Pension Bazaar Unveiled To Bridge India's Pension Gap Via Digital Marketplace

A new digital marketplace for the National Pension System (NPS) is now available for potential subscribers. The digital platform offered by PB Fintech, an online financial marketplace company that operates Policy Bazaar and Paisa Bazaar, has now entered the pension segment by launching Pension Bazaar, providing easy access to NPS and other pension and retirement planning related products, such as Atal Pension Yojana, Public Provident Fund (PPF), Senior Citizens Saving Scheme (SCSS), pension ULIPs, government bonds, etc., for investors. The PFRDA chairperson, S. Ramann, unveiled the digital marketplace in an event on January 13, 2026, in Gurugram, organised by PB Fintech.

At the unveiling, Ramann said, “Pension is not just a stream of income, it's a stream of benefits that we need to live the kind of lifestyle that we've been used to for 40 years. The one thing that happens when you grow old like me is you tend to eat less, but you still want to sort of enjoy your travel and other such activities. So we have to start building from an early age.”

As pension coverage is low in India, to improve the situation and bring everyone under the pension security umbrella, PFRDA has recently made several changes in the NPS, such as multi-scheme framework (MSF), increasing the withdrawal limit to 100 per cent of the corpus at superannuation if the corpus is less than Rs 8 lakh, increasing the exit age from earlier 75 to 85, changing the schemes' names for better understanding, and so on.

He said that the term “pension” may sound uninteresting to youngsters, and they prefer calling it wealth creation. Many of the youngsters look at the word pension and say no, “that's not for me, I'm too young, what do I need a pension for? But just think of it as creation of wealth and the power of compounding, that's all you need to think of.”

PFRDA's plans consist of making NPS more than just a pension product, but a comprehensive product for social security, including succession planning.

Yashish Dahiya, Chairman and Group CEO, PB Fintech, said, “The middle class of India is about 30 crore people today and in the next 15 years will be about 60 to 70 crore people. That is what is required for a country to become developed: to have 50 per cent of its population as the middle class. And I think we will get there in the next 15 years, or so. I think one of the principal requirements for that time is social security for the middle class.”

“I think within the insurance sphere, there was a limited amount you could do for pensions alone. So we decided to launch Pension Bazaar with a very clear intent that in the next 10 years, pension and health should be our largest two segments.”

He added, “NPS today is one of the most efficient products in the market, which is precisely why distribution fees, etc., are so low, and a bulk of the benefit is being passed on to the consumer. And we need to work with the government to make sure that people become aware of this product and buy it in large numbers. That is the intent of creating Pension Bazaar.

“It won't be just the pension product. We will also try to bring healthcare and health insurance along with us. We want to bring that aspect also into this to create a holistic solution for pensions for our middle-class people.”

Ramann emphasised taking responsibility for saving for old age instead of depending on the government.

“Grow rich before you grow old. That is really what we need, our citizens of the country to stand on their own feet. And from a government perspective, the last thing a government wants is half its population at the age of 50 or 60. Looking towards the government for taking care of its basic needs, like your housing, your medical facilities, and your monthly income, is something that you have to take care of,” he said.

With only around 22 per cent of senior citizens having a pension security, as per the Niti Ayog’s Position Paper in 2019. This means around 78 per cent of India’s senior citizens do not have access to any pension, and this highlights the deep old-age income insecurity and the need for greater penetration into the social security segment.