New Delhi, Feb. 20 -- People in India have traditionally thought of small savings plans as the dutiful footnotes of personal finance: they are useful, save you money on taxes, and are low-risk. They are on the outskirts of investing talks, and people don't often talk about them or make them sound good.

But today, something more interesting is going on. The Indian government is quietly but firmly pushing taxpayers into a new tax system that does away with deductions in favour of simpler slabs. Many of the traditional reasons for these plans seem to have lost their strength. So, what will happen to their job?

This article argues that small savings plans like the Public Provident Fund (PPF), the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY), and the Nati...