Xset - the key strokes are not repeating

I'm running Ubuntu 20.4 desktop and I have to run "xset r on" from command line each time I log in otherwise holding arrow or del keys does not work (in repeated mode).

I added "xset r on" at the end of .profile file in my home directory but that does not seem to work.

Is there a better way to run this command at the time of boot up or login?

PS: This problem seems new after I moved to 20.04 and curious if there is a setting that I may have missed for this one.

Here is my .profile file:

    # the default umask is set in /etc/profile; for setting the umask
# for ssh logins, install and configure the libpam-umask package.
#umask 022

# if running bash
if [ -n "$BASH_VERSION" ]; then
    # include .bashrc if it exists
    if [ -f "$HOME/.bashrc" ]; then
    . "$HOME/.bashrc"
    fi
fi

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/.local/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
fi

xset r on

I am using the .bashrc file in the same directory to add commands that should be executed on terminal open:

export PATH="$PATH:/home/usr/schmok"
/usr/bin/screenfetch -d "-disk;-pkgs;-shell;"
xset r on

But that cures the symptom, not the source.