The Financial Planning Congress is an annual, day-long event organised by The Indian Express and Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB) India. The theme for this year’s Congress — Economic and Financial Literacy: Seeking a Blueprint for India.

For the first time, the congress will see three key regulators together, for the securities market, insurance and pensions, including chief guest Sebi chairman M Damodaran, talking about issues through the prism of financial planning. Says Ranjeet Mudholkar, chief executive officer, FPSB India: This is the right time for them to focus on financial planning, as the economy is booming and money management is becoming complex. Good financial planning processes and systems, by enabling further mobilisation of funds, can contribute to this growth.

Besides Damodaran, other speakers at the Congress from the regulatory space are Dr K P Krishnan, joint secretary, Ministry of Finance, Meena Chaturvedi, executive director, Pension Fund Regulatory Authority, and G Prabhakara, member (life), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority.

Prominent speakers from the financial services industry include Sunil Mehta, country head and CEO, AIG India, Ajay Bagga, CEO, Lotus Mutual Fund, Ashvin Arora, managing director, OptiMix, C. Jayaram, executive director, Kotak Bank and Sanjay Sachdev, country manager (India), Shinsei Bank Group.

Broadly, this year’s Congress has three sub-themes: taking financial services to the rural masses; new distribution models for products and retirement planning, reforms in the pension space.