India remains the world’s fastest-growing large economy, and two ETFs dominate the way U.S. investors buy into that story: the iShares MSCI India ETF (CBOE:INDA) and the WisdomTree India Earnings Fund (NYSEARCA:EPI). On the surface they look interchangeable. Both are unhedged rupee plays on a country where Goldman Sachs notes 65% of the population is below 35 and digital payments have tripled since June 2021. Under the hood, however, they are betting on completely different definitions of what makes an Indian company worth owning, and the gap has been worth roughly eight percentage points over the past three years.
What Each Fund Is Actually Betting On
INDA tracks the MSCI India Index, which weights large- and mid-cap Indian stocks by float-adjusted market capitalization. In practice that means Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Infosys, ICICI Bank, and TCS dominate the top of the fund. The implicit bet is that India’s winners keep winning, that the biggest and most liquid names capture the country’s growth, and that multinational-quality balance sheets deserve the highest weights.
EPI throws that logic out. Its underlying WisdomTree India Earnings Index only holds companies that are actually profitable, then weights each one by its net income. A mid-cap industrial or state-owned energy firm that prints real earnings gets a bigger slice than a fast-growing tech name trading at a premium multiple. EPI is a value-and-profitability bet with genuine small- and mid-cap exposure. INDA is a large-cap growth-and-quality bet.
Where the Difference Shows Up
Look at the return gap. Over the trailing three years, EPI is up 20.28% against INDA’s 12.24%. Extend to five years and EPI’s 33.39% lead widens dramatically over INDA’s 17.96%. Over ten years, EPI has returned 131.47% compared to INDA’s 90.86%.
The current drawdown tells the same story in reverse. India has been hit hard in 2026 on tariff worries and foreign outflows. INDA is down 9.99% year to date and 12.64% over the past year, while EPI is down 9.01% YTD and 11.25% on the year. Earnings-weighting has cushioned the fall because profitable value names carry lower multiples than the growth cohort dominating INDA.
The Practical Comparison
| Feature | INDA | EPI |
|---|---|---|
| Index methodology | MSCI India, market-cap weighted | WisdomTree India Earnings, net-income weighted |
| Cap exposure | Large and mid | Large, mid, and small |
| Expense ratio | 0.61% | 0.85% |
| Dividend frequency | Semi-annual | Quarterly |
| 3-year total return | 12.24% | 20.28% |
INDA is cheaper, more liquid, and more tax-efficient because its market-cap methodology triggers less turnover. EPI’s earnings screen forces annual rebalancing that pushes distributions higher but drags on after-tax returns in a taxable account. Both funds carry the same core risks: single-country concentration, unhedged rupee exposure, and the geopolitical overhang from U.S. tariff policy and the India-China border. (For readers thinking bigger picture about emerging-market growth engines, our Winners You Already Missed report is worth a look.)
The Verdict
EPI is the stronger fund for most investors making this specific choice. It has beaten INDA over three, five, and ten years, held up better in the current drawdown, and gives real exposure to the mid- and small-cap segment where India’s domestic consumption story actually lives. INDA earns its place for tax-sensitive investors in taxable accounts or those who specifically want the mega-cap quality trade: Reliance, HDFC, Infosys, and TCS as a concentrated large-cap bet. What flips the calculus is a return of the growth-over-value regime that dominated 2020 and 2021. If Indian large-cap tech and financials lead the next rally, INDA’s construction will finally work in its favor.
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