Govt likely to relax foreign funding rules for NGOs amid Covid crisis

The government is likely to temporarily waive provisions of the Foreign Currency Regulation Act (FCRA) to help NGOs utilise foreign funding and ramp up India's fight against Covid-19.

The unprecedented second wave of Covid-19 has put India’s healthcare system to test as the country continues to report over 3 lakh cases and thousands of deaths every day. To ease the burden on hospitals, several non-profit and philanthropic groups are extending support to patients. In a bid to strengthen such non-profit organisations (NGOs), the government is likely to temporarily waive provisions of the Foreign Currency Regulation Act (FCRA), reported The Economic Times. This will help the country's NGOs utilise foreign funding and donations to help Covid-19 patients during the nationwide public health emergency. Quoting an official, the report said NGOs had been requesting the home ministry for such a waiver for the last six months.