Global Fintech Fest 2026: PFRDA plans inflation-linked bonds to offer inflation-protected pension returns

The pension regulator is working on innovative bond issuances that could enable pension fund managers to provide inflation-protected returns to subscribers, as it looks to develop new products for India’s growing pension market, chairman Sivasubramanian Ramann said.

“We need to come up with innovative bond issuances that can help provide inflation-protected outcomes by holding a particular bond,” Raman said on the sidelines of the Global Fintech Fest 2026.

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) chief said guidelines for the product are expected in the next few days, with the rollout to follow shortly.


The move comes as PFRDA works on products that can provide more predictable retirement income, including a guaranteed-return scheme for people outside the government sector. The regulator oversees the National Pension System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY), which have assets under management of Rs 17.6 lakh crore and Rs 58,000 crore, respectively.

Ramann said the regulator has set up a committee of experts to work on a guaranteed-return product, as mandated under the PFRDA Act. While the Unified Pension Scheme for government employees has a built-in guarantee mechanism, the key challenge for a similar product for private-sector and other non-government workers is determining who would provide the guarantee.

“We are looking at multiple products leading up to a guaranteed product,” Ramann said.

PFRDA has also introduced a retirement income scheme that is not guaranteed but aims to increase the corpus available to subscribers during retirement by deploying funds more efficiently between the ages of 60 and 80.

Ramann said annuities remained important but were not inflation-protected, highlighting the need for alternative products.

The regulator is also looking to expand pension coverage among informal-sector workers through NPS Tatkal, which enables account opening through UPI providers. PFRDA plans to leverage the labour ministry’s e-Shram database to help workers open pension accounts digitally and make contributions through UPI.

Ramann said the initiative is aimed at bringing a larger share of India’s informal workforce into the pension system.