EPFO 3.0: The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has all set to embark on to its new phase of reforms, called EPFO 3.0, shortly after the retirement body announced relaxed withdrawal norms and proposed a UPI-linked withdrawal facility, The Indian Express has reported.
In its report quoting an official familiar with the development, the newspaper said that EPFO 3.0 will feature a new portal and a new software at the backend to implement the changes over the next decade.
The new EPFO 3.0 will also have AI-powered language tools for the ease of members, the senior government official quoted by The Indian Express said.
How does EPFO 3.0 look?
The revamp under EPFO 3.0 will see the retirement body overhauling its architecture as it shifts to a core banking solution amid a backdrop of the organisation expanding in scale to cater to both organised and unorganised sector workers following the implementation of the New Labour Codes.
The core banking solution is dubbed as a key feature of EPFO 3.0 as this will lead to a centralised operation of the retirement body. This will work just like banks, which enable its customers to resolve their issues anywhere in the country.
Express reported that the EPFO may gain control over the administration of retirement funds of gig and platform workers.
“There will be a complete revamp under EPFO 3.0, new architecture, core banking solution at the backend. We will be able to cater in terms of scale, to all the organised and unorganised workers. It will take into account the increase in volumes. The entire system will change including the portal. As of now, incremental changes are happening, the next phase will take care of all future needs,” the senior government official quoted by the newspaper said.
EPFO currently has around 8 crore active members and maintains a corpus of over ₹28 lakh crore.
AI-powered language tool
Another new feature of EPFO 3.0 will be an AI-powered language tool, meant for the ease of members who want their problems solved in their vernacular language.
“We will use more vernacular tools like Bhashini to give information in the vernacular medium,” the official told The Indian Express.
Bhashini is an AI powered language translation platform that has been developed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
EPFO 3.0 to kick off soon
Developments under EPFO 3.0 is expected to start soon as the retirement body is already in the last stages of finalising a tender to select a company that can implement, operate, and maintain an IT platform for the EPFO’s various needs under the revamped face.
“The tender is broadly prepared, the financial vetting is underway. It will be floated soon,” the official said.
