EPFO Kicks Off Legal Induction Training for 262 Direct Recruit Officers at GNLU Gandhinagar
Gandhinagar, April 7, 2026 — The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has officially launched the National Law University (NLU) Phase of its comprehensive Induction Training Programme for newly recruited officers.
The second batch of the 2025 cohort—consisting of Direct Recruit Enforcement Officers and Accounts Officers (EO/AO)—commenced their legal training at the prestigious Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) in Gandhinagar on Monday, April 6.
A Shift Towards Facilitation and Trust
The training program was formally inaugurated by Shri Kumar Rohit, Director of the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya National Academy of Social Security (PDUNASS), the apex training institution of the EPFO.
Addressing the 262 trainee officers, who were selected through the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Shri Rohit emphasized the critical need for a strong legal foundation. He urged the new officers to act as “agents of positive change,” aligning their duties with the national goals of ‘Ease of Living’ and ‘Ease of Doing Business’.
Echoing this sentiment, Shri Manoranjan Kumar, RPFC-I, PDUNASS, noted a significant paradigm shift in governance. He stated that the role of an Enforcement Officer has evolved from being primarily regulation and inspection-centric to a framework anchored in facilitation, trust, and partnership. He advised the officers to serve as a vital, empathetic link between the law and the citizens.
Rigorous Legal Preparation
The NLU training phase at GNLU is designed to be academically rigorous. During his address, Dr. Hardik H. Parikh, Head of the Training Division at GNLU, reminded the trainees of a classic adage: “The more you sweat in the training ground, the less you bleed in the battlefield”.
The curriculum will heavily focus on equipping officers with legal acumen, covering the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, the evolving landscape of social security laws, and complex issues relating to adjudication, enforcement, and compliance.
This legal phase at GNLU is just one part of a massive, five-phase capacity-building initiative designed by PDUNASS to prepare these future public servants for the administrative, financial, and technological challenges they will face in the field.