Why in news?
The flagship social security scheme of Government of India ‘Atal Pension Yojana’ (APY) has completed five years of successful implementation.
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.
| Q. Regarding ‘Atal Pension Yojana’, which of the following statements is/are correct? 1) It is a minimum guaranteed pension scheme mainly targeted at unorganized sector workers. 2) Only one member of a family can join the scheme. 3) Same amount of pension is guaranteed for the spouse for life after subscriber’s death. Select the correct answer using the code given below. (a) 1 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 1 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3 Solution: C Justification: Statement 1: The Yojana mainly addresses the longevity risks among the workers in unorganised sector and encourages them to voluntarily save for their retirement. So, 1 is correct. Statement 2: Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is open to all bank account holders who are not members of any statutory social security scheme. So, 2 is wrong. Statement 3: As per the Ministry of Finance, “The spouse of the subscriber shall be entitled to receive the same pension amount as that of the subscriber until the death of the spouse. After the death of both the subscriber and the spouse, the nominee of the subscriber shall be entitled to receive the pension wealth, as accumulated till age of 60 years of the subscribe”. So, clearly 3 is correct. |
