Atal Pension Yojana (APY) surges ahead with 62 lakh enrolment The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) through its One Nation One Pension Mobilization Campaign has sourced approximately 3.07 lakh APY accounts which led to a total of 62 lakh enrolments under the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) as on date. This campaign was organized all over the country by PFRDA from 2nd August to 19th August 2017 in association with the APY Service Provider Banks. Increasing enrolment is attributed to financialization of assets and driving the people to pension products which has Govt of India implicit guarantee to give an assured pension to the subscriber, spouse and return of corpus to the nominee. Under the campaign some of the largest banks in the country namely, State Bank of India helped source 51,000 APY accounts and other prominent banks like Canara Bank which has sourced 32,306 APY accounts, Andhra Bank at 29,057 APY accounts, in other private banks category, Karnataka Bank at 2641 APY accounts, in RRB's category, Allahabad UP Gramin Bank at 28,609 accounts followed by Madhya Bihar Gramin Bank at 5,056 APY accounts , Baroda Uttar Pradesh Gramin Bank at 3,013 APY accounts, Kashi Gomti Samyut Gramin Bank at 2,847 APY accounts & Punjab Gramin Bank at 2,194 APY accounts. At a time when the interest rate on various financial instruments including Savings Bank is declining, Atal Pension Yojana as a pension scheme offers a guaranteed rate of 8% assured return for the subscribers and also the opportunity of higher earnings in case the rate of return is higher than 8% at the time of maturity, after staying invested in the scheme for 20-42 years. Department of Financial Services in association with Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has been organizing various APY campaigns to give thrust through which the population not covered by any pension scheme is approached by APY Service Provider banks and Department of Posts to inform about the salient features and benefits of the APY scheme and are encouraged to get enrolled in the scheme. The objective of PFRDA is to cover the maximum possible population uncovered by any pension scheme under the APY scheme so that India as a nation can move from a pension less to a pensioned society and the citizens can live a life of dignity in their vulnerable years.
