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NPS To UPS: Govt Extends Deadline To Opt For Unified Pension Scheme Till November 30
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The cut-off date for opting into the UPS has been extended by two months from the earlier deadline of September 30
The move comes after a relatively low response from employees covered under the National Pension System (NPS).
The Finance Ministry on Tuesday announced an extension of the deadline for central government employees to opt for the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) till November 30, 2025.
The move comes after a relatively low response from employees covered under the National Pension System (NPS).
In an official communication to the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Chairman, the Department of Financial Services, under the Finance Ministry, said the cut-off date for opting into the UPS has been extended by two months from the earlier deadline of September 30.
The ministry explained that several recent positive changes under the UPS, such as the introduction of a switch option, benefits related to resignation and compulsory retirement, and tax exemptions, prompted requests from various stakeholders for more time to make a decision.
Therefore, the new deadline for eligible current employees, past retirees, and legally wedded spouses of deceased retirees to exercise their choice is now November 30. This extension has been approved by the Finance Minister.
The UPS was introduced as an option under the NPS starting April 1, 2025, for central government employees. It offers assured pension payouts and is available to the 23 lakh employees who joined the government after January 1, 2004, when the old pension scheme ended.
Under the UPS, employees contribute 10 per cent of their basic salary and dearness allowance, while the government contributes 18.5 per cent. This is different from the old pension scheme, where employees received 50 per cent of their last basic pay as pension without contributions.
So far, around 31,555 employees had opted for UPS by July 20, and reports suggest approximately 1 lakh employees have signed up till the September 30 deadline.
Additionally, the PFRDA has been asked to update its systems and issue necessary regulations or circulars to implement the government’s decision.
(With inputs from PTI)
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The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d… Read More
September 30, 2025, 22:23 IST
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Four major players in the travel industry have had their adverts banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for misleading customers.
The ASA ruled that Booking.com and hotel groups Accor, Travelodge, and Hilton all used “from” price claims for hotel rooms that overstated how many were available at the advertised rate.
With only a limited proportion of rooms genuinely offered at the advertised prices across various dates, the ASA deemed the promotions misleading and consequently prohibited their future use.
In Booking.com’s case, an ad on May 6 stated “Places to stay in Sheffield – Best Price Guarantee, and further text read “easyHotel Sheffield City Centre From £28”.
Booking.com said the dates and prices displayed were “dynamically chosen” by Google from data it provided, meaning they could vary for each user and search.
They believed the information displayed in the ad was accurate and not misleading.
The ASA said the data Booking.com provided showed that seven bookings were made at the easyHotel Sheffield City Centre for the advertised price in May.
It said it did not receive any other information from Booking.com, such as the number of dates on which rooms were available for £28, to enable us to make an adequate assessment of the proportion of rooms at the hotel available at the advertised price and therefore considered that the information provided was insufficient to substantiate the claim “From £28”.
The watchdog found Accor’s ad for £27 rooms at its Ibis Budget Birmingham Centre were only available for a night’s stay on July 30, and was therefore “not a true reflection of the price most consumers could expect to pay”.
It said consumers would understand the claims “Travelodge Nottingham Riverside From £25” and “Travelodge Swansea M4 From £21” to mean that a significant proportion of rooms at each hotel would be available at the advertised price.
However, it understood that the advertised prices were only available to book for a night’s stay on May 18.
In Hilton’s case, the ASA said it had not seen sufficient evidence to demonstrate that a significant proportion of hotel rooms were available at the advertised prices of £68 at Hampton by Hilton Hamilton Park or £59 at Hampton by Hilton Newcastle.
ASA operations manager Emily Henwood said: “Advertised prices must match what’s really available.
“If only a few rooms are actually offered at the price shown, or it only applies to a specific date, then this information must be made clear to avoid misleading people.
“Otherwise, it’s unfair to anyone trying to find a good deal or make informed choices about where to book.
“People should be able to trust the prices they see in ads and these rulings show that we will take action if the rules are broken.”
Travelodge said in a statement: “Travelodge takes its responsibilities under the ASA advertising guidelines seriously. The prices shown in the ads were generated from our live pricing feed and represented the cheapest bookable date available.
“We recognise that customers expect clarity and transparency in pricing, and we continue to work closely with Google to ensure all ad formats are clear and fully compliant. This particular ad format was removed prior to the ASA ruling, and we remain committed to transparent, accurate, and great-value pricing for all our customers.”
D.R. Horton signage stands in front of homes under construction at the Eastridge Woods development in Cottage Grove, Minnesota.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
D.R. Horton, the nation’s largest homebuilder, is tapping an artificial intelligence tool from Portland, Oregon-based startup Prophetic to build more homes and address the country’s housing shortage.
Chronic underbuilding since the Great Recession has caused a deficit of roughly 4 million homes, according to analyses from several sources, including Zillow. The supply-demand imbalance has caused prices to rise over 50% from pre-pandemic levels.
Homebuilders are trying to respond but say that the cost of construction, along with the difficult and costly process for acquiring and developing buildable lots, is making that difficult.
“One of the largest challenges to providing affordable housing is the identification, acquisition and entitlement of land suitable for development. We are confident the insights provided by Prophetic are going to help us expand homeownership opportunities for hard-working American individuals and families,” said Jason Jones, vice president of data analytics at D.R. Horton, in a release.
Prophetic has developed an AI-native platform for land acquisition and development analysis. For any potential parcel of land, Prophetic’s software will pull every single zoning manual from every city and county in a state. The company said it is currently operational in 25 states and expects to be in all 50 by June.
“It’s an incredibly large, tedious, detail-oriented process to take tens of thousands of these zoning documents and extract the rules, not only efficiently, but correctly,” said Oliver Alexander, founder and CEO of Prophetic.
Among other things, the system looks at minimum lot size and minimum or maximum density setbacks, which differ by municipality and zone. It updates those quarterly.
“Then it tells you where that information came from, which is the key differentiator,” Alexander explained. “When you have that section title and the page that it came from, that builds trust, and then it becomes ultra-efficient, where you can analyze development potential in 30 seconds instead of two to three hours.”
Alexander said there are a little over 440,000 different ways to describe what you’re allowed to do on a piece of dirt in the states Prophetic has analyzed. Developers need to go through all of that information to figure out if they can build a single- or multifamily housing development on it.
The AI’s large language model-based analysis of these documents at scale can answer the questions and then feed that into search AI, which Alexander calls “the major unlock” – search plus the zone AI information together. At the ground level, with this AI, builders can figure out what they can build, where and how much at a much faster pace, making them more competitive with landowners.
“If you have that much of an edge in your speed to decision, you effectively control your entire market, because before anyone else can decide, you’ve tied it up,” said Alexander.
MUMBAI: Representatives of India’s capital market on Tuesday urged finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to keep the securities transaction tax (STT) on cash equity lower than that of equity derivatives trades in the forthcoming Budget. They also suggested to the ministry that in case of a buyback of shares, tax should be imposed only on profits and not on the total buyback value, sources said. Currently, STT in the equity cash market ranges from 0.025% to 0.1% while in the derivatives market the rates are between 0.125% and 0.1%. A lower rate in the cash segment could lead to more participation in the segment compared to the derivatives section. Of late, govt, policy makers and regulators are looking at ways to rein in trading and speculative habits of retail investors using equity derivatives products, especially options.On Tuesday, the group of people also suggested to the finance minister that the rate of short-term dividend tax which domestic investors pay should be in line with what NRIs pay. tnn
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