COVID-19 The Global Pandemic: Learning & Take Out for National Pension System (NPS)

Abstract

The SARS Cov-2 (Covid 19) pandemic has shaken the whole world; it has brought the business, education, industry, transport, communications, travel, hospitality almost all the economic activities to a standstill. Accordingly, it has adversely affected the financial markets and stock exchanges across the globe. The stock exchanges, may it be New York Stock Exchange, Dow Jones, London Stock Exchange, Nikkei, Bombay Stock Exchange or National Stock Exchange experienced an unprecedented plunge of 40 to 50% in a period few weeks. This new dynamic of volatility possesses serious questions about the market driven National Pension System (NPS) which endeavor to ensure smooth retirement life for Indian elderly. The volatility in security market will significantly impact the fund managers’ performance and accordingly the retirement benefit of the subscriber. This article has investigated the impacts of pandemic on fund manager’s risk returns profile. We have used three industry standard risk-adjusted returns parameters such as Sharpe ratio, Treynor Ratio and Jensen’s alpha to evaluate the performance of NPS pension fund managers selected under study. The study has also explored the learning from such unexpected crisis for the policy makers for future preparedness. On the basis of finding, it has suggested some measures for long run sustainability of schemes under NPS. Keywords : NPS, PFRDA, Defined benefit, Defined contribution, Pension fund managers, Risk adjusted returns, COVID-19.