March 30, 2021

Government identifies steps to increase enrolment for Atal Pension Yojna

Livelihoods: In an attempt to get more citizens to avail the benefits of the government’s pension scheme—the Atal Pension Yojana (APY), the Centre has listed a series of measures that aims to improve enrolment.

Launched by the central government in May 2015, APY is open to all citizens of India between 18-40 years of age who have a savings account in a bank or post office. Subscribers can accrue benefits of the scheme when they reach 60 years.

To increase enrolment under APY, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Anurag Singh Thakur, listed out measures being taken by the Government. Some of these include:

  • Subscribers can now contribute either monthly, quarterly, and half-yearly, as opposed to just the mandatory monthly payment schedule earlier. This keeps in mind the income variability of seasonal income earners.
  • Subscribers can upgrade or downgrade their pension amount at any time during the financial year. Earlier this could be done just once a year.
  • To ease the onboarding of APY subscribers, an alternate paper-less mode for a bank’s existing savings account customers has been approved by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority.
  • Citizens can now access the scheme via the APY app, which has been made live on Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) platform.
  • A grievance module has been made available for APY subscribers.
  • Training will be conducted for bank branch officials in order to build their knowledge of this scheme.

Under the scheme, the government has disbursed INR 57,078.22 lakh as a co-contribution till February 2021.

Read this article on programme evaluations for effectiveness of public policies and efficient use of public funds.


May 20, 2021

Home Ministry extends validity period of FCRA registration certificates

Fundraising & Communications: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued a circular extending the validity of FCRA registration certificates to September 30th, 2021. This applies to all FCRA licences that have expired or will expire between September 29th, 2020 and May 31st, 2021. The decision to extend the deadline has been driven by the exigencies arising from the COVID-19 situation.

FCRA refers to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010, which permits charitable organisations based in India to raise funds from foreign sources.

The order also clarified that nonprofits that have already opened an account and have the requisite permission to receive foreign aid, can henceforth receive it only in these newly-opened accounts.

The FCRA law was amended in September 2020 to include a clause that mandated that all nonprofits receiving foreign aid must necessarily open an account in State Bank of India’s New Delhi Main Branch. The government had initially set the deadline for this account opening as March 31st, 2021; it later extended it to June 30th, 2021 after several nonprofits argued in court that there had been delays because necessary approvals from MHA had not been received.

Several organisations have not been able to receive foreign funds during the crisis caused by the second wave, and this has impacted their COVID-19 relief efforts. Relaxing the foreign funding rules could significantly help organisations ramp up their operations to help individuals, supply critical healthcare equipment, and respond to communities in rural areas.

Read this article to know how amending the FCRA can have unforeseen implications.


May 20, 2021

Corporate spending on oxygen support and medical equipment now counts as CSR

Philanthropy & CSR: The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has issued a circular that allows corporate spending on health infrastructure for COVID-19 care to qualify as corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure.

This includes setting up medical oxygen generation and storage plants, manufacturing and supply of oxygen concentrators, ventilators, cylinders, and other medical equipment to counter COVID-19.  

The announcement comes at a time when all efforts are being directed towards expediting efforts to support the country’s healthcare infrastructure.

According to the circular, companies can now undertake projects and activities in collaboration with other companies using CSR funds. Additionally, they can contribute to specified research and development projects, as well as publicly funded universities and certain organisations that conduct research in science, technology, engineering, and medicine.

The government had earlier clarified that setting up makeshift hospitals and temporary COVID-19 care facilities would also be considered a CSR activity. Rajesh Verma, the Corporate Affairs Secretary, has requested businesses to consider converting vacant office buildings into COVID-19 facilities to cater to the rapidly increasing caseload.

Read this article to understand why media attention on COVID-19 deaths due to lack of oxygen in big cities has skewed donor priorities.