New Delhi, Sept. 24 -- Ask any HR head or CFO of a large Indian company a simple question: how many of your eligible employees have opted in to corporate NPS? The answers are strikingly consistent-and strikingly low. Despite more than 29,000 companies enrolling for the scheme, participation among eligible private-sector employees continues to stagnate at about 5-6%.

This is not a failure of the product. It is a failure of the default.

The corporate NPS ecosystem is robust-attractive tax incentives, low fund management charges, strong long-term returns and flexibility unmatched by most retirement instruments. And yet, for millions of salaried Indians, it remains underutilized. The core issue is design: corporate NPS relies on employees v...