The Central Government has introduced the National Pension System (NPS) with effect from January 01, 2004 (except for armed forces). NPS was made available to All Citizens of India from May 01, 2009. Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), the regulatory body for NPS, has appointed Protean eGov Technologies Limited as Central Recordkeeping Agency (CRA) for National Pension System. CRA is the first of its kind venture in India which will carry out the functions of Record Keeping, Administration and Customer Service for all subscribers under NPS. CRA shall issue a Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN) to each subscriber and maintain data base of each Permanent Retirement account along with recording transactions relating to each PRAN.
National Pension System (NPS), Regulated By PFRDA, is an important milestone in the development of a sustainable and efficient voluntary defined contribution pension system in India. It has the following broad objectives: