What are the best options to invest money other than mutual funds in India?

With a long time horizon to invest (5 plus years), you can look at direct equity as the best way to grow wealth.

The question hints that mutual funds have not been impressive in their performance. While they do offer multiple fund classes, it is true that on the equity side, 3 yr and 5 year returns have been mediocre. Do not go by the 10 year and 15 year track records because they would carry survivorship bias, ie poor performers get weeded out leaving only the better ones standing.

On the fixed income side, my favourite investments (other than Mutual funds) are:

• PPF
• Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana
• Debt Funds

Investments on the equity side:

• Index Funds or ETFs
• Direct Equity, but go for it only if you have a SEBI RIA advisor who operates an unbiased platform. Check their values[1]. Check their investment philosophy[2]. Compare their performance[3] to see the results.