Focus: GS-II Social Justice
Why in News?
As per information received from Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), 4,31,86,423 subscribers have been enrolled under Atal Pension Yojana (APY)
About Atal Pension Yojana (APY)
- APY was launched on 9th May 2015 with an objective of delivering old age income security, particularly to the workers in the unorganised sector.
- APY envisages Government providing guarantee of minimum pension after 60 years of age.
- The scheme even after garnering 2.23 crores workers under the ambit of pension, still remains unequivocally relevant for addressing the challenges of rapidly increasing aging population of India.
- The scheme has been implemented comprehensively across the country covering all states and Union Territories with male to female subscription ratio of 57:43.
- APY can be subscribed by Any Indian citizen in the age group of 18-40 years having a bank account and its uniqueness is attributable to three distinctive benefits.
- It provides a minimum guaranteed pension ranging from Rs 1000 to Rs 5000 on attaining 60 years of age.
- The amount of pension is guaranteed for lifetime to spouse on death of the subscriber and lastly, in the event of death of both the subscriber and the spouse, entire pension corpus is paid to the nominee.
Future of APY
Going forward there is still the humongous task of increasing the pension coverage, as only five per cent of the eligible population has been covered under APY till date.
About PFRDA and NPS
- Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) is the Statutory Body established by the PFRDA Act, 2014.
- PFRDA was established to regulate, promote and ensure orderly growth of the National Pension System (NPS) and pension schemes to which this Act applies.
- National Pension System is a defined contributory pension introduced by Government of India.
- NPS was extended to all Indian citizens (resident/non-resident/overseas) on a voluntary basis and to corporates for its employees on 29 October 2015 with the Reserve Bank of India allowing Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to subscribe to NPS.
