New Employee Provident Fund (EPF) Withdrawal Rule Explained

New Employee Provident Fund (EPF) Withdrawal Rule Explained

EPF or employee provident fund withdrawal claims above Rs. 10 lakh have to be filed online. Retirement fund body EPFO or Employees Provident Fund Organisation has made it mandatory to file online claims for claim settlements above Rs. 10 lakh. This was said in a notification by EPFO on 27 February. For EPS (Employees Pension Scheme), the limit is Rs. 5 lakh, which means that pension scheme withdrawals beyond Rs. 5 lakh have to be made online only. Currently, EPFO subscribers have the option of filing online as well as manual claims for provident fund withdrawals.

“In case the amount of claim settlement is above Rs. 10 lacs for PF claims and Rs. 5 lacs in respect of EPS withdrawal claims, the claim form must be accepted through online mode only,” the retirement fund body said in a circular. An employee’s 12 per cent contribution goes towards the EPF kitty, while 8.33 per cent out of the total 12 per cent of the employer’s contribution is invested in EPS or pension scheme. The balance 3.67 per cent is invested in EPF.

EFPO members with authenticated Aadhaar and bank details seeded against their UAN (Universal Account Number) can submit their provident fund withdrawal/settlement/transfer claims online, according to EPFO’s website – epfindia.gov.in. A UAN acts as an umbrella for the multiple member IDs allotted to an individual by different establishments. The idea is to link multiple Member Identification Numbers (Member IDs) allotted to a single member, under a single Universal Account Number.

EPFO has nearly six crore subscribers and manages a corpus of Rs. 10 lakh crore. It receives about one crore claims each year.

EPF Withdrawal: How To Submit Claim Online

1) For submitting a withdrawal claim online, subscribers have to log into EPFO’s member interface using UAN credentials.

2) After this, the subscriber is required to select the relevant claim by clicking on the ‘Online Services’ tab.

3) For final settlement of a provident fund deposit, the subscriber is required to select Form 19. He or she can select Form 31 for part withdrawal and Form10-C for pension withdrawal benefits.

4) EPFO subscribers can track their claim requests online as well. For this, they can click on the Online Services tab and then ‘Track Claim Status’.

As part of the government’s Digital India initiative, EPFO plans to go paperless this year. With that, the provident fund body aims to improve delivery of services for its six crore subscribers.



                                                                                                                           Source by ndtv..

Narendra Modi, in scathing attack, says India paying for Congress’s sins

Narendra Modi accuses Congress of dividing India for electoral gains; Rahul Gandhi hits back, calling it a campaign speech



A file photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lok Sabha. Photo: PTI


New Delhi:Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack against the Congress, saying India was paying for the “sins” of the party and revived the corruption debate. He also accused the Congress of dividing the nation for its own electoral gains.

Modi gave two speeches in response to the motion of thanks on the President’s address in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. In both speeches, Modi sought to corner the Congress on issues of corruption, policymaking and dynastic politics.

In his speech in the Lok Sabha, Modi said that while Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda and former president Pranab Mukherjee had spoken about a “New India”, the Congress had used democracy to lie to the people. He added that it was for the people to decide the fate of the party.

“It is in your character that the division of India happened. The country was broken into pieces and you sowed the poison. After 70 years of independence, not a day passes when the 125 crore Indians do not get punished for your sins. You broke India into pieces and you did it keeping elections in mind, in haste and closing doors of Parliament,” he said.

“You wasted all your time singing paeans to one family. You forgot India’s history and you put all your energy to ensure that the country remembered only one family… if you had worked with some responsibility, the people of this country were capable enough of taking India to new heights,” Modi said, adding that if the right direction had been kept and right policies followed, the country would have gone way ahead of where it is now.



His speech was interspersed with sloganeering and disruptions by opposition members.

Responding to Modi’s comments in the Lok Sabha, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said that it was a “political and campaign speech” that had focused on the opposition.

“The prime minister spoke nothing about employment for youth; he had promised 2 crore jobs. The talk of farmers, giving them right prices and loan waivers —the PM instead spoke about bees and bamboo. This is not about that, this is about giving them the right price, their future and their protection,” Gandhi told reporters.

“Each time, speeches happen about Congress, its leaders, about Narendra Modi. There are three-four issues in front of the country. What future farmers have, how the youth will get jobs, whether theft happened in Rafale (fighter aircraft) deal or not,” he added.

