The passage of PFRDA Act has been a major milestone of the year 2013-14. The Act vests PFRDA with statutory status to allow it to perform its developmental role effectively and to extend the social security cover to hitherto uncovered working population through the National Pension System(NPS). Introduced for the new recruits who join government service on or after January 2004, the NPS represents a major reform of Indian pension arrangements, and lays the foundation for a sustainable solution to ageing in India by shifting to an individual account, defined-contribution system. The Economic survey says till 7 May 2014 a total of 67.11 lakh members have been enrolled under the NPS with a corpus of ₹ 51,147 crore. The growth rate of members and assets is likely to considerably accelerate from this foundation. From 1st May 2009, the NPS was opened up for all citizens in India to join on a voluntary basis.

The Swavalamban Scheme for workers in the unorganized sector launched in 2010, has now been extended to five years for the beneficiaries enrolled in 2010-11, 2011-12, and 2012-13 and thus the benefits of co-contribution under the Scheme would be available till 2016-17.

National Pension System expansion: statutory backing for PFRDA enables wider voluntary coverage and scheme extension. The PFRDA Act grants statutory status to the regulator, enabling expansion of the National Pension System as an individual-account, defined-contribution scheme opened voluntarily to all citizens and already showing substantial enrollment and asset growth; separately, the Swavalamban Scheme for unorganized workers has been extended to continue co-contribution benefits for specified beneficiary cohorts through 2016-17.