The Home Ministry has cancelled the FCRA licence of Infosys Foundation after a request was made by the not-for-profit initiative of the IT major, a senior government official said.
The Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) enables an association or an NGO to receive foreign funds, and they have to mandatorily register under it to receive such funds.
“The FCRA licence was cancelled at their own request. There was no violation,” said the official.
Another official said the NGO made “persistent requests” to cancel the licence.
“We requested them not to cancel the registration but they were adamant. So we cancelled it,” said the official.
The Home Ministry had last year served show cause notice on 1,755 NGOs, including Infosys Foundation, for failing to submit annual income and expenditure statements on foreign funding electronically on the Ministry’s portal even though they received “nil” contributions.
The Infosys Foundation said in a statement that it had requested the Home Ministry to cancel the registration in June 2016.
“The Foundation was registered under the FCRA Act in January 2016. In May 2016, the Government amended the FCRA Act in the Finance Bill with retrospective effect from 2010 as a result of which the Foundation no longer fell under the purview of the FCRA Act. The Foundation thereafter applied for its de-registration from FCRA with an additional request to cancel the FCRA registration in June 2016, and received acknowledgement from the FCRA wing in the same month,” it said.
The Foundation added that the Foundation has submitted its annual returns for financial years 2016, 2017 and 2018 “though it did not fall under the purview of Act following its amendment.” “Additionally, the Foundation has also submitted necessary paperwork to the Government in July 2018, to showcase that the Foundation has not received any foreign funding. The Foundation has not received any notice to file returns pertaining to FCRA after April 2018,” its statement said.
As per its website, the association was established in 1996 and it supports programs in the areas of education, rural development, healthcare, arts and culture, and destitute care. Its mission is to work in remote regions of several states in India. Its chairperson is Sudha Murty, who has a master's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
