What is the difference between Growth and Dividend options?

Some investors get into Mutual Funds because they want to create wealth over the long term. They start investing from the early part of their careers. Then there are investors approaching retirement or have a retirement corpus to invest that can supplement their other sources of income during the retired phase of life. Mutual Funds offer two options to suit these two contrasting investment needs. 

A Growth option reinvests the profits made by the fund in its underlying securities to drive future growth and fund value. A growth plan has a higher NAV as profits from the securities are ploughed back into the scheme and the power of compounding comes into play.

A Dividend Plan distributes the profits made by the fund in the form of dividend income from