Last February, Indian Finance Minister Jaswant Singh’s announcement in his budget speech that India was ready to allow private management of pension funds stirred hope among foreign investors of gaining access to India’s vast pool of savings. In January this year India’s first privately-managed pension scheme came into existence.
However, the new scheme is a characteristically modest, some might say, timid beginning towards pension reform. New recruits into government employment will move to a defined contribution pension scheme from this year as opposed to the defined benefit pension that their predecessors enjoy.
