PFRDA to train 75K people to drive NPS

Pension fund regulator PFRDA proposes to train 75,000 people who will form a "totally committed" workforce for the implementation of governments National Pension System. Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is in the process of hiring training institute(s) that "has/ have the capability to train and create a totally committed workforce that would become the driving force for implementation of NPS".

As per the Request for Proposal, the regulator proposes to cover 600 district head quarters across the country covering about 45 participants per session with an objective to train around one employee per branch/uploading office. There would be about 1,670 sessions. "Thus, in all approximately, 75,000 participants are to be trained," the RFP document said.

As per the RFP, the regulator proposes "to have services of training institute(s)/professional institute(s) for training of employees of Points of Presence (POPs, POP-SPs/APY-SPs/ Corporates/ retirement advisers/or any other stakeholders/intermediaries as decided by PFRDA under NPS...".

Currently, NPS has more than 1.14 crore subscribers with total Asset Under Management (AUM) of more than Rs 1.09 lakh crore. NPS is a voluntary, defined contribution retirement savings scheme designed to enable the subscribers to make optimum decisions regarding their future through systematic savings during their working life.

Individual savings are pooled into a pension fund which are invested by PFRDA regulated professional fund managers as per the approved investment guidelines into the diversified portfolios comprising of government bonds, bills, corporate debentures and shares.