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Once the PFRDA Bill is passed by the Indian Parliament, it will enable the government to offer the NPS under a well regulated umbrella, to the remaining working population which is not already covered by any legislated pension or PF scheme, on a voluntary basis.
In this regard, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided technical assistance to the Indian Government during 2004-05 for designing policies for pension reforms for the informal sector workforce. IIEF, in collaboration with the University of New South Wales , was appointed by the ADB to provide this technical assistance to the Department of Economic Affairs.
Under this 12-month project, IIEF designed and commissioned the Indian Retirement Earnings and Savings (IRES) survey 2004 on a stratified random sample of 40,862 earners across 28 Indian States in November 2004. The IRES data was analysed by IIEF's team of researchers and a team of international and domestic experts led Christopher Butel. These experts were engaged by IIEF and UNSW to produce a set of policy recommendations for extending the NPS to the over 300 million unorganised sector workers.
The TA recommendations were submitted to the DEA in June 2005 and included public policy options and imperatives for achieving a broad-based coverage of voluntary pensions in India . The (six) TA Reports included recommendations related to regulations, PFRDA organisation and management structure, as well as market expansion and coverage, products, access and distribution. This ADB TA provided a powerful demonstration of an evidence-led approach to public policy formulation.
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