Pension is an essential mechanism that helps in leading a financially stable life after retirement or at an age when an individual is often retires from his vocation. With rapid economic progress, the cost of living has increased manifold thereby making pension schemes a must for every individual.
However, pension schemes are not only linked to retirement. With the increase in life expectancy, people live longer than a few decades back due to tremendous advancement in healthcare. Therefore, an individual will need funds to cover his daily expenses, medical needs and other contingency expenses to lead a comfortable and longer life.
Another huge reason that makes pension unavoidable is to cover post retirement expenses, like an independent lifestyle, social security or education of children, etc. None of these are negotiable nowadays.
In order to cope with such a financial necessity, the Union Government has launched various pension schemes for the citizens. Prominent among them are Atal Pension Yojana (APY), National Pension System (NPS) and National Pension System-Lite(NPS-Lite).