Renewed thrust on pension scheme

The government wants to make its New Pension Scheme (NPS) more inclusive. It is making renewed efforts to seek voluntary contributions from public and private sector employees.

Widening the net Renewed efforts to broadbase NPS $1-million ADB grant for supporting infrastructure Scheme targets the informal sector workers

To develop the supporting infrastructure, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has extended a grant of $1 million or Rs 4 crore (which will also be managed by ADB) for the project through its Japan Special Fund.

Under the scheme, subscribers will be given two investment options: a fund that invests only in government securities and one which can invest up to 15 per cent of its corpus in equities. Says D.K. Joshi, Principal Economist, CRISIL: “It will benefit people employed in the unorganised sector as there are no such schemes available to them.”

— Manu Kaushik