As part of the multiple relief packages for mitigating the impact of COVID-19, the government launched ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana (ABRY)’ as a part of Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0. The primary objective of the scheme is to incentive employers to generate new employment and to restore the lost employment due to COVID-19 Pandemic. What do the beneficiary numbers of this scheme say about the pattern of establishment across states? We compare ABRY numbers with the net payroll data released by EPFO The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of the employment situation in India. One of the profound impacts of the pandemic was the loss of employment across a variety of sectors. The closure of various kinds of formal enterprises led to termination and mass layoffs in certain cases. In addition to this, the informal sector employees like the daily wage earners, streetside vendors, etc., also suffered heavily due to the pandemic and its related restrictions. The Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), conducted as part of the All-India Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey (AQEES) by the Labour Bureau measured the sector-wise impact of the COVID-19 pandemic during the lockdown phase. The number of male employees fell from 217.8 Lakhs to 201.5 Lakhs, while the female employees fell from 90.0 Lakhs to 83.3 Lakhs, during the period 25March 2020 to 30June 2020, as per the first round of this survey, which looked at the employment status of the establishments in the selected 9 sectors. The pandemic has also severely impacted the capital reserves of the small-scale enterprises. Realizing this, the Government of India (GoI) announced the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Package’ to minimize the COVID-19 impact. Rightly so, small-scale enterprises were accorded a significant part in this package. In addition to this package, the GoI launched ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana (ABRY)’ as a part of Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0. The primary objective of the scheme is to incentive employers to generate new employment and to restore the lost employment due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Under this scheme, the GoI intends to incentivize the employers by paying both the employer and employee contributions of 12% each for enterprises with less than 1000 employees and only the employee’s contribution for enterprises with more than 1000 employees. This is applicable to firms registered with EPFO and for new employees on or after 01 October 2020 up to 31 March 2022 with wages less than Rs. 15,000 or to those who lost jobs between 01 March 2020 to 30 September 2020. In this story, we look at some of the aspects of ABRY based on data provided in a recent answer in the Lok Sabha and analyse the trends while comparing these numbers with the net payroll data published by EPFO. While a one-to-one comparison is not possible because of the varied nature of the data from these sources, it can provide us some insights into the nature of establishments & employment across states. We have included limitations in each section of the analysis to ensure that the data & the methodology is correctly understood. Disbursal trend of ABRY The scheme was announced as a part of Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0. The registration of new employees and employers is valid from 01 October 2020 to 31March 2022 (extended from 30 June 2021). The contribution pay-outs are for a period of twenty-four (24) months only, and there is no state-specific allocation of funds for this scheme. The total outlay of the scheme is Rs. 22810 Crores for the entire period up to 31 May 2023 (before the extension was granted). Approximately 71.8 Lakh employees are expected to get benefitted from this scheme during this period. The scheme was allotted Rs. 1000 Crores in revised estimates of 2020-21, while the actual expenditure has been Rs. 405 Crores. The allocation then increased to Rs. 3130 Crores in the budget estimates of 2021-22, while the revised estimates of 2021-22 increased it further to Rs. 5000 Crores. Considering the extension of validity for a period of 9 months, the budget estimates for 2022-23 have been increased to Rs. 6400 Crores. As on 31 October 2021, around 1,12,060 establishments availed the benefit of Rs. 2214.47 Crores, with 36,60,141 employees getting benefitted. This increased to Rs. 2736.66 Crores with the establishments benefitted rising to 1,18, 489, as on 13 December 2021. As of 06 January 2022, the benefits were extended to 43,21,487 employees through 1,22,228 establishments. The latest figures include 1,34,568 enterprises, with 51,95,330 employees getting benefitted and Rs. 4055.90 Crores amount being reimbursed as of 12 March 2022.