New Delhi, May 30 -- There is a silent crisis brewing in Indian households: the retirement crisis. India's young demographic may promise a significant economic dividend, but the absence of structured retirement planning poses an equally significant challenge-one that most households will eventually have to confront.

It was with this objective that the National Pension System (NPS) was envisioned. Designed as a retirement solution for India's vast workforce employed in the informal sector or private jobs, NPS focused heavily on the accumulation phase. The deaccumulation phase-how retirees generate a steady income after retirement-was largely left to annuities.

Under the original NPS structure, subscribers could build a retirement corpus ...