Fixers Fill EPFO Gap

Good Morning. Imagine logging into your employee provident fund account and finding a huge mismatch from the money saved over the years. That's what has been happening to many Indians who want to move money out of their Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) accounts. Add to that withdrawal rejections and poor digital access, and a bureaucratic maze that most people find difficult to navigate. This is giving rise to a bunch of companies that will help you get your money, but with a fee.

In other news, in its latest statement, Air India says there are no issues with its Boeing 787 and 737 aircraft. Meanwhile, in this week's Build on Blockchain, how smart contracts can improve insurance payouts.

DECODE THE NEWS

Why Millions Can’t Access Their EPFO Savings 

What?

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) was meant to be a safety net. Today, it’s a black box that millions can’t break into. A surge in rejections, broken digital access, and shifting rules have made it harder for salaried Indians to withdraw or even view their own retirement savings.

The problem is structural. Between FY19 and FY23, claim rejection rates jumped from 22% to 28%. While the crucial final settlement claims — complete withdrawal of one's savings — now face a staggering 34% rejection rate.

Why?

This coincides with EPFO’s shift to fully digital processes and stricter KYC rules. Most users aren’t prepared. Many don’t know how to check balances, link Aadhaar, or understand claim categories. And for those who do, system failures — from login issues to Aadhaar mismatches — often block them anyway.

Legacy issues make it worse. Anyone who joined EPFO before 2014 may face data gaps caused by employer-side errors during digitisation. These are now the employee’s burden to resolve.

How Does This Affect Me?

Enter the fixers. A parallel market of “Provident Fund consultants” has emerged — some legitimate fintechs, others shady agents — offering to help users recover stuck money for a fee. One such startup, Kustodian.life, told The Core it deals with hundreds of such cases.

Wealth managers that The Core spoke with defend this business model. “If I’m getting Rs 2 lakh out by giving Rs 10,000, that’s still 95% of what I had no hope of seeing,” said Arvind Datta, founder of Marigold Wealth Advisors and a former banker.

The EPFO warns against third parties, but it hasn’t offered a better solution. There is no independent grievance redressal body, no RBI-style ombudsman. And with crores of active members, complaints are often lost in the void. Until the system is fixed, salaried professionals may continue relying on workarounds, not because they want to, but because they have no choice.

EXCLUSIVE MUMBAI FOUNDER MEETUP

Algorand Bharat Road To Impact

For the startup founders and executives who have been keenly following our 'Build on Blockchain' series, we wanted to share an exciting event that is a perfect next step. The team at Algorand Bharat is hosting an exclusive, in-person founder event in Mumbai on Saturday, June 29th. This is a fantastic chance to meet like-minded peers and connect directly with key people in the ecosystem, especially if you're actively exploring or building in Web3. Please note that capacity is limited to foster meaningful interactions, so entry will be selective. For anyone inspired by the series to build, we believe this is a valuable opportunity.

Click To Register

BUILD ON BLOCKCHAIN

Time For Insurers To Hop Aboard Blockchain For Fast, Easy Claims

What?

The insurance industry, despite being around for decades, is often plagued by inefficiency, human error, and disputes around claims and payouts.

But be it crop or health insurance, blockchain could help automate claims, eliminate delays, and restore trust.

Blockchain enables this kind of automation by building trust through design. It acts like a shared electronic notebook that records activities such as a payment, a contract, or an insurance policy.

But unlike a spreadsheet that you can modify at will, this notebook is tamper-proof. You can’t erase entries or fake new ones.

If anyone tries, the chain breaks, instantly alerting all parties that something is wrong.

For example, delays in travel insurance can be avoided with the help of blockchain. Rules for insurance payout are predefined like this: ‘If flight A is delayed by more than three hours, pay an X% for the total fare.’

Once an airline or weather department confirms the delay, the payment goes through. No phone calls, no paperwork.

Why It Matters

Trust is essential for the financial system.

Yet, trust is invariably under pressure, especially due to instances of fraud, hidden fees, claim payout delays, data breaches, and fine print that confuses more than clarifies.

