Pension Reform Initiative in India(by Meena Chaturvedi)
Abstract:
Pension Policy in India has traditionally been based on financing through employer and employee participation. As a result the coverage has been restricted to the organized sector workers and a vast majority of the workforce in the unorganized sector has been denied access to formal channels of old age financial support. Further, the existing mandatory and voluntary private pension system is characterized by limitations like fragmented regulatory framework, lack of individual choice and portability, lack of uniform standards and non-compliance with international best practices on regulations. The system also suffers from very high incidence of administrative cost, low real rate of returns, and has become unsustainable. The last six years, from 2000 to 2006, have seen a marked shift in pension policy in India and introduction of a new pension system. This talk will elaborate on the recent initiatives and reforms in the pension system in India, including setting up of the Interim Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (October 2003), introduction of a New Pension System (December 2003), and introduction of the PFRDA Bill in Parliament (March 2005).
Profile of the Speaker:
Ms. Meena Chaturvedi, a senior civil servant of the Government of India, is currently the Executive Director of Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA). She did her Masters in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, Delhi, India and has held a number of important assignments both at the federal and provincial levels during the last eighteen years. She is a member of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service (batch 1987), and has led the audit of a large number of commercial and other organizations including various ministries, public sector enterprises, autonomous organizations within India as also organizations of the United Nations like the UNHCR’s regional office at Mexico, INSTRAW at Santo Domingo and ISBA office at Kingston, Jamaica. She also worked as Director, Budget, for the Government of India during 2001-2004 where she was involved with preparation as well as implementation of the budget of the federal government. As Director, Budget, she represented the Government of India in OECD’s Senior Budget Officers Meeting of non-member countries at Bangkok and Singaporepresented the Fiscal Responsibility legislation of Government of India with which she has been closely associated right from inception. She was a member of the working group on Implementation of performance budgeting in India and was associated with several key fiscal reforms initiated by the Government of India. Prior to joining her current assignment as Executive Director of PFRDA, Ms. Chaturvedi worked as Professor at the National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM)where she taught Economics, Public Financial Management, and Auditing.