custodian, Pension Funds, Trustee Bank, Central Recordkeeping Agency, Point of Presence, Aggregators, and of IRDAI registered Annuity Service Providers (empanelled with PFRDA) and also for providing directions/advisory to PF(s) for protecting the interest of subscribers, ensuring compliance through an audit by Independent Auditors, and Performance review of Pension Funds etc.

5/7/2003-ECB issued by the Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs) in a Press Release dated 22 December 2003 mandated NPS for all new recruits (except armed forces) joining government services from 1 January 2004[4] While the scheme was initially designed for government employees only, it was opened up for all citizens of India between the age of 18 and 65 in 2009, for OCI card holders and PIO's in October 2019.

As per the revised norms, any Indian Citizen, resident or non-resident, and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) between the age of 18–70 years can join NPS and continue or defer their NPS Account up to the age of 75 years.

[6] It is administered and regulated by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).

The NPS started with the decision of the Government of India to stop defined benefit pensions for all its employees who joined after 1 January 2004.

[25] In 2017 Union budget of India, 25% exemption of the contribution made by an employee has been announced as a form of premature partial withdrawal in NPS.

[29] In 1999, the Government of India initiated the OASIS project, aimed at reviewing policies related to old age income security within the nation.

It expanded to all Indian citizens, including self-employed professionals and the unorganised sector from 1 May 2009, on a voluntary basis.

[32] Unlike traditional financial products where all the functions (sales, operations, service, fund management, depository) are done by one company, NPS follows an unbundled architecture where each step of the value chain has been made disjointed from the other.

This unbundling not only allows the customer to mix and match his providers of service through the value chain, picking the best-suited option, but it also curbs the incidence of misselling.

At age 60 the customer can choose to purchase pension Annuity Service Providers (ASP).

All the major commercial banks, brokers and stock holding corporations perform the role of PoP.

[38] Upon exit, subscriber re-invests a portion of the accumulated corpus is an annuity plan which provides the guaranteed lifelong pension.

A citizen of India, whether resident or non-resident or an OCI cardholder can join NPS (Through a circular issued on 29 October 2019 PFRDA has stated that now Overseas Citizen of India (OCIs) can enrol to invest in NPS tier-1 accounts), subject to the following conditions: The Central government employee subscribers grew 4.9% on year to 2.28 million in FY22 while state governments subscribers grew 8.5% to 55.8 lakh during the year.