Indians continue to underestimate their retirement corpus need, shows HDFC Pension’s NPS Preference Index 2026

Indians continue to underestimate their retirement corpus need, shows HDFC Pension’s NPS Preference Index 2026 - While preference for NPS as a saving instrument rises, knowing the right corpus sits way below recommended levels Mumbai, September 28, 2026: HDFC Pension Fund Management Ltd., one of India's leading pension fund managers, today, unveiled the second edition of its flagship research NPS Preference Index Study 2026. The research highlights key behavioural insights amongst Indians towards retirement planning and their preference towards the National Pension Scheme (NPS) as an instrument for retirement planning. The detailed report was unveiled by Mr. S. Ramann – Chairperson, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) and Mr. Sriram Iyer – MD & CEO, HDFC Pension Fund Management Ltd. The 2026 study showed India’s NPS Preference Index rising to 57, up three points from the inaugural 2023 reading of 54. The gain was led by Consideration, which climbed six points to 59, ahead of Familiarity (58, up three points) and Appeal (56, up two points), indicating that Indian savers are moving from passive awareness of NPS to active evaluation of the product. The readings are made on a scale of 0 to 100 by the research team. The other interesting finding was on the ideal corpus required for retirement needs. Indians have estimated their ideal retirement corpus target to Rs 1.5 crore, up from Rs 1.34 crore in 2023. However, this amount remained below ten times average annual household income, pointing to a continued gap between what consumers believe they will need and what retirement actually costs. Speaking at the unveiling of the second edition of NPS Preference Index Study 2026, Mr. Sriram Iyer – MD & CEO, HDFC Pension Fund Management Ltd., said “As India’s retirement story is building steadily, our industry, guided by our regulator, plays a critical role in empowering Indians with a compelling product proposition that will help them build a strong corpus for their retirement needs. I believe this report, with deep insights into consumer behaviour and sentiments towards NPS, will play a critical role in further sharpening how we enable Indians build their corpus for their retirement. Seeing a rise in preference index is an indication that we are moving in the right direction, however, there is more ground to cover to help consumers know more about the benefits of retirement planning with NPS.” He added, “While we are seeing improvement in Consideration for NPS, it is essential to convert this into enrolment. We will pick the insights from the study and focus on areas including sustained education, and engagement with our customers.”