Pension savings may get bigger infrastructure play as PFRDA explores direct project exposure

New Delhi: The government on Thursday stressed channeling investment from the pension sector into long-term infrastructure projects, as Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) chairman S Ramann said that the regulator is looking to provide more infrastructure investment avenues for pension money including taking direct exposure to large infrastructure projects.

Ramann made these remarks on the sidelines of NPS Diwas, where new pension products, including NPS Swasthya, NPS Tatkal and NPS Bharat Fund of Funds, were launched. In his opening remarks at the event, chief economic advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran said pension savings are among the longest-duration and most patient capital that the economy can have and a country that must build infrastructure over the next few decades needs exactly that type of capital.

"As pension assets grow, that is where they can do the most good in financing long-lived assets with some underlying return," he said, adding that pension coverage in India continues to remain inadequate. PFRDA, intermediaries and households must shed the habit of short-term thinking and consider long-term investing, which may not be exciting but which is doable, sustainable and which makes for peace of mind in old age, the CEA said.


Financial services secretary Sanjay Lohia said the government is hopeful of attracting significant foreign investment in the Indian infrastructure sector as these investors see long-term value in it.