You must have heard a lot of talk from the government about the coming pension reforms, but never seen any action. But things are picking up steam now with the finance ministry appointing an agency to help put the new pension system in place.

Invest India Economic Foundation, (IIEF) the convenor of Project OASIS, on the basis of which pension reforms in India are moving ahead, has been appointed as a consultant to the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA)for the next 12 months. Under this contract, it will assist the government in operationalising the new pension system for civil servants and informal sector workers through a series of activities and studies relating to pension system reform and implementation. The first thing they will be putting together is a Process Engineering Manual, which will help the newly constituted Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) to frame operational guidelines for the new pension system.

Gautam Bhardwaj, director, IIEF, is directly responsible for the DEA assignment. Right now, he's fixing the nuts and bolts at IIEF's new office in Delhi's Vasant Vihar along with the new pension system. IIEF, which has been working on capacity building in financial markets so far, will now focus its work on two of the most important and uphill tasks in Indian financial sector reforms - implementing pension reforms and improving financial literacy. Clearly, pension tension doesn't faze them.