China, as the most populous country in the world, is ageing rapidly. Against the background of dramatic demographic changes in this century, China’s current pension system is badly structured, and not able to cope with the rapid ageing population. The Chinese government is well aware of...

Pension assets have seen rapid growth world-wide over the past decades, although they suffered large losses during the global financial crisis of 2007–2008. Such growth is notably due to both structural and parametric pension reforms since the 1980s. In the Asian region too, the pension...

China has adopted a wide-ranging program of pension reform since the late 1990s. The new pension system has replaced the pre-existing enterprise-based system. This paper analyzes the background of this reform, surveys the progress of China’s pension reform, describes its principal...

In the long term, there is little doubt that China will be better off with a single and unified pension insurance system covering the whole country, just as most of other countries do. In the short term, however, it is feasible for China to establish only a province-based pension system, a...

The poor women in developing countries are burdened with the dual responsibility of taking care of housework and the need to supplement household income to meet the subsistence needs. The on-going flexibalisation process world over has no doubt created new jobs, most of them informal, but they...

The paper has argued that to expand coverage of micro-pensions, social entrepreneurship (along with social responsibility) will be needed by the financial sector, including the MFIs, insurance companies and mutual funds. Such entrepreneurship should aim to drastically reduce overall transaction...

Non-contributory social security is increasingly attracting the attention of developing country policymakers and observers, not least as a mechanism to help address the perceived failure of contributory social security to reduce poverty in developing countries. This development is most visible...

Budget speech 2008-09 by Finance Minister Dr. Thomas Issac

This is a case study of the Yeshasvini Health Insurance Scheme for rural farmers and peasants in Karnataka. The scheme, now in its second year of operation, covers 2.2 million farmers and peasants who pay an annual premium of Rupees 60 ($1.50) for comprehensive coverage of all surgical...

In developed financial and capital markets all financial intermediaries such as banks, insurance companies, and pension funds are well regulated. India is the first country in Asia to establish an independent regulator for the pensions sector. The regulator is expected to do much to integrate...