July 16 (Reuters) - Jio Blackrock has received approval

from India's markets regulator to launch four passive index

funds, the Securities and Exchange Board of India's website

showed on Wednesday.

The funds will mirror four indices, namely, Nifty Midcap 150

, Nifty smallcap 250, Nifty Next 50

and the benchmark index tracking Indian government bonds with

8-13 years maturity.

Jio BlackRock, a joint venture between billionaire Mukesh

Ambani's Jio Financial Services and BlackRock ( BLK ),

plans to launch nearly a dozen equity and debt funds in India by

year-end, Reuters reported last week.

The asset manager is entering the country's

72.2-trillion-rupee ($844 billion) mutual fund market with a mix

of active and passive offerings, aiming to leverage its digital

reach to sidestep traditional distributor networks.

The asset manager has raised over $2.1 billion across three

debt mutual fund schemes, attracting investments from 90

institutional investors and 67,000 retail investors so far.

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane

Venkatraman and Mrigank Dhaniwala)