The Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA) and the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) jointly organized a dedicated workshop for youth, engaging college students on “Investor Education and Protection Policy in India: Claiming the Unclaimed” on December 12, 2023, at the NCAER Auditorium in New Delhi.

The workshop emphasised claimants' awareness of unclaimed funds like provident funds, shares, and dividends. It showcased IEPFA’s role in raising awareness, securing unclaimed shares, and simplifying investor processes within the authority. This initiative involved university students, fostering financial inclusion at the grassroots level and encouraging innovative ideas about unclaimed funds.

Since its establishment, the IEPFA has conducted several Investor Awareness Programmes aimed at enhancing financial literacy across rural, semi-urban, and urban areas, facilitating the swift retrieval of unclaimed shares, dividends, and debentures for rightful claimants. Through its research chair at NCAER, IEPFA partnered with NCAER to engage youth at the grassroots level, focusing on educating them about claiming unclaimed assets effortlessly through enhanced awareness.

In her Keynote address, Smt. Anita Shah Akela, CEO of IEPFA and Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, emphasised the role of IEPFA in protecting investors' interests and underscored how the IEPFA regularly works on issues related to investor protection and awareness.

During the workshop, various speakers discussed IEPFA’s critical role in securing unclaimed funds with banks, provident funds, shares, and dividends, facilitating their return to legitimate claimants. They focused on the complexities surrounding the claim settlement process, including incomplete documentation, document mismatches, legal issues, delayed responses to discrepancies, and lack of awareness regarding the exact location of the claim by many individuals. They also highlighted steps to resolve these issues. University participants engaged in group discussions and presented their ideas, showcasing innovative thinking on the topic. They recognised the importance of financial literacy and inclusion for young people, enabling them to make informed decisions and share their knowledge to contribute to economic development and create more equitable and stable societies.

Dr. C. S. Mohapatra, IEPF Chair Professor at NCAER, moderated the workshop, which featured eminent speakers, including Lt. Col. Tushar Anand, General Manager at IEPFA, Ministry of Corporate Affairs; Ms. Ritu Prakash Singh, MSME Research Investor Relations at U GRO Capital Ltd.; Mr. Gangesh Varma, Principal Associate at Technology and Policy, Saraf and Partners; and Mr. Manish Ahuja, Cofounder of IntelliInvest. Shri Sumit Aggarwal, AGM Awareness at IEPFA, expressed his gratitude with a vote of thanks, highlighting the unique role of IEPFA in nurturing the financial ecosystem for stakeholders.

About IEPFA

The Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA) was set up on September 7, 2016, under the aegis of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India, for administering the Investor Education and Protection Fund for making refunds of shares, unclaimed dividends, and matured deposits/debentures, among other things, to investors.

About NCAER

NCAER is India’s oldest and largest independent economic think tank, set up in 1956 to inform policy choices for both the public and private sectors. It is one of a few independent think tanks world-wide that combines rigorous economic analysis and policy outreach with deep data collection capabilities, particularly for large-scale household surveys. NCAER is led by its Director General, Dr Poonam Gupta, the institution’s first woman head, who assumed office on 1 July 2021, and it is governed by an independent Governing Body currently chaired by Mr Nandan M. Nilekani.

Investor protection: workshop promotes claiming unclaimed funds and simplifying procedures to return financial assets to rightful claimants. The IEPFA-NCAER workshop concentrated on enhancing investor awareness and procedures for claiming unclaimed financial assets (provident funds, shares, dividends, deposits/debentures). It outlined IEPFA's administrative role in securing and facilitating refunds from the Investor Education and Protection Fund and identified claim settlement obstacles-incomplete or mismatched documentation, legal issues, delayed discrepancy responses, and lack of claimant awareness-while promoting youth engagement, grassroots outreach, and procedural steps to simplify recovery and improve financial inclusion.