EPFO Marks 74th Foundation Day With WhatsApp Service Launch

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation, EPFO, marked its 74th Foundation Day on 1 November 2026 at the Dr. Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Labour and Employment and for Youth Affairs and Sports, who also chairs the Central Board of Trustees of the EPF, presided over the function. Chandra Bhushan Kumar, Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Employment, and Ramesh Krishnamurthi, Central Provident Fund Commissioner, were present with members of the Central Board of Trustees, workers and employers.

The size of the fund

The organisation traces its commitment to 1952 and has grown from a statutory provident fund body into one of the country's main social security institutions. It now holds a retirement corpus of close to Rs 32 lakh crore, built from the contributions of more than 8 crore members, and pays 85 lakh pensioners. Addressing the gathering, the Minister said the trust placed in the body is visible in that corpus, and asked officials to treat every grievance of a worker with empathy and to see each worker as a nation-builder. He urged worker-centred innovation in the run-up to the 75th year of the organisation and tied the effort to the goal of a Viksit Bharat.

Two new services

The Minister launched EPFO services through WhatsApp. Subscribers can use the verified WhatsApp service to check their provident fund balance, see their latest five transactions and read their passbook, and can get help with requirements under PMVBRY, without going to an EPFO office. He also launched the automatic settlement of eligible inoperative EPF accounts. Members with Aadhaar-verified inoperative accounts holding balances up to Rs 1,000 will no longer have to file a claim; EPFO will settle such accounts on its own after identity and bank-account checks. About one lakh accounts holding roughly Rs 5 crore are expected to gain.

Claim settlement and publications

The average time taken to settle a claim has come down to 2.57 days in October 2026, which the organisation credits to its technology platform CITES 2.01. Seven publications were brought out on the day, among them the EPFO State Profile 2026, the Compendium of Judgements 2026, the Hindi magazine Kendra Nidhi, the volume Shasan Vidhi Mein Karuna carrying 83 real-life case studies from 62 Regional Offices, and the first volume of The Indian Journal of Social Security. The Bhavishya Nidhi Awards 2026 were given to Regional and Zonal Offices and to individual officers for work on grievances, pension services, death claims, PMVBRY and technology.