NPS stands for National Pension System, the pension scheme for central government employees who joined service on or after 1 January 2004.
A fixed percentage of the employee’s basic pay plus DA is contributed every month, with a matching contribution from the government.
The money is invested in pension funds and grows in a market-linked manner.
At retirement, part of the corpus is used to buy an annuity for a monthly pension and part can be withdrawn as a lump sum.
NPS accounts are managed through PRAN and can be viewed on the official NPS portal.