India's Growth Runway
India is still growing faster than every large economy — GDP was up 7.8% YoY in Q1 FY26, helped by domestic demand and the government’s capex push. New budgets keep setting aside ₹11 lakh crore–plus for infrastructure because Delhi wants growth closer to 8% to hit the 2047 goal. At the same time, the PLI programmes have pushed manufacturing output up 146% between FY21 and FY25, which is pulling in second-line suppliers and contractors — a space crowded with listed small-caps. Add private capex rising 66% from FY22 to FY25, and you get a clear picture: the “India is building” theme is real, and it’s spilling over into smaller companies.

Where does that money show up first
Not always in the big headline companies. A good chunk of it trickles into “makers” — smaller listed firms that manufacture parts, supply materials, build components for power/rail/roads, serve the urban build-out or plug gaps in domestic consumption. These are the names that pop up in the Nifty Smallcap 250, not in Sensex/Nifty. That index is only 5.2% of NSE free-float but unusually busy, doing 11%+ of total traded value — small companies, big activity. That’s exactly the pocket we wanted to systematise.

But small-caps don’t climb in a straight line
Every time there’s excitement — PLI progress, a strong infra award book, or even a good GST print — small-caps run harder than large-caps. Then SEBI/AMFI reminds everyone about froth, small-cap fund inflows cool (in 2024 they even turned negative after SEBI’s note), and the same segment gives back gains faster than Nifty. By late FY25, the regulator was again saying valuations in small/mid needed earnings to catch up. So the opportunity is real, but the holding experience is jagged. A small-cap portfolio here cannot be “buy everything and wait.”

What Rising India Makers is meant to do
Rising India Makers lives inside the Nifty Smallcap 250 and checks, every month:
“Which of these India-growth names is the market actually rewarding right now — and which ones have cooled or become hard to trade?”
If price is strong and the stock is clearly tied to the domestic build–make–serve theme, it can enter. If its momentum rank drops, or liquidity slips, or a corporate event makes it awkward, it goes out. That way the portfolio hugs the current India-growth layer, not a year-old list.

The Rule Book underneath
Each month we take the latest Nifty Smallcap 250 list and throw out names that fail liquidity, investability or corporate-action checks — because small-caps that look good on paper but can’t be exited are not useful. On what’s left, we run short-to-intermediate momentum within small-caps; we are not asking “is this beating Nifty 50”, we are asking “is this beating other small-caps this month”. Then we check for “India-growth fit”: is this name supplying, building or serving the capex/consumption runway that the Budget, MoSPI and multilateral forecasters are all leaning on for the next 3–5 years?

From that ranked list we build a basket of 15–20 stocks. Better ranks can get a bit more space, but stock and pocket caps stop one story — say defence, or rail adjacencies, or EMS — from hijacking the whole portfolio. That matters right now because small-cap performance has lagged midcaps over longer windows, so we need the current winners, not a crowded sub-segment.

Why Monthly matters here
Look at the last 18–20 months in small-caps: strong run → SEBI caution → MF inflow slowdown → index wobble → next narrative. If you only rebalance quarterly, you will still be holding the old infra/materials/defence winners when the tape has already moved to logistics or consumption suppliers. A monthly, rules-led refresh lets us admit the fresh, better-trending India names and quietly retire tired ones. We only touch mid-month when a clear rule breaks; that keeps turnover practical for small-caps, which is important when traded values thin out.

How it will actually behave
In phases when Delhi is announcing big capex, states are drawing down the 50-year loan window, and services/consumption data is strong, this portfolio will look very “present”: more names from construction inputs, engineering parts, logistics, urban services. When the market rotates to large-caps/defensives, or when small-cap funds slow intake like they did after the March 2024 note, the same rules will push out stalled, illiquid ideas and hold a tighter, more tradeable list. That is not randomness — it is the model mirroring how small-cap flows themselves behave.

Who should(and shouldn't) use it
Rising India Makers is for investors who want the domestic growth flavour but don’t want to guess each month whether manufacturing, consumption or services will lead. It’s for people okay with a list that changes every month and with small-cap-level swings. It is not for someone who needs index-like smoothness or who wants to hold every stock for years regardless of liquidity.