2025 India Holiday Calendar: Plan Better with Leave Management System

We are about to be done with the first half of 2025. With the new year resolution, tax filing, appraisal and various other things, it is very likely that you would have forgotten about keeping track of the holidays in 2025. For everyone - employees, admin staff and the employers - public holidays are a boon. Those extra off days that you get in addition to the weekends are an additional time to recharge and get a bit closer to achieving the work-life balance.

In tracking, planning, and organising holidays and leaves, the role of an advanced leave management system is essential. In a country like India, where every state has its own regional holidays in addition to the nationwide observed public holidays, the employee leave management system makes the leave request approval process and employee time tracking more straightforward. In this blog, we’ll cover:

• List of Holidays in India (2025) in categories of national, public and bank holidays.
• Why a Leave and Attendance Management System is a Game-Changer
• Kind of features you should be looking out for when selecting the best employee leave management system
• How to automate leave tracking for small businesses

Whether you're an HR manager, a business owner, or an employee planning your vacations, this guide will help you stay organised.

National Holidays in India 2025

India has three mandatory national holidays. On these days, all government offices, banks, and private organisations are supposed to remain closed. In case any private organisation operates on these days due to non-negotiable business requirements, the employees made to work are entitled to compensatory leave or double pay, as per the applicable labour laws and company policy.

• Republic Day - January 26 (Sunday)
• Independence Day - August 15 (Friday)
• Gandhi Jayanti - October 2 (Thursday)

With an automated leave and attendance management system, organisations will have no issues with managing employees' time-off around these fixed dates. For instance, sanctioning leaves for those preferring not to work on these days and those who wish to work for double pay.

State-Wise Breakdown of Public Holidays in India (2025)

India is the biggest country in the world in terms of population. It hosts 8 union territories and 28 states. The language, ethnic and religious composition and culture of the people in these regions vary widely. The government in each Indian state has the freedom to set regional holidays as per the preferences of the people there. Here is a breakdown of the major public holidays celebrated across India's states.

Companies operating in these states can customise their employee leave management system, keeping in mind the state-recognised holidays to avoid conflicts or unwanted resentment from their staff over not respecting their paid-time-off (PTO) rights.

Since each state has unique festivals that are observed as holidays, if you are a business with employees working remotely from different states, you may have to ensure their holiday preferences are respected. A cloud-based leave and attendance management system effectively simplifies confusion around state-wise holidays differences by letting you customise and implement inclusive leave policies.

Bank Holidays in India 2025

For various reasons ranging from traditional practices to ensuring the work-life balance of their employees, financial institutions, particularly banks in India, are given additional holidays known as ‘bank holidays.’ Typically, banks won’t operate on nationally declared public holidays and select state holidays in the respective states where they operate. For exact dates, you may check the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) holiday list.

For the effective PTO (Paid Time Off) management of their staff, financial institutions should use an advanced leave and attendance tracking software that accommodates their exclusive leave types and thus their need for custom leave policies.

Why Do Businesses Require a Leave Management System?

Manually and laboriously tracking time off via spreadsheets is an outdated practice. Here’s why an employee leave management system is a must in 2025:

Minimises Paperwork Dependence

By switching to leave and attendance tracking software from paperwork dependence, businesses can have the entire workflow around leave requests and approvals automated. With fewer entries anyone made manually, the risk of errors is quite negligible.

Real-Time Data about Employee Availability

Businesses need to have up-to-date information regarding their staff’s availability to run the operations without interruptions. If there is no one in the QA when an important product assessment report is due, it can affect the product’s final release. With a cloud-based attendance and leave management system, you will be able to:

• Get instant updates on who’s on leave
• Avoid scheduling conflicts

Safeguards Against Breaches of Labour Standards

To ensure transparent and fair leave tracking and management, while also maintaining flawless compliance with legal requirements, a cutting-edge leave management system is essential. Such a system will:

• Consistently enforce Paid Time Off (PTO) management policies.
• Keep a correct record of different leave types: sick leave, vacation leave, unpaid leave, etc.

Self-Service Portal for Employees

When it comes to managing leaves, it’s essential to move beyond a top-down approach where businesses hold complete control. Instead, employees should be empowered to apply for leave when they genuinely need it. An advanced and fair leave management system goes beyond grand promises. It will deliver practical functionality and transparency that benefits both staff and management.

• Employees can apply for leave without HR intervention
• Managers can approve/reject requests in one click, thereby giving employees clarity and confidence in time-off planning.
• Vacation and sick leave policies become more accessible and understandable.

Key Features of a Dependable Attendance & Leave Management System

With so many options all claiming to automate leave management to the next level, you will need to pay extra attention and vigilance while choosing a leave management system. Here, let’s consider the most fundamental features to demand in a leave management system.

• Automated calculation and display of leave balances
• Mobile app for on-the-go access to leave request/approval workflow
• Integration with attendance, shift and payroll features
• Customizable leave policies as per organisational needs (WFH, half-days, etc.)
• AI-powered attendance tracking software

How to Automate Employee Leave Management in 2025?

Since 2020, there has been tremendous progress in innovations around workforce management tools , particularly those handling attendance, leave, shift and payroll. With affordable employee attendance and leave tracking software, you can easily automate most workflows surrounding your employees' leave tracking. Here is a practical plan of action you may consider for that:

• Find a cloud-based leave management system (e.g., Mewurk HR) you can rely on.
• If you have formulated a leave policy for your company, set it up in the system or design one and then define it in the system.
• Train employees on using the system via the self-service portal
• Define manager-level approval hierarchies so that leave requests are routed and approved automatically
• Integrate the system with payroll and attendance tools to automate salary calculations, leave encashments, and compliance reporting.

Final Thoughts

With India’s diverse list of holidays in 2025, you need an intelligent attendance and leave management system to automatically manage region-specific holiday calendars.

Recognising these differences is key to building inclusive leave policies that show respect for cultural preferences and support a diverse and distributed workforce effectively.

We hope this blog helps you understand the diversity of leaves across Indian states and how automation makes managing them easier.

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