The Central government on September 20 appointed veteran industrialist Ratan Tata, former Supreme Court judge K.T. Thomas, and former Deputy Lok Sabha Speaker Kariya Munda as trustees of the PM CARES Fund.
The Trust further decided to nominate other eminent persons for the constitution of Advisory Board to the PM CARES Fund. These eminent personalities included Rajiv Mehrishi, former Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Sudha Murthy, former Chairperson, Infosys Foundation, and Anand Shah, Co-founder of Teach for India and former CEO of Indicorps and Piramal Foundation.
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the PM CARES Fund on 20.09.2022.
A presentation was made on the various initiatives undertaken with the help of PM CARES Fund, including the PM CARES for Children scheme which is supporting 4345 children.
Trustees appreciated the role played by the fund at a crucial time for the country. PM Shri Narendra Modi appreciated the people of the country for contributing wholeheartedly to PM CARES Fund.
It was discussed that PM CARES has a larger vision on effectively responding to emergency and distress situations, not only through relief assistance, but also taking mitigation measures and capacity building.
About PM CARES Fund
- Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) was set up to deal with emergencies such as the Covid pandemic. PM CARES Fund has been registered as a Public Charitable Trust.
- The trust deed of PM CARES Fund has been registered under the Registration Act, 1908 at New Delhi on 27th March, 2020.
- Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairman of the PM CARES Fund and Minister of Defence, Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance, Government of India are ex-officio Trustees of the Fund.
- The Chairperson of the Board of Trustees (Prime Minister) shall have the power to nominate three trustees to the Board of Trustees who shall be eminent persons in the field of research, health, science, social work, law, public administration and philanthropy.
- Any person appointed a Trustee shall act in a pro bono capacity.
- The fund consists entirely of voluntary contributions from individuals/organizations and does not get any budgetary support.
- Donations to PM CARES Fund would qualify for 80G benefits for 100% exemption under the Income Tax Act, 1961.
- Donations to PM CARES Fund will also qualify to be counted as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure under the Companies Act, 2013.
- PM CARES Fund has also got exemption under the FCRA and a separate account for receiving foreign donations has been opened.
