Key Concepts & Self-Assessment20 Key Facts
Review key Atal Pension Yojana (APY) exam facts and rate your mastery to track revision.
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#1
Atal Pension Yojana was announced in the 2015-16 Union Budget and launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 9 May 2015 in Kolkata.
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Operational since 1 June 2015, the program superseded the earlier Swavalamban Yojana to establish guaranteed pension coverage across India's informal labor workforce.
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The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority administers the scheme under the Department of Financial Services within the Union Ministry of Finance.
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Indian citizens between eighteen and forty years of age holding a valid savings bank account or post office account are eligible to enroll.
#5
A minimum continuous contribution period of twenty years is mandatory before subscribers can receive guaranteed monthly pension disbursements starting at age sixty.
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Subscribers may select one of five guaranteed monthly pension tiers: one thousand, two thousand, three thousand, four thousand, or five thousand rupees.
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Monthly subscriber contributions depend directly upon the entry age and chosen pension tier, ranging from forty-two rupees up to one thousand four hundred rupees.
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In accordance with Ministry of Finance directives effective 1 October 2022, any individual who pays income tax is prohibited from joining the scheme.
#9
Subscribers enrolled before 1 October 2022 who subsequently pay income tax remain eligible to continue their accounts, as the income-tax disqualification rule applies solely to new enrolments from 1 October 2022.
#10
The Central Government co-contributed fifty percent of subscriber contributions or one thousand rupees annually for five years to eligible accounts opened before December 2015.
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If the primary subscriber dies after reaching sixty years of age, the exact same monthly pension amount continues unconditionally to the surviving spouse.
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Following the deaths of both the subscriber and spouse, the entire accumulated pension corpus is returned directly to the registered nominee.
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The guaranteed return of pension corpus to the nominee ranges from 1.7 lakh rupees for the lowest slab to 8.5 lakh rupees for ₹5,000.
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Premium payments execute through automated bank debits on monthly, quarterly, or half-yearly cycles, preventing policy lapsation through persistent institutional coordination.
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Subscribers who default on auto-debit payments face nominal monthly penalty charges between one rupee and ten rupees depending upon their contribution tier.
#16
Premature exit before age sixty is permitted strictly under exceptional circumstances, such as terminal medical illness or the untimely demise of the subscriber.
#17
Subscribers may upgrade or downgrade their targeted monthly pension tier once per financial year during designated operational administrative windows through their home bank.
#18
Contributions to Atal Pension Yojana qualify for income tax relief under Section 80CCD(1) of the Income-Tax Act, 1961 up to statutory caps.
#19
The scheme leverages the Central Recordkeeping Agency architecture established under the National Pension System to maintain immutable digital subscriber records nationwide.
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Over fifty-two million citizens have enrolled in the scheme, cementing its stature as India's largest institutional social safety program for unorganised workers.
Subject Specialist Commentary
Analytical perspective & practical exam advice from the Master10 academic board
Think of Atal Pension Yojana as an automated financial grain silo designed for seasonal laborers. During their productive working years, participants deposit modest monthly handfuls of grain through automatic bank transfers. When retirement arrives at age sixty, the state-managed silo guarantees a steady, predictable monthly distribution to sustain them regardless of economic downturns, ensuring their surviving spouse remains protected and returning unused accumulated reserves to their designated children.
A frequent exam trap involves age boundaries and tax disqualifications; the entry age is strictly 18 to 40, not up to 60, and any income-tax payer since 1 October 2022 is disqualified. Additionally, never confuse APY with PM-SYM, which has an income ceiling of fifteen thousand rupees. Remember APY rules using TRUST: Twenty years minimum contribution, Retirement pension starting at sixty, Unorganised sector target, Spouse pension preservation, and Tax-payer exclusion mandate.
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