Once the unique identification (UID) project is fully launched, it will also serve as the number to track PF accounts of individuals. Most importantly , this number will not only help in online checking of the status of the account but also to ensure a smooth transfer once a person changes jobs. Labour secretary P C Chaturvedi says this will happen in the second phase of digitization of EPFO but the...

The only economic or social variable that has not moved since 1991 in India is our 93% informal employment in the informal sector. So, while we have smartly and substantially moved the needle on everything from foreign exchange reserves, infant mortality, school enrolment, market capitalisation, foreign investment, and pregnancy deaths, 9 out of 10 of our workers do not work in organised employment. Informal employment—what President Alan Garcia of Peru...

The retirement fund manager EPFO plans to replace PF account number with unique identification number, a move which will help in speedy transfer of a subscribers' funds in case of job change and allow them to track their accounts online. At present when a subscriber changes job, it takes months to transfer provident fund money from one account to another, as the records are required to be transferred from one office...

Rolling out a slew of measures for the working class in 2010, the government effected key reforms in some labour acts while also raising the annual rate of returns on employee provident funds to 9.5 per cent. The steps came as the government also unveiled the draft national policy on employment with suggestions of launching of a employment guarantee scheme in urban areas on the lines of NREGA. It amended the Payment...

KEY TRENDS   • In 2017-18, 24.8 percent of rural working-age men and 74.5 percent of rural working-age (viz. 15-59 years) women were not employed. In urban areas, 25.8 percent of working-age men and 80.2 percent of working-age women were not employed AB   • Both the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and the Consumer Pyramids Survey of the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE-CPDX) report the overall unemployment rate to be around 6 per cent in 2018,...