Tata Consultancy Services has signed a three-year extension of its contract for SPARSH (System for Pension Administration – Raksha), a government of India initiative to streamline pension distribution for over 30 lakh defence pensioners. TCS will not only maintain the hardware and software of the programme for three years but also deliver key updates to the system.
TCS started the rollout of pension processing on SPARSH in October 2020, implementing an integrated, secure, and efficient pension disbursement solution for India's defence personnel. The digital transformation has resulted in significantly reduced pension processing timelines from 12 to 18 months to just 14 days. Additionally, first-time pension payments are now processed within five to seven days. A key achievement for TCS has been its role in implementing the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme, which ensures that defence personnel of the same rank and length of service receive the same pension, regardless of when they retire. TCS has enabled the processing time to reduce from six to eight months to just two weeks, allowing the disbursement of OROP to 1.8 million eligible pensioners in a record time of 15 days. Recently, The Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) presented TCS with a certificate of appreciation for this accomplishment. As part of the expanded deal, TCS will continue to deliver transparency and efficiency to the pensioners, continuing to support the application and development efforts. Moreover, TCS is also in discussion with the department to potentially develop a digital solution that would allow pensioners to make reverse payments in the event of overpayments.