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi also responded to Modi’s Lok Sabha speech and told reporters: “PM said nothing new. He is repeating old things. People are interested about their jobs, they want to know about their future.”

The tussle between the top leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress had started during the bitter political campaign for the Gujarat elections and is likely to continue as both parties lock horns in a direct contest in several state elections later this year.

In his Lok Sabha speech, that lasted more than 90 minutes, Modi blamed the policies initiated by Congress for the present economic situation in the country. He said the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh for the creation of Telangana was taken up by the Congress for electoral gains.

“It (bifurcation) happened even when Parliament was not in order and without respecting feelings of people from Andhra Pradesh. We were also in favour of creation of Telangana and are still in favour of its progress,” said Modi.

“I see each time the opposition criticizes us, they are low on facts and instead harp about how things were in their time. They play the same cassette again and again. Countries which got independent after us, they have progressed very fast. We should accept that we did not progress and you broke India into pieces and despite that the country stood with you,” he added.

In the Rajya Sabha, the PM attacked the Congress and accused it of not wanting a “New India”, preferring instead an “India of Emergency, Bofors and chopper scam”. He also spoke on the issues of achieving consensus on triple talaq, and simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections, adding that there was need to have wider discussions on these issues.

How to prevent WhatsApp from using more internet data

How to prevent WhatsApp from using more internet data

Although telecom companies in India have started giving away more data to its users to keep them stick with their network, some still try to control their data consumption for each app. Facebook’s main app is usually a massive data gobbler but its subsidiary, WhatsApp is also not behind. The instant messaging firm, which recently made in to the headlines for its WhatsApp for Business app, also takes up a generous level of Internet data.

While text chats take only a fraction of the internet data, most of them are taken by images and videos shared on the platform. Thankfully, WhatsApp has included a feature in its app using which people can have a better control on how much data it consumes and in what conditions. The app lets you switch off a feature that automatically downloads the media content when on cellular data or on Wi-Fi.

So here’s how you can save more data by turning off the particular feature:

Step 1: Open the app and tap on the three dot or gear icon to access the Settings page.

Step 2: In the Settings page, tap on ‘Data and storage usage’.

Step 3: Under the ‘Media auto-download’ tap on ‘When using mobile data’ option.

Step 4: In the dialogue box tap on the media type you want WhatsApp to auto download when using cellular data.

Step 5: Repeat the same step with ‘When connected on Wi-Fi’ and ‘When roaming’ options.

Step 6: Under the ‘Call Settings’ segment you can turn on ‘Low data usage’ option. This will lower the amount of data used during a WhatsApp call.

It is worth adding that except for the Voice messages, you can control auto-downloads of all the other type of media that is shared on WhatsApp. The instant messenger specifically mentions that, “Voice messages are always automatically downloaded for the best communication experience.”

                                                                                                                            Source by gadgetsnow..

Wanderers pitch rated poor, receives three demerit points

The Wanderers pitch came under scrutiny after significant variable bounce put the players' safety under question © BCCI

The pitch at the Wanderers, that played host to the third and final Test between South Africa and India last week, has received a 'poor' rating, and the stadium received three demerit points for the same, the ICC announced on Tuesday (January 30).

The demerit points will remain active for a rolling five-year period, during which if the Wanderers reaches the threshold of five demerit points, it will be suspended from staging any international cricket for a period of 12 months.

"The pitch prepared for the final Test was a poor one. It had excessively steep and unpredictable bounce, and excessive seam movement," referee Pycroft said. "It deteriorated quickly as the match progressed, which made batting extremely difficult and hazardous, resulting in the medical staff from both the sides having to come onto the field of play multiple times to treat their batsmen.

Several players from both teams were at the receiving end of the variable bounce on the pitch. It started misbehaving on the second day of the play, when Hashim Amla got hit a couple of times. The situation worsened the following day when Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Amla as well as Dean Elgar received blows and had to be treated mid-pitch. The play was halted multiple times, on Day 3, as the umpires and the two captains held discussions with the match referee.

However, players were taken off the field once Elgar copped a blow on the helmet off a short ball. The play was called off earlier than usual but Pycroft, after discussing with the captains, decided that the pitch was not dangerous enough for the match to be abandoned.

"As the on-field umpires are also responsible for the players' safety, they expressed concerns about the behaviour of the pitch, and debated after day three if it was appropriate to continue the match. In the end, the umpires made the decision to continue and the Test reached its natural conclusion on day four. However, there was still excessive variable bounce and seam movement when the Test match ended," he added.

