Personal Finance

The Indian government has officially launched the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) for the central government employees, with effect from April 01, 2025. This new pension scheme has been introduced as an option under the National Pension System (NPS) with an aim to provide an assured payout and guaranteed pension structure to the central government employees. … Read more

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has announced two major reforms on April 3, 2025 aimed at making PF withdrawals faster and simpler for its 7.74 crore members. EPFO has removed the requirement to upload an of image of a cheque or passbook while submitting claims and has also eliminated the need for employer approval … Read more

The Union Cabinet has approved a 2% hike in Dearness Allowance (DA) for central employees and Dearness Relief (DR) for pensioners, raising the rates from 53% to 55% of the basic pay or pension. The DA/DR increase will apply retroactively from January 1, 2025 and the employees and pensioners will receive arrears for the months … Read more

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has decided to increase the auto claim limit for PF withdrawals to Rs 5 lakh. The current Auto Settlement of Advanced Claim (ASAC) limit is Rs 1 lakh which is set to be increased five times. The auto-settlement of advanced claims allows the active EPFO members to withdraw money … Read more

The Indian government is considering a new pension scheme for gig workers that will require platform aggregators to contribute 2% of gig workers’ income toward a pension fund, according to a report by Business Standard. The scheme is expected to be announced within the next 2-3 weeks as per the reports. The move aligns with … Read more

The government has announced the interest rates on various small savings schemes for the April-June 2025 quarter. In a circular released earlier today on March 28, 2025, the Department of Economic Affairs (Budget Division) under the Ministry of Finance noted “The rates of interest on various small savings schemes for the first quarter of FY … Read more

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is working to enable Provident Fund (PF) withdrawals through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and ATMs as part of its EPFO 3.0 initiative. The facility to withdraw PF through UPI and ATMs is expected to be introduced by May or June month 2025. This move will make PF withdrawals instant … Read more

The City Union Bank in March 2025 has launched two co-branded credit cards with multiple variants in a push to expand its offerings and customer base. Both credit cards have been launched in partnerships with Indian Premium League (IPL) cricket teams; namely Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). The Bank also announced that … Read more

Federal Bank has restarted issuing the much popular co-branded Scapia credit card this week after a long hiatus of nearly a year. In March 2024, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had directed the Federal Bank to stop issuing new co-branded credit cards due to regulatory deficiencies and later fined the Bank Rs 35.60 lakh … Read more