity in the bond market. Venkat Nageswar Chalasani, the chief executive of industry body Association of Mutual Funds in India, or Amfi, believes people need to be made aware of investing in debt products, a move that will improve the market liquidity, while allowing people stable returns.

"See, (for) any market to develop the most important thing is the liquidity has to be there. Today, ...