<div>Despite the Union government’s push to improve the pension system in the country, Indian retirement system has been ranked last in the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index.</div><div> </div><div>India's index value fell from 43.5 in 2014 to 40.3 in 2015, primarily because of a recent review conducted by the Economic Intelligence Unit that showed a material reduction in its household savings rate. </div><div> </div><div>“The National Pension System (NPS) is gradually gaining popularity in India. Continuing to improve education and communication will help increase coverage of pension arrangements for the working population in the organized sector, particularly popularizing the corporate model of NPS among Indian employers”, said Anil Lobo, India Business Leader for Retirement, Mercer India.</div><div> </div><div>He further added that with the introduction of schemes like Atal Pension Yojana (APY) in June, should encourage workers in the unorganized sector to voluntarily save for retirement, thus Improving India’s rank in the index.</div><div> </div><div>Denmark has been rated as the country with the best retirement system globally for the fourth consecutive year in 2015, while Australia, Germany, Japan, Singapore and the UK have increased their pension age to offset the increase in life expectancies.</div><div> </div><div>Denmark and Netherlands are the only countries to achieve an ‘A’ grade in the history of the index while Singapore has been ranked the highest among Asian countries for a retirement system</div><div> </div><div>The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index (MMGPI) report 2015 is now in its seventh year, and has measured 25 retirement income systems against more than 40 indicators, under the sub-indices of adequacy, sustainability and integrity. The report covers almost 60% of the global population, and also suggests how governments can provide adequate and sustainable benefits that protect their citizens against longevity risk, ie. the risk of their aging population outliving their savings. This year's MMGPI looked beyond the annual rankings to observe changes over the last seven years and assess which pension systems will continue to deliver and which ones are at risk.</div>
