For investments abroad, opt for direct stocks

livemint.com:

₹14,000. The price of one DR with Apple as underlying at NSE IFSC is, say, $6.8. At a conversion rate of 83, it is approximately ₹564.

Hence you are buying approximately 4% of a single stock of Apple, with commensurate benefits in price appreciation, dividends, etc. Investments in stocks abroad will be part of India’s Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS) of $250,000 per financial year. At an exchange of 83 to the dollar, it is a limit of ₹2.07 crore per financial year.

Apart from NSE IFSC, there are global brokerage platforms with presence in India where you can open an account, get your money converted from rupee to dollar or any other relevant currency, deposit the dollars in your account, and invest in global stocks—US or other markets. So far so good. In any investment vehicle, for e.g.

MF or Portfolio Management Services (PMS) or Alternative Investment Funds (AIF), there is a professional fund management team. If you are a do-it -ourself (DIY) investor, you may not have the bandwidth to analyse stocks and manage your portfolio. Hence, you may need to go through a wealth manager with global capabilities, one who can guide you and with whom you can have an interaction on the global stock selection rationale.

Taxation of global stocks is akin to that of unlisted shares, as these are not listed on any stock exchange in India. Over a holding period of two years, it is eligible for long term capital gains (LTCG) taxation. The taxation rate for LTCG is 20% with the benefit of indexation.