Blockchain rebuilds trust by making processes transparent, automated, and harder to manipulate.

But there are caveats before you bring blockchain into your business.

What should a business prepare for?

This series is brought to you in partnership with Algorand. 

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CORE NUMBER

$2.4 trillion

That’s how much money India’s cities need to invest by 2050 to build climate‑resilient infrastructure, the World Bank has said in a report.

The Details:

• According to the report, India’s urban population, vulnerable to climate change-induced calamities, is set to nearly double to 951 million by 2050.

• More than 144 million new homes will be needed by 2070.

• At the same time, intense heat waves and urban heat island effects are already causing temperatures in city centres to rise by over 3-4 degrees over surrounding areas.

💬 World Bank’s country director Auguste Tano Kouamé: “By investing in more green and resilient urban development — including housing, transport, and municipal services — cities can better mitigate extreme heat conditions and urban floods, and continue to grow and create jobs.”

FROM THE PERIPHERY

Crash Fallout Response. Air India said it has completed precautionary inspections of the Fuel Control Switch (FCS) locking mechanism across all Boeing 787 and 737 aircraft in its fleet, including those operated by Air India Express.

Backdrop: The move follows the June 12 AI171 crash, which killed 260 people. The preliminary probe, the report for which was released earlier this month, found both fuel control switches were manually turned off seconds after takeoff.

Outcome: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had ordered fleet-wide checks. Air India said no issues were found and that the findings have been shared with the regulators.

SBI Flags RCom Fraud. India’s biggest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), is in the process of approaching the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Reliance Communications, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, told the parliament through a written reply earlier this week. The bank has also classified Reliance Communications along with promoter director Anil D Ambani as 'fraud', which it has reported to India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India.

Backdrop: SBI’s renewed action follows a Supreme Court ruling mandating borrower hearings before fraud tags are applied. After reversing its earlier 2020 fraud tag on Ambani, SBI reclassified the account in June 2025 after due process. SBI’s credit exposure in the Reliance Communications account includes fund-based principal outstanding amount of Rs 2,227.64 crore plus accrued interest and expenses with effect from August 26, 2016 and non-fund based Bank Guarantee of Rs 786.52 crore.

Context: Just days earlier, Canara Bank told the Bombay High Court it had withdrawn its fraud classification of the same loan account, reflecting diverging stances among public sector lenders.

India’s Unemployment Not Accurate? A Reuters poll of independent economists found that the Indian government’s unemployment data is inaccurate. Several economists even claimed that the real unemployment rate is likely double the official rate of 5.6%.

The Backstory: The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) counts even those who work an hour per week as unemployed. That distorts the real picture, according to the economists surveyed. The poll also found India’s female labour participation rate of 31.7% to be too low; experts said that on its current path, it would take decades for India to catch up to G20 countries. 

The Shift: The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), according to the Reuters report, defended the PLFS and said that India uses computer-assisted personal interviews to improve data quality, which is the same technology that most international agencies also use.

Premium Housing Dominates Real Estate Market. Sales of apartments under Rs 1 crore plunged by 32% across seven major cities, dropping to 51,804 units in January–June 2025, according to a report by real estate company JLL. Overall apartment sales also fell—by 13%—to 1,34,776 units. 

The Shift: But, premium housing tells a different story. Sales of apartments priced above Rs 1 crore rose 6% to 82,972 units. These now make up 62% of total sales, up from 51% last year. 

The Lead: The Economic Times quoted Samantak Das, chief economist and head of research, JLL India, as saying that the growth in premium homes was a sign of the growing wealth of Indians, and with it, an increasing demand for a better lifestyle and luxury homes.

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Correction: The Core number on Tuesday's edition incorrectly said the Adani Group planned to invest Rs 96,000 in its airports over five years. The number should have been Rs 96,000 crore. The error has been corrected on our web version of the newsletter.

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✍️ Zinal Dedhia, Salman SH, Kudrat Wadhwa | ✂️ Rohini Chatterji | 🎧 Joshua Thomas