Using the computational framework of National Transfer Accounts, this paper offers new results and explanations on the role of public support to India’s elderly in 2004-05. New results are based on computations of (a) lifecycle deficit (LCD) by deriving age profiles of aggregate labour income and consumption and (b) public age reallocations by transfers and asset based reallocations. The results show that the LCD of elderly is about 34 percent of the LCD of all ages, or 3.74 percent of GNP. Surprisingly, net public transfers to elderly are strongly negative and asset allocations are financed by dis-saving, because the taxes paid by the elderly substantially exceed the benefits they receive and elderly pay both interest on previously accumulated public debt and paying off that debt. Consequently, public age reallocations finance elderly consumption by less than 0.50 percent and the largest burden of financing public transfers falls on the age group 60-69 for whom the net public transfers is -15.56 percent of labour income. The heavy burden on the elderly is attributable in part to India’s tax system and partly on the absence of programs
that provide support to the elderly. The results and implications recognize the importance of labour income and private sector in supporting elderly consumption and long run implications of population ageing on public finances in India.