With reference to investments, consider the following : I. Bonds II. Hedge Funds III. Stocks IV. Venture Capital How many of the above are treated as Alternative Investment Funds?

Gives SEBI's definition of an AIF as a 'privately pooled investment vehicle' collecting funds from investors to invest per a policy.

A student could use the distinction between an 'investment vehicle' (a fund) and a 'security' (a bond) on a world map of financial instrument types to infer that a bond (an instrument) is likely different from an AIF (a pooled fund).

States NIIF is registered as a Category II AIF and that NIIF may invest in both equity and debt (market borrowings).

From this, one can infer AIFs can hold debt instruments (like bonds) — a student could therefore distinguish 'AIFs can invest in bonds' from 'bonds are AIFs' and check which is being claimed.

Describes NIIF as an AIF-type vehicle used as an alternative source of long-term capital for infrastructure, indicating AIFs are funds for channeling capital.

A learner could combine this with general finance knowledge that funds (pooled vehicles) channel capital by buying instruments (e.g., bonds), supporting the view that bonds are investible assets held by AIFs rather than being AIFs themselves.

Explains InvITs and REITs are SEBI-regulated trusts that pool money and invest in assets, analogous to AIFs as pooled investment structures.

Using this pattern that SEBI-regulated vehicles are structures that pool investor money to buy assets, a student can extend that bonds are likely assets these vehicles may buy, not the vehicle itself.

Notes SEBI's role in approvals for foreign investment in government and corporate bonds, showing bonds are treated as tradable securities subject to regulator rules distinct from fund registration.

A student could combine this with the AIF-definition to reason that bonds are securities under SEBI oversight while AIFs are a separate category of registered pooled funds that may invest in such securities.