The first International Pension Research Conference (IRCP) in New Delhi concluded 2025, which was organized by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). The two -day conference was inaugurated by Shri Pankaj Chaudhary, Minister of State for Finance, Government of India on 3 April. The purpose of the conference was to consult important aspects in the field of old age security of India.
It is necessary to make pension for all the national priority: Mr. Pankaj Chaudhary his inaugural speech, while emphasizing on India’s demographic change, said that by 2050, every fifth population of India would be more than 60 years, making it to include pension system and to provide economic freedom to the old population. “Pension for All” should be made a national priority.
Launch of Unified Pension System (UPS): Strong base for future The Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Mr. Nagaraju Madirala, while discussing the changes in the pension framework, highlighted the important role of the UPS. UPS provides 50% of the average salary at the time of retirement. He said that India’s pension property is only 17% of GDP, which is much lower than the average OECD, which outlined the difference in retirement preparations.
NPS has played an important role in Indian pension sector PFRDA President Dr. Deepak Mohanti said that the National Pension Scheme (NPS) has become the mainstay of India’s pension sector, with a fund of 8.4 crore subscribers and a fund of Rs 14.4 lakh crore. In addition, emphasis was also laid on strengthening the pension system from digital and technical point of view.
Major sessions organized in the conference Three major panel discussions were held on the first day of the conference. The first session was on “Pension for Future: Building Resilient Old Age Income Security”, in which experts discussed the challenges of pension cover strategies of various countries and especially informal sectors and pension in Gig economy. The second session was on the “global investment practices”, considering the design and investment methods of pension products. The third session discussed regulatory coordination and development for pension products.
Research paper presentations and panel discussions on the second day The second day’s sessions discussed “Financial Literacy for Sustainable Retirement Plan” and “Pension Fund Investment: Risk and Profit”. In these sessions, experts consider to increase financial literacy for the retirement scheme, target various population and create investment strategies for pension funds.
Prize distribution and conclusion At the conclusion of the conference, prizes were distributed for research papers, in which Rajan Raju, Ravi Sarogi, Pankhuri Sinha and Lokesh Reddy were honored for presenting the best research papers. Finally, PFRDA Executive Director
