A consistent track record at a lower cost is hard to beat. In 12 years, this fund has underperformed the average thrice, that too by a small margin. Over the past three years, its annual performance has been top quartile. During turbulent times, it holds its own. In the quarter ended March 2009, for instance, the unexpected rise in yields caused the fund to deliver 1.02 per cent (category average: -3.88%). The fund's mandate permits the asset allocation in debt and money market instruments to vary depending on the fund manager's view. Yet, it tends to not deviate much from the average. The only time the maturity exceeded 10 years was in November 2008 (11.48 years).

 The fund prefers corporate bonds and debentures and generally restricts exposure to G-Secs which have not made an appearance in the portfolio since mid-2010. Interestingly, the fund tends to hold certain securities, such as debentures of REC and IRFC, for years.