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SBI Pension Funds Puts Gujarat’s Retirement Gap in Focus

SBI Pension Funds Pushes NPS Awareness in Gujarat as Informal Workforce Remains Largely Outside Pension Cover

Nearly 90% of Gujarat’s workforce remains outside formal pension coverage, according to figures cited by SBI Pension Funds, pointing to a large gap in retirement savings among people who do not receive pension benefits through an employer.

The issue has come into focus as SBI Pension Funds Pvt. Ltd. steps up its National Pension System (NPS) outreach in Gujarat. The company is focusing on retail and corporate subscribers and plans to strengthen its digital services through a forthcoming web application called Sugam NPS.

Gujarat had about 3.08 lakh cumulative gross registrations under the All Citizen NPS category up to the end of financial year 2024-25. During that year, 49,895 new registrations were recorded in the state, including 11,064 by women.

The figures matter because a large share of Gujarat’s workers earn their living outside regular salaried employment. Data cited from the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2025 shows that 56.9% of the state’s workers were self-employed, while 17.3% were casual labourers in the reported employment-status distribution. The figures differ by rural and urban areas and by gender.

For such workers, retirement savings can be harder to maintain because income may not come through a regular employer-linked system. A shopkeeper, small business owner, freelancer or casual worker may have to make personal arrangements for life after work.

The National Pension System is open to citizens outside the traditional government and corporate pension structure. Under the All Citizen Model, NPS Tier I is designed as a retirement savings account, while Tier II is an optional investment account linked to an active Tier I account. NPS subscribers can select a pension fund and choose how their money is allocated within the permitted investment categories.

The pension system has also changed in recent years. One of the biggest changes was the Multiple Scheme Framework (MSF), introduced by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) for non-government subscribers in September 2025. It allows subscribers to choose from different schemes offered by pension fund managers, with different risk and investment profiles.

Under the current rules, NPS subscribers can choose equity, corporate bonds, government securities and certain alternative investments, subject to the limits prescribed by PFRDA. Equity allocation under Active Choice can go up to 75%, while Alternative Investment Funds have a 5% limit. Auto Choice options are also available for people who do not want to decide their asset allocation themselves.

The changes have widened the range of choices available to non-government subscribers. PFRDA has also allowed NPS investments in areas such as regulated Real Estate Investment Trusts, Infrastructure Investment Trusts, eligible Alternative Investment Funds and Gold and Silver ETFs within prescribed limits.

Another change came in May 2026, when PFRDA introduced Retirement Income Schemes and drawdown options under NPS. The move addresses the period after retirement, when subscribers need to turn accumulated savings into a regular income stream while following the applicable NPS rules.

SBI Pension Funds is one of the pension fund managers operating under this system. The company says it had assets under management of about ₹6.14 lakh crore and a market share of around 34% as of August 31, 2026. It began operations in April 2008 and manages NPS funds for government employees, state governments, public sector entities, private companies and individual citizens.

The company has introduced two schemes under the Multiple Scheme Framework: SBI PF NPS Jeevan Swarna Retirement Yojana and SBI PF NPS Akshay Dhara Retirement Yojana. SBI Pension Funds’ published information shows Jeevan Swarna has an equity allocation range of 90% to 100%, while Akshay Dhara has an equity range of 25% to 50% and can hold up to 75% in fixed-income instruments.

The choice of scheme therefore matters for subscribers because the mix of assets can affect how much the value of retirement savings moves over time. People considering NPS need to look at their age, income, investment period and ability to accept market changes before selecting an option.

Pranay Dwivedi, MD & CEO of SBI Pension Funds, said: “Retirement planning needs to begin much earlier in an individual’s financial journey. With nearly 4.8 crore people in Gujarat in the 15–59 age group and more than half of the state’s workforce being self-employed, there is a significant opportunity to bring retirement planning to people who may not have access to traditional employer-backed benefits. NPS can play an important role in enabling individuals to build financial security through disciplined, long-term investing.”

Mr. Pranay went on to say that “India is currently one of the fastest-growing economies, but the critical question we must ask ourselves today is whether Indians are actually retiring richer. Thanks to better healthcare, post-retirement life can now easily stretch 30 to 35 years, requiring a significantly larger financial corpus than previous generations needed to comfortably survive.

We are bringing this conversation specifically to Gujarat because of the state’s remarkable economic contribution and its deeply ingrained habit of saving. Our goal is to transform your existing “bachat no sanskar” (culture of saving) into a “pension no sanskar” (culture of pension).

People often delay retirement planning because they think they need to save a massive amount every month, but giving your investments more time allows you to build substantial wealth with much smaller contributions, as we say here, “tipe tipe sarovar bharay”.

To achieve this financial security, the National Pension System (NPS) serves as the ideal government-backed, market-linked vehicle. At SBI Pension Funds, we are proud to lead this national transition as the largest pension fund in the country, managing a rapidly growing corpus of over ₹6 lakh crore, and we are here to help you start building your long-term wealth today.”

Gujarat’s working population makes the question particularly relevant. A large self-employed workforce means retirement savings cannot depend only on employer contributions. It also puts greater importance on awareness, regular saving and understanding how different investment choices work.

Women are another group reflected in the recent registration figures. Of the 49,895 new All Citizen NPS registrations recorded in Gujarat during FY2024-25, 11,064 were by women. The number provides one measure of women’s participation in voluntary pension saving, although registration figures alone do not show how regularly subscribers contribute or the size of their retirement savings.

SBI Pension Funds is also placing greater emphasis on digital access through Sugam NPS. The wider NPS system already permits online contributions through registered Points of Presence, the eNPS platform and digital payment facilities.

For Gujarat residents who work without a formal employer pension, the central question is likely to remain simple: how much money can be set aside during working years for the years when regular earnings stop?

The growing number of NPS choices gives savers more ways to approach that question. It also makes financial awareness more important, because different schemes carry different investment mixes, costs and levels of market exposure.