{"id":15253,"date":"2023-09-27T11:27:49","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T05:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=15253"},"modified":"2025-04-03T09:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T04:05:07","slug":"fcra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/fcra\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA)?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA):<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a law enacted by Parliament\u00a0<strong>to regulate foreign contributions<\/strong> (<strong>especially monetary donations) provided<\/strong> by certain individuals or associations\u00a0<strong>to NGOs and others within India.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The Act, in its consolidating form, was\u00a0<strong>originally passed in 1976 and majorly modified in 2010.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The Act aims to\u00a0<strong>prevent foreign organisations from influencing electoral politics, social, political,\u00a0<\/strong>economic, or religious discussions in India for wrong purposes\u00a0<strong>and activities detrimental to the public interest.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The Act\u00a0<strong>falls under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>\u2018Foreign Contribution\u2019 means the donation<\/strong>, delivery or transfer\u00a0<strong>made by any foreign source of any:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>article<\/strong> (not being an article given to a person as a gift for his\/her personal use, the market value of which is not more than one lakh rupees);<\/li>\n<li><strong>currency<\/strong> (whether Indian or foreign);<\/li>\n<li><strong>security.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Contributions made by a citizen of India living in another country<\/strong> (e.g. a Non-Resident Indian (NRI)) from his\/her personal savings\u00a0<strong>through the normal banking channels, will not be treated as foreign contributions.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Who can Receive Foreign Contributions?<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Any person can receive foreign contribution provided:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The person\u00a0<strong>has a definite cultural, economic, educational, religious, or social programme;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The person\u00a0<strong>must have obtained FCRA registration\/prior permission<\/strong> from the Central Government and<\/li>\n<li><strong>Person includes<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>an\u00a0<strong>individual<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>a\u00a0<strong>Hindu Undivided Family<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>an\u00a0<strong>association<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>a\u00a0<strong>company registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act<\/strong>, 2013;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>foreign contribution received has to be utilised only for the purpose<\/strong> for which it has been received, and\u00a0<strong>not more than 20% of the foreign contribution<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>received<\/strong> in a financial year\u00a0<strong>can be utilised to defray administrative expenses.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The FCRA requires every person or NGO seeking to receive foreign donations to open a bank account for the receipt of foreign funds in the State Bank of India, Delhi.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Registration under FCRA:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>I<\/strong>t is\u00a0<strong>mandatory for all such NGOs to register themselves under the FCRA.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>applicant should not be fictitious or benami<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>should not have been prosecuted or convicted for indulging in\u00a0<\/strong>activities aimed at conversion through inducement or force, either directly or indirectly, from one religious faith to another.<\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>registration is initially valid for five years,<\/strong> and it can be\u00a0<strong>renewed subsequently if they comply with all norms.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Registration\u00a0<strong>can be cancelled if an inquiry finds a false statement in the application<\/strong>. Once the registration of an NGO is cancelled,\u00a0<strong>it is not eligible for re-registration for three years.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>ministry also has the power to suspend an NGO\u2019s registration for 180 days pending inquiry<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>can freeze its funds.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>All orders of the government can be challenged in the High Court.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What is an NGO?<\/h3>\n<p>A non-governmental organization (NGO) is a group that functions independently of any government. It is usually non-profit. NGOs, sometimes called civil society organizations, are established on community, national, and international levels to serve a social or political goal such as a humanitarian cause or the protection of the environment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.in\/india\/news\/indian-ngos-registered-under-fcra-will-have-to-give-details-of-foreign-funds-now\/articleshow\/103948179.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Indian NGOs registered under FCRA will have to give details of foreign funds now<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Foreign Contribution Regulation Act is a law enacted by Parliament to regulate foreign contributions provided by certain individuals or associations to NGOs and others within India. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":15254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}