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CEA flags short-term savings habit as key hurdle to pension coverage

V Anantha Nageswaran said Indians are increasingly willing to take market risk, but have yet to commit savings for longer tenures needed to finance retirement

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India’s growing appetite for equities and mutual funds has not yet translated into a comparable shift towards long-term retirement savings, Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said on Thursday, flagging the country’s short-term savings behaviour as a key challenge to ensuring financial security in old age.

“The Indian saver has shown a willingness to accept market risk—or so we would like to believe. What the saver has not yet done at scale is to commit savings for a longer tenure,” Nageswaran said at the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority’s (PFRDA’s) NPS Divas 2026.

“That is a different decision, because in general Indians do not optimise for the long term.”