Vesting age, in the context of NPS, refers to the age at which you become eligible to make a normal exit from the scheme and access your accumulated retirement corpus — for most subscribers, this is 60 years, aligning with typical retirement age, though it can differ slightly for certain categories of subscribers like government employees.
If you wish to exit NPS before reaching vesting age, you can do so, but stricter rules apply — typically requiring you to use a larger portion of your corpus (such as 80%) to purchase an annuity, leaving a smaller lump sum withdrawal available, compared to the more favourable withdrawal rules that apply once you reach the normal vesting age of 60.
Choosing to delay your exit slightly past 60, where permitted, can also be an option for those who wish to keep contributing and growing their corpus a little longer.