Sivasubramanian Ramann
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The country’s National Pension System (NPS) subscriber base has grown significantly, surpassing 90 million by October 2025 while its combined Assets Under Management (AUM) along with Atal Pension Yojana (APY) crossed ₹16 lakh crore, said PFRDA, (Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority)Chairperson, Sivasubramanian Ramann in Bengaluru on Thursday.
PFRDA was committed to the vision of a pensioned society, ensuring that pension coverage reached all sections of the private sector, he said adding the authority has a target to bring 25 crore private-sector citizens under the pension net over the next five years.
“Over the last six months, PFRDA has undertaken several measures to enhance subscriber flexibility, organised awareness programmes across 30 Tier-II and Tier-III cities, and plans to expand outreach to 100 cities by March 2026,’’ Mr. Ramann further said.
According to him, PFRDA is focusing on key segments such as platform workers, agripreneurs and MSMEs. These expansion efforts are complemented by strengthening distribution channels, including the introduction of the Multiple Scheme Framework (MSF), which enables pension funds to design segment-specific schemes and permits up to 100% equity investment under MSF.
PFRDA’s subscriber base included government (central & state), corporate, and all-citizens (including those in the informal sector) and various financial inclusion initiatives for gig/platform workers and farmers further boosted its base, he added.
Addressing the media persons here, Mr. Ramann said, NPS encouraged regular contributions throughout a person’s working life much like a systematic investment plan (SIP) that built a sizable retirement corpus through compounding over decades. These disciplined savings besides serving as a tax saving instrument while being employed help beneficiaries prepare for a stable post-retirement financial planning without being dependent on sporadic investments, mortgaging gold or uncertain post-retirement income, he further added.
He also said, NPS has consistently delivered competitive returns since inception, with even the composite scheme carrying only 15% equity exposure generating returns of over 9%, reinforcing NPS as a robust and reliable retirement solution.
He also indicated that under revised regulations, NPS is expected to become more inclusive, subscriber-friendly, and aligned with the evolving retirement needs of citizens.
Published – December 18, 2025 09:10 pm IST