Former South African batsman and match referee Mike Procter, spoke to Cricbuzzduring the course of the game and admitted that he would have rated the Jo'burg pitch 'poor'.

Michael Holding, while commentating on air, too severely criticised the pitch, rating it '2 out of 100'. He was more vociferous when speaking to journalists. "It's a s**t pitch," he said. "You can interpret that. They should have called it off when (Murali) Vijay got hit. This is not a cricket pitch, this is dangerous. Call it off, forget it. You can't play cricket on that. I have no idea what has gone wrong but I know it's not a good cricket pitch."

Elgar, who top-scored in the game across the four innings, also noted that the game should have been called off keeping in the mind the safety of the players.

India won the match by 63 runs in under four days but lost the series 1-2 to the hosts.


© Cricbuzz

IPL 2018 Player Retention: From MS Dhoni to Virat Kohli, complete list of retained players
In the first step towards reforming their squads for the 2018 IPL, the franchise retained key players before the mega auction in the IPL Retention ceremony held in Mumbai on Thursday. Below is the list of players retained by the eight franchises.

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja

Former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will once again be seen in his favourite yellow jersey in the Indian Premier League's (IPL) 2018 season as the Chennai Super Kings retained the Ranchi stumper along with Suresh Raina and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.



File picture of MS Dhoni. BCCI

Dhoni has been retained for Rs 15 crore while Raina and Jadeja were kept for Rs 11 crore and Rs 7 crore, respectively.

The CSK franchise, back into the IPL fold after serving a two-year ban, has two Right-to-Match options left, which they can use during the IPL auction on 27 and 28 January.

Deduction because of player retention: Rs 33 Crore

Salary cap remaining: Rs 47 Crore

Right-to-Match cards remaining: 2

Rajasthan Royals: Steven Smith

Rajasthan Royals, the other franchise to return after a two-year ban, retained Australia skipper Steve Smith and surprisingly pushed the likes of star batsman Ajinkya Rahane back into the auction pool.

Deduction because of player retention: Rs 12.5 Crore

Salary cap remaining: Rs 67.5 Crore

Right-to-Match cards remaining: 3


Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Andre Russell

The other surprise came in the form of Gautam Gambhir, who was sent into the auction pool despite guiding the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to lifting the silverware twice (2012 and 2014).

The Shah Rukh Khan-co-owned franchise retained the West Indian duo of Sunil Narine and Andre Russell.

Deduction because of player retention: Rs 21 Crore

Salary cap remaining: Rs 59 Crore

Right-to-Match cards remaining: 3

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Sarfaraz Khan

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) retained India skipper Virat Kohli, South African AB de Villiers and young Sarfraz Khan.

Deduction because of player retention: Rs 31 Crore

Salary cap remaining: Rs 49 Crore

Right-to-Match cards remaining: 2


Delhi Daredevils: Rishabh Pant, Chris Morris, Shreyas Iyer

Delhi Daredevils retained the young Indian duo of Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer along with South African all-rounder Chris Morris.

Deduction because of player retention: Rs 33 Crore

Salary cap remaining: Rs 47 Crore

Right-to-Match cards remaining: 2

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah

Mumbai Indians also went along expected lines and retained their three-time IPL winning skipper Rohit Sharma along with all-rounder Hardik Pandya and death-overs bowling specialist Jasprit Bumrah.

Rohit guided the Mumbai franchise to IPL titles in 2013, 2015 and 2017.

Deduction because of player retention: Rs 33 Crore

Salary cap remaining: Rs 47 Crore

Right-to-Match cards remaining: 2


Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Sunrisers Hyderabad sprang a surprise by not retaining India opener Shikhar Dhawan and Afghanistan spin sensation Rashid Khan. They however retained Australian David Warner along with pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Deduction because of player retention: Rs 21 Crore

Salary cap remaining: Rs 59 Crore

Right-to-Match cards remaining: 3


Kings XI Punjab: Axar Patel

After another dismal outing in 2017, Kings XI Punjab retained just left-arm spinner Axar Patel for the next season.

Deduction because of player retention: Rs 12.5 Crore

Salary cap remaining: Rs 67.5 Crore

Right-to-Match cards remaining: 3

Below is the table of the players retained by each franchise using the Player Retention option