New Delhi, Sep 25 : The Centre on Wednesday said the total number of new contributing subscribers under the National Pension Scheme (NPS) stood at 62,880 in the month of July.

In June, 64,799 new contributing subscribers joined the NPS in June.

The newly registered employees and paying contribution under the Employees' State Insurance (ESI) scheme in July stood at 16,61,836 which was 16,33,848 during the month of June, informed Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

The Cabinet last month approved the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) for government employees, which will provide an assured minimum pension and a family pension. Around 23 lakh Central government employees will benefit from the Unified Pension Scheme.

These employees will now have the option to choose between the NPS and the UPS. In UPS, the government has offered several advantages of the previous Old Pension Scheme (OPS) like assured pension, family pension and indexation benefits. This pension scheme is only for government employees unlike NPS which is offered to both government and private employees.

In a key move to secure the financial future of young children in India, the government has also launched the NPS Vatsalya pension scheme, which offers flexible contributions and investment options for parents or guardians.

The Vatsalya scheme is a saving-cum-pension scheme, which will be regulated and administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory Authority of India (PFRDA). Under the NPS Vatsalya scheme, parents can invest a minimum of Rs 1,000 per month with no upper limit. The scheme will be operated by parents until the child reaches 18. At the age of 18, the account will transition into the child's name.

Meanwhile, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has added 19.94 lakh net members in the month of July, marking the highest recorded increase since payroll data tracking began in April 2018. EPFO added 10.52 lakh new members in July, a 2.66 per cent increase over June and a 2.43 per cent rise compared to the same month last year.

/IANS