India The SPARSH Revolutionises Defence Pension Administration.

The System for Pension Administration - Raksha (SPARSH) has become a pioneer project in the modernisation of the Indian defence pension administration. Since its introduction to eliminate the sluggish and discrepant legacy processes, SPARSH has become the largest digital pension platform in the world to serve defence personnel. It has also been able to onboard more than 31.5 lakh pensioners in India and Nepal by 2025, which guarantees efficiency, transparency and timely payment of pensions.

Overcoming the Legacy Discrepancies.

The long-standing irregularities in pensions are the largest accomplishment of SPARSH. Within 6.43 lakh cases, 5.60 lakh cases have been reconciled and this has been found to be a success rate of 87%. This has given the retired soldiers and their families financial security at the expense of manual interventions. Automation has helped reduce greatly the human factor in terms of human error and the pensioners are not denied their due benefits that entangle in lengthy court battles.

Faster Grievance Redressal

The other innovation has been in grievance management. The average time to solve a case was 56 days in April 2025; in the middle of the year, it was down to only 20 days. Digital case tracking and proactive checks have even been used to identify and rectify cases at SPARSH, disbursing cases like Rs3.02 crore to 48 pensioners in May 2025. These advances have enhanced confidence of the pensioners.

Outreach and Awareness Activities.

It is important to note that SPARSH has realised the necessity of inclusivity, and they have held over 100 outreach events in the previous year. It organized 211 SPARSH Outreach Programmes and 193 Raksha Pension Samadhan Ayojans (RPSAs) and gave pensioners information on how to utilize digital services and know their rights. This has been a combination of technology and community participation which has reduced the divide between the pensioners and the present systems.

Massive Pension Payments and OROP.

The size of the system can be seen in the amount of Rs1,57,681 crore to be disbursed in 2024-25 only. It is worth noting that the application of One Rank One Pension (OROP)-III in July 2024 resulted in the transfer of Rs1,224.76 crore to 20.17 lakh beneficiaries in 15 days, which underscores the ability of SPARSH to make it happen rapidly and on a large scale.

Availability and Management.

SPARSH has 202 Defence Accounts offices, 4.63 lakh Common Service Centres, and 5200 bank branches which are integrated in the system and it makes it accessible even in remote areas to pensioners. It has the potential to set a new standard in governing the country since converting the many agencies into one digital framework has created a transparent, accountable, and dignified pension system.