The Central Government has introduced the National Pension System (NPS) with effect from January 01, 2004 (except for armed forces). Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), the regulatory body for NPS, has appointed NSDL 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.

NPS Corporate Sector Model is the customized version of core NPS to suit various organizations and their employees to adopt NPS as an organized entity within purview of their employer-employee relationship. This would facilitate corporate entities and other registered bodies to move their existing and prospective employees to NPS architecture. This is in an additional avenue for retirement planning being made available to organized sector and does not dilute their responsibilities under other statutory provisions like Provident Fund etc. Corporate sector has been formally launched from December 2011. Corporate may join NPS through any one of the existing POPs.