Business
Govt to return unclaimed EPFO deposits, expand scholarships for unorganised workers’ children – The Times of India
The labour ministry has initiated a process to return unclaimed funds lying in inoperative Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) accounts to subscribers, a move expected to benefit over 3.1 million account holders, labour minister Mansukh Mandaviya said.A pilot phase covering about 0.7 million subscribers will be rolled out shortly after the decision was taken during a weekly review meeting chaired by the minister, according to an ET report.EPFO currently has around 31.86 lakh inoperative accounts holding deposits worth Rs 10,903 crore. Nearly 7.11 lakh of these accounts contain unclaimed balances of up to Rs 1,000, totalling Rs 30.52 crore.The ministry said several accounts are as old as 20 years and have recorded no transactions for the past three years, leading to their classification as inoperative.Accounts selected for the pilot phase already have Aadhaar-linked bank details available with EPFO, enabling the retirement fund body to directly credit the pending amounts to subscribers.Under provisions of the EPF & MP Act, beneficiaries must file claims to withdraw their provident fund savings. However, authorities observed that in many cases the balance amount is too small compared with the documentation required, resulting in a buildup of unclaimed deposits over time.
Scholarship scheme to be strengthened
Alongside the payout initiative, the labour ministry said its education assistance programme for children of unorganised workers will now include a merit-based scholarship of up to Rs 25,000 in addition to the existing welfare-based support.“In order to enhance equity, remove unintended exclusions and ensure policy clarity, the ministry is amending the scheme guidelines to allow a student who is availing the ministry’s welfare-based scholarship to also receive a merit-based scholarship from any central or state government agency, wherever eligible,” the labour ministry said in a statement.The ministry said about 0.16 million students have so far received welfare-based financial assistance amounting to Rs 77.9 crore this year, compared with 92,118 beneficiaries who received Rs 31.65 crore in 2024-25.According to the ministry, the initiative aligns with the Code on Social Security, 2020, which seeks to expand social security and welfare measures, including education support, for unorganised workers and their families.
MUMBAI: Some friction, long viewed as a flaw in digital payments, is now being seen as a feature. An RBI discussion paper proposes to introduce a short delay, or “lag”, for high-value transfers above Rs 10,000. This gives customers time to rethink a transaction and cancel it if they suspect fraud. Customers may also be allowed to whitelist trusted payees so that genuine payments are not delayed.Another proposal is to provide stronger protection to vulnerable users such as senior citizens by requiring an additional confirmation from a “trusted person” for large transactions above Rs 50,000. The paper also suggests a “kill switch” to instantly block all digital transactions in case of suspected fraud.Banks are expected to identify suspicious transactions in real time and seek reconfirmation from customers before processing them. They will need to build systems to implement delays, allow cancellations, and generate risk alerts. Banks are also expected to tighten due diligence by linking the level of activity in an account to the customer’s profile. For instance, accounts with low verified income may face limits on how much money they can receive unless additional checks are completed. A key finding is that most frauds now are the result of human vulnerability. The growth of digital payments has amplified this risk.
The project was part of a package of tech investment promising the UK could become an AI superpower.
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People gather at the Magic Kingdom theme park before the “Festival of Fantasy” parade at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, U.S. July 30, 2022.
Octavio Jones | Reuters
Disney is planning to begin its next phase of cost cutting, which will include as many as 1,000 layoffs, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The cost-cutting initiative comes shortly after Josh D’Amaro took the helm as CEO in mid-March.
The layoffs are expected to mostly affect Disney’s marketing department, according to the person, who requested to speak anonymously because the moves had not yet been made public. That department was recently consolidated under Asad Ayaz, who was named chief marketing and brand officer in January.
Ayaz, who reports directly to D’Amaro and Dana Walden, Disney’s president and chief creative officer, oversees marketing for all of Disney’s divisions — entertainment, experiences and sports — in the newly created role. It’s the first time that Disney brought all of its units under one marketing chief.
Disney’s stock was slightly down in afternoon trading on Thursday. The layoffs were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The changes to the marketing department structure occurred in January, when Bob Iger was still CEO of the company. Disney announced shortly after that that D’Amaro would take take over the top job — a long-awaited decision for the company.
D’Amaro, who previously was chairman of Disney Experiences, succeeded Iger after a period of uncertainty for the media and theme park giant — which had included a succession race and recent reorganization and turnaround of the business.
Iger reclaimed the Disney CEO role in late 2022, about two years after his initial departure. He was immediately tasked with a turnaround of the business as its stock price had fallen and earnings began to miss expectations.
By February 2023, Disney had announced sweeping plans that reorganized the structure of the company, cut $5.5 billion in costs and eliminated 7,000 jobs from its workforce.
On D’Amaro’s first official day as CEO in March, he noted the work Iger had done to get the company past one of its most difficult periods.
“When Bob returned to the company a few years ago, his goal was to fortify our business and lay the groundwork for long-term growth, by reigniting creativity and improving performance at our studios, building a robust and profitable streaming business, transforming ESPN for a digital future, and turbocharging our parks and experiences,” D’Amaro said on stage at the company’s investor day.
“We’ve accomplished all of those things, and we’re operating from a place of strength, with ample opportunity for growth.”
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