Editorial policy

1. Primary sources only

Every factual claim — eligibility rules, benefit amounts, interest rates, deadlines, document lists — is taken from a primary government source: a ministry or departmental portal, a Press Information Bureau release, or a published scheme guideline or gazette notification.

We do not copy figures from other websites, and we do not publish a number we could not trace to an official source. Where something could not be verified, we either leave it out or say plainly that it is unverified.

2. Everything is cited and dated

Each page carries a list of the sources it was written from and the date those sources were checked. The verification date appears near the top of the page as well as at the bottom, so you can judge how fresh the information is before you read it.

3. Rates and rules are treated as perishable

Small savings interest rates are revised quarterly by the Ministry of Finance. Scheme amounts, income ceilings and deadlines change with budgets and notifications. We date every such figure and, where a rate drives a calculation, our calculators let you enter the current rate rather than hard-coding one that will go stale.

4. We do not process applications

Apna Yojana is not a government body, is not affiliated with any government department, and cannot register, approve or expedite any application. Every guide links to the official portal, and we state clearly that government registration is free. We will never ask you for documents, fees or payment details.

5. Corrections

If we get something wrong, we fix it as soon as it is confirmed and update the verification date on the page. If the error was material — a wrong amount, a wrong eligibility rule, a wrong deadline — we note what changed. To report an error, please contact us.

6. Advertising and independence

This site is supported by advertising. It carries no affiliate links today; if that changes, each one will be marked and will never sit on a government scheme guide. Advertisers have no influence over which schemes we cover or what we say about them, and no commercial relationship changes an eligibility rule or an amount.

7. Which sources count as official

A source counts as official when it is published by the government or a statutory regulator: a .gov.in or .nic.in website, a Press Information Bureau release, a page in the Gazette of India, a state government’s own portal or information department, or the website of a regulator such as PFRDA, the NPS Trust or the Reserve Bank of India. News reports, aggregator sites and other guides are never the source of a figure. They may point us to where to look, but the figure is read from the official page itself.

The build enforces the floor: a scheme page cannot be published unless at least one of its sources is on an official domain of this kind.

8. How a page is checked before it goes live

Amounts, ages, income limits and dates are taken from the source page or document, not from memory. Numbers in a calculator’s worked example are computed by the same code the calculator uses, so a rate is entered once and every example follows it. Before publishing, the site is built and its automated checks must pass: every FAQ answer in the page’s structured data must also be visible in its text, and titles and descriptions must fit the space search engines show. A separate check confirms that every internal link resolves to a real page.

A page’s “last checked” date moves only when its content has been re-checked or changed. A date is never refreshed just to look current.

9. What we update on a schedule

Some figures change on a known rhythm, and we revisit them when it comes round: instalment guides on each official release, small savings rates when the Ministry of Finance notifies the quarter’s rates, and dearness allowance when a new order is issued. When a release has not been announced, the page says it has not been announced rather than guessing a date.

10. How AI is used

We use AI tools to help research and draft our guides: reading long government documents, drafting explanations and translating between English, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada and Tamil. AI output is a draft, not a source. Nothing is published until each figure, date and rule in it has been checked against the official source named on the page. A figure we cannot trace to an official source is left out or marked as unverified, however confidently a draft stated it.

The calculators are not AI. Their maths is ordinary code, and their worked examples are computed by that same code.

11. What we do not do

• We do not give personalised financial, legal, tax or medical advice. Our calculators are planning tools, not statements of what you are owed.
• We do not use official emblems, seals or state symbols, or present ourselves as an official channel.
• We do not publish a figure that has not been checked against its official source, however it was drafted.