Minimum Assured Return Scheme (MARS)

Pension fund regulator PFRDA is working on a minimum assured return scheme (MARS) for subscribers of the flagship social security programme National Pension System(NPS).

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Why is it in the news ?

  • Pension fund regulator PFRDA is working on a minimum assured return scheme (MARS) for subscribers of the flagship social security programme National Pension System(NPS). 

More in the news

  • NPS is a contributory retirement savings scheme and seeks to inculcate the habit of saving for old age among the citizens. 
  • NPS, a government-sponsored pension scheme, was launched in January 2004 for government employees.
  • It was opened to all sections in 2009.
  • A subscriber can contribute regularly in a pension account during her working life, withdraw a part of the corpus in a lumpsum and use the remaining corpus to buy an annuity to secure a regular income after retirement.
  • NPS, having an asset under management (AUM) of Rs 2.91 lakh crore, had subscriber base of 1.21 at the end of January 2019. 
  • The regulator is in the process of designing and developing MARS, according to a document of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). 

Source

The Hindu.