Why CEA Nageswaran wants households to move from short-term trading to long-term savings

Indian households have begun to invest more in equities and systematic investment plans over the year.

Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran on Thursday underlined the need for families to also save for their retirement and invest in pensions.

He called for a shift in household investment behaviour from short-term trading to long-term savings, pointing out that investments in long-duration pension assets are crucial for financial security in old age.

“Retirement is not only a short epilogue but nearly two decades,” he said, citing figures that an average Indian man had a life expectancy after 60 of 18.4 years and a woman of 19.6 years.

Read More: States need to improve project preparation, boost private investment, says CEA Nageswaran

Addressing the NPS Diwas 2026, the CEA also highlighted the use of pension money in the economy and said it can be used to invest in infrastructure that requires long-term funds.

Sanjay Lohiya, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, also underlined the importance of pension money for long-term investments in infrastructure and expressed hope that with more people joining in, gradually, the pension funds will be able to provide “patient capital”.

He also highlighted the attractiveness of the National Pension System and noted that even when the Unified Pension Scheme was launched, and government employees had the option to switch, most employees covered under the NPS chose to remain under it. Younger employees, particularly, think that they will get better returns under the NPS than the UPS, he said.

He, however, called upon pension fund managers to remain mindful of the responsibility with which they need to manage the pension corpus of subscribers. "It's one thing to manage a debt fund or a mutual fund and one thing to manage a pension fund,” he said, urging them to not treat it only as another investment scheme that they are handling. “It also puts a lot of responsibility on PFRDA and the people who oversee these funds to somehow keep the trust that people have put in them," Lohiya said.

Must Read: Cabinet set to clear revamped Bilateral Investment Treaty as India woos foreign capital

Meanwhile, PFRDA Chairman S Ramann said it aims to add about 2-3 crore new subscribers to the National Pension System in the next two years. "We are looking at about 20-30 million subscribers coming in the next two years. NPS Tatkal will give us the ability to spread the reach of NPS," he told reporters on the sidelines of the event.

The NPS Tatkal scheme allows opening of NPS accounts through the UPI app by using a KYC-verified bank account, and contributions can be made through UPI. It is expected to help expand coverage to Tier II and Tier III schemes.

He also expressed hope that by 2047, all families will have at least one NPS account.