Any scheme in which I can invest now and will help my parents during their old age?

There are a few options for your investment requirement.

First is the go for SIP contribution for equity or balanced mutual funds which have become a good investment options. In SIP you purchase every month for a fixed amount some units of a particular mutual fund depending upon the prevailing NAV (net asset value). After some time it will become a corpus and then you can switch to some monthly income scheme mutual funds which give some return every month depending upon market conditions.

Please note that mutual funds invest their funds in shares and debt instruments so if there is a fall or adverse scenario they will be affected accordingly. But in case of a rising equity market you will get good returns.

So returns are linked with risks.

Now, another alternative is go for banks and post office recurring deposits where you have to deposit a fixed amount every month and after 5 years invest the maturity proceeds in monthly interest schemes in banks or post office. This is the safe heaven and you can get a fixed return of 7.5 to 8% on your investment.

You can also keep your eggs in different baskets by investing partly in mutual fund and partly in safer places like banks.

With the increasing trend of inflation to the tune of 8 percent per year, we have to look out the possibilities where our investment should multiply in such a proportion so as to get a substantial return after a specified period thus offsetting the inflationary trend. You may look forward to the funds listed below-
1) You may take a SIP fund of a specified amount - to be deducted monthly for a specific period from say ICICI Bank or HDFC Bank. The longer the period, the better. Such instruments should update be a amalgated with twin funds such as Equity and Balanced Funds and the percentage of each component is to be decided by you after the consultation of the Fund - manager. Equity - funds may provide you huge returns but the same is subjected to market - risk and hence blending of Balanced - fund would be essential to offset such risks. Such corpses may yield you an average return of around 15 percent per year considering all the related risks and market - fluctuations.
2) There are also debt instruments of different funds such as Birla Sun Life, ICICI Prudential, HDFC debt - fund where you may invest regularly after tracking the performance of such instruments. These funds may fetch you a healthy return within a specified period.
3) You may open accounts of your parents under the Sr. Citizens Scheme being operated by some specified banks such as Canara - bank, ICICI bank or even from LIC and in that way, they are likely to be get an attractive returns - monthly, quarterly or yearly depending upon their mode of selection.
4) You may open up accounts of your parents for fixed deposit in JANA BANK offering them a whopping interest of 9.1 percent.
5) A part of savings may be parked to the reputed companies in the form shares such as steel, pharma, health - care so that the proceeds may yield you attractive return in the long run.
Before you proceed for such instrument, you may take up suggestion from the financial - experts for the right selection of portfolios.

You can start with a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) now with regular investment on a particular date of the month. There are different kinds of Mutual funds in the market depending on risk appetite. Funds range from fixed income with almost no risk to mid- cap and small- cap funds which are considered quite risky. The risk here means the risk of deviation from the expected return and the market-related risk. For example - If you invest Rs 10,000 per month for 60 months and expect 12% return, at the end of 10 years your corpus collected would be Rs 8,24,863.

You can then either opt for a systematic withdrawal plan (SWP) for equated withdrawals every month or shift the entire amount to a fixed income plan or some other risk-free instrument which gives a monthly payout.

1. Mutual fund provides an appropriate answer to your situation. If you are a conservative investor, invest in a good debt-oriented hybrid fund for 3-5 years through SIP mode. If you are a person who can take little bit risk invest in a good equity-oriented mutual fund for 3-5 years through SIP mode. Although return should not be predicted, from the past trends, you can expect a return of 10% CAGR p.a. from a good debt-oriented hybrid scheme and 12% CAGR p.a. from a good equity-oriented hybrid scheme in five years.

2. You can get a list of good funds in each category from the following websites:-
(a) www.valueresearchonline.com (b) www.morningstar.in (c) www.moneycontrol.com

3. Then after accumulating the amount for 5 years, invest the money in a good annuity scheme for another 5 years. After around ten years or so, you (your parents) can get a regular income as a pension.

Instead of Schemes better to go for life insurance policies from SBI or LIC. e.g Jeevan Nidhi. Which has tenure from 5 to 35 years and it gives monthly returns after tenure. Investment amount has no limitations so all you need to decide and go for it. Before investing make sure you gather all details of plan.

Monthly investments to give reasonable returns often have a longer-term horizon thatn 3-5 years. It would ideally be atleast 10 years and upwards.

The concept you are looking for is a monthly SIP.
What I would suggest is split the pool of the monthly amount you can spare and then choose 2-3 investment tools.

1.Mutual funds - choose to invest in the top two funds 50% in Equity based MF (higher return, little more risk) and 50% in balanced MF(lower return, better risk profile). This would help a person with an average risk appetite for investments.

2.Choose one part of the investment to go into a debt based MF. This is a short investment that gives MORE liquidity and a better return than a fixed deposit.If the market is in for a crash, then you can withdraw this and investment as a lump sum is some equity-based MF. This is also better in the short-term when the market is scaling new heights as there would be a fear or a chance of correction(mini-crash).

3.Plan to invest the last 1/3 if possible a smaller lump sum in NSC that gets locked in for 5 years. But you can seek the help of your tax accountant to claim tax exemption for the interest earned every year, if it's shown as re-investment. This has a better safety net than the above two and better returns than fixed deposit.

There are many sites that give good details and comparison. Choose one of the top 5 funds, see the CRISIL ranking and the returns by 3-5 years.
https://www.outlookindia.com/outlookmoney/tag/Mutual-funds
https://www.moneycontrol.com/mutualfundindia/

As a fresher, there are financial planners who advise you for a small fee, a tailor-made plan which gives the best growth for your X amount invested and the time horizon. If you set up the SIP and use them, they usually waive off the charges as they get paid by the fund houses. Once you start, you can setup a 6 month or sos review of the invest plan if the market changes or to assess is the money growing as expected or we need to change.

The bottom line is there is no single option, choose well, spread the risk, have one arm that is safe, in the event of a crash or an underperforming market at the time you can to take the money out.