New Delhi, May 25 -- Dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) are often used terms when discussing salary increases for central government employees, public sector staff, defense personnel, bank employees and pensioners across these sectors. Today, we discuss the difference between DA and DR.

Notably, about 50 lakh central government employees, including defence personnel, and around 65 lakh retired central government pensioners, including defence retirees benefit from increase in DA and DR components. These include varying degrees of increase in pay across 18 levels of employees' or pensioners' basic pay.

DA and DR are only provided by the central government for its employees and retirees. The private sector in India does not o...