Union Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday, 9 November 2026, released three landmark publications at the 74th Foundation Day of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) in New Delhi, spotlighting the organisation's growing emphasis on research, intellectual discourse, and compassionate administration. The volumes were brought out by the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya National Academy of Social Security (PDUNASS).

The release took place in the presence of Dr Chandra Bhushan Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, and Ramesh Krishnamurthi, Central Provident Fund Commissioner (CPFC).

The Three Publications at a Glance

The three works — The Indian Journal of Social Security, Volume 1, 2026; Reimagining Governance: Discourse for Excellence (RGDE); and Shasan Vidhi Mein Karuna (Compassion in Governance) — collectively represent what PDUNASS describes as the three pillars of its institutional mission: research, intellectual engagement, and humane administration.

India's First EPFO Research Journal

The inaugural volume of The Indian Journal of Social Security marks a significant milestone for EPFO's internal research culture. It is a direct outcome of the Programme for Field Research Excellence (PFRE), conceptualised and institutionalised by Kumar Rohit, Director, PDUNASS, to enable EPFO officers to convert their field experience into peer-quality research.

The volume carries papers spanning labour-market surveys, comparative social-security systems, digital infrastructure, access to EPFO services, provident fund withdrawals, contract labour, grievance redressal, pension contributions, investment strategies, migrant labour, and fraud detection — a wide sweep of operational challenges that the journal brings into an academic framework for the first time.

Reimagining Governance: Dialogue Across Disciplines

Reimagining Governance: Discourse for Excellence (RGDE) is a coffee-table book that chronicles 26 sessions of PDUNASS's flagship lecture and dialogue series, launched in December 2023 and held over nearly three years. The series brings eminent personalities from public life, academia, literature, economics, social development, and science into structured conversations with serving public servants on governance, leadership, ethics, and institutional excellence.

Notably, the initiative represents a deliberate effort to cross-pollinate ideas between domain experts and bureaucratic practitioners — a model that remains relatively rare in Indian public-sector learning ecosystems.

Compassion in Governance: 83 Real-Life Case Studies

Shasan Vidhi Mein Karuna compiles 83 real-life case studies drawn from 62 Regional Offices of EPFO across the country. Each account documents instances in which EPFO officers and staff went beyond their routine official mandate to support members and pensioners navigating difficult personal circumstances. The compilation serves both as an institutional record and as a training reference for frontline staff.

What This Signals for EPFO

The simultaneous release of three publications on its Foundation Day signals a shift in how EPFO — which manages retirement savings for over 7 crore active members — is positioning itself institutionally. By formalising research, discourse, and empathy as organisational values, PDUNASS is building a framework that could influence how social-security administration is taught and practised across India's vast provident fund network. The next phase will depend on how widely the journal and case-study compendium are adopted in EPFO's officer training programmes.