'I am adding pharma, IT and hospital stocks to the funds' portfolios'

With over two decades of experience, Atul Bhole has made a name for himself as a fund manager oriented towards quality and growth investing. After an eight-year stint at DSP Mutual Fund, Bhole recently moved to Kotak Mutual Fund, where he manages the Kotak Emerging Equity Fund and the Kotak Equity Hybrid Fund. Of these, the former is the second largest mid-cap fund in India. Recently, we spoke with Bhole about his stock-picking philosophy, the rationale behind portfolio adjustments and whether investors should anticipate any shifts in the investment strategy of the funds he oversees. You've generally been a fund manager with a strong quality and growth orientation in mind. At Kotak, there's a more institutionalised framework, with the selection of companies tilted towards GARP (growth at a reasonable price) strategy. Any changes you had to make to your investment style and processes since joining? I agree that the processes are based on the GARP framework and the team's strategies are very strong at Kotak. But at the fund management level, each individual fund manager is given a lot of freedom in terms of the way he wants to select stocks and construct portfolios. At Kotak, our experienced analyst team covers over 450 companies. However, the individual fund manager can exercise discretion while taking the ideas from the analyst. So,