A 38-year-old resident of Jabalpur has received a rare invitation from Rashtrapati Bhavan after being selected among 10 beneficiaries nationwide to be honoured by President Droupadi Murmu on Independence Day for his disciplined contribution to the Atal Pension Yojana (APY).

Amit Kumar, a resident of Bapu Nagar in Ranjhi, will attend the Independence Day programme in New Delhi on August 15, where he will be felicitated by the President. He has also been invited to join the President for a special luncheon following the ceremony.

Selected from Across the Country

Amit's selection comes under the Ministry of Labour and Employment's Atal Pension Yojana, a government-backed social security scheme that encourages long-term retirement savings through regular monthly contributions.

According to officials, he is among only 10 individuals chosen from across India for consistently depositing his monthly premium without any default since enrolling in the scheme in 2018.

Under the pension scheme, Amit contributes ₹130 every month and will receive a monthly pension of ₹3,000 after attaining the age of 60.

Rashtrapati Bhavan Invitation Delivered

The official invitation reached Amit's residence on Friday through the Department of Posts.

Officials from the Khamaria Post Office first contacted him to verify his address before senior postal officers and a postman personally delivered the invitation from Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The invitation package also includes air travel to and from New Delhi, accommodation, entry passes to Rashtrapati Bhavan, and a commemorative gift provided by the Government of India.

'It Feels Like a Dream'

Reacting to the honour, Amit said he initially found it difficult to believe that he had been selected.

"I belong to a middle-class family. I never imagined I would get an opportunity to meet the President of India and be honoured by her. Being selected from among millions of beneficiaries is a matter of great pride and fortune," he said.

He also expressed gratitude to the Government of India and the Labour Department for recognising his commitment to the pension scheme.

Celebration in Family and Neighbourhood

News of Amit's selection quickly spread through his neighbourhood, with family members, relatives and local residents congratulating him on the achievement.

Residents described the recognition as a proud moment not only for Amit but also for Jabalpur, saying his selection highlights the importance of financial discipline and long-term social security planning through government welfare schemes.

The meeting builds on two earlier rounds of talks this year: a virtual First EWG Meeting held in March, followed by an in-person Second Meeting in Thiruvananthapuram in May. Those sessions established four priority areas for the group — advancing social security and labour market formalisation, boosting women's workforce participation, strengthening cooperation on employability and skills development, and leveraging digital technologies to extend protections to gig and platform workers. The Hyderabad meeting is intended to finalise the proposed deliverables built around those four themes before they go to ministers for formal adoption.

Delegations from BRICS member states — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia and the UAE — are taking part, alongside knowledge partners including the International Labour Organization and the International Social Security Association, who have supported the working group's deliberations across all three rounds with technical input and comparative data from member countries.

Discussions at the earlier Thiruvananthapuram meeting gave a sense of where the group's thinking has landed. Delegates broadly agreed on a goal of incremental, progressive expansion of social protection coverage across BRICS nations, while acknowledging that gaps persist despite recent progress. On women's workforce participation, member states pushed for stronger, more inclusive policy frameworks to support women's entry into high-growth sectors and leadership roles, while stressing that any shared framework needs to respect individual countries' national priorities. On skills, the group has been working toward a shared framework focused on improving skills intelligence, making qualifications more comparable across countries, and enabling knowledge exchange on digital, green and care-economy skills specifically.

Countries have also used these meetings to showcase their own initiatives as models for peer learning — India's National Career Service and e-Shram platforms, Egypt's mobile training units, the UAE's Wage Protection System and unemployment insurance scheme, and Brazil's Equal Pay Law have all featured in prior sessions as examples other member states could draw from.

Once the Hyderabad meeting concludes, the finalised deliverables are expected to move to the BRICS Labour and Employment Ministers' Meeting scheduled for later this month, marking the culmination of India's Employment Track work for its 2026 BRICS Chairship.