Dearness Allowance, June 11 -- A component of the basic salary, DA aims to mitigate cost-of-living expenses for central government employees, public sector staff, defence personnel, bank employees, and pensioners. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh have announced DA hikes while states including West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh are also considering the same.

As many as 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 component.

Notably, this comes after the Ministry of Finance in April revised DA and dearness relief (DR) by 2% with effect from 1 January this year. This e...