New Delhi, September 18 (HS). Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday launched the NPS Vatsalya Yojana at Vigyan Bhavan in the capital New Delhi. With the launch of this scheme, pension accounts of minor children will also be opened in the country. Sitharaman had announced this scheme while presenting the Union Budget 2024-25.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman distributed Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN) to a total of nine children on the occasion of the launch of NPS Vatsalya Yojana. In her address, the Finance Minister appealed to the parents and said that whenever you go to a child's birthday celebration, encourage that child to have an NPS Vatsalya account. Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary and other senior officials were present on this occasion.
Sitharaman said that the objective of this new initiative is to provide long-term financial security to minors. Through this scheme, people of such age, who were deprived of it till now, will be able to be connected with pension benefits. She said that now pension accounts of minors can be opened in the country so that a big corpus can be created for them in the long term and their future can be made financially secure.
NPS Vatsalya Yojana is designed to help ensure financial security of children when they grow up. Under this, parents can invest on behalf of children. This account will be converted into regular NPS when the child becomes an adult. Under this scheme, children will be given Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN), a 12-digit unique number, which is given to every person registered under the National Pension Scheme (NPS). It acts as an identity and remains active for life.