Chairman Emeritus of TATA group Ratan Tata appointed as trustee of PM CARES Fund

The PM CARES Fund was created during the Covid-19 pandemic. The primary objective of the fund is to deal with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected individuals.

Veteran industrialist Ratan Tata, former Supreme Court judge KT Thomas, and former deputy Lok Sabha speaker Kariya Munda have been nominated as trustees of the PM CARES Fund, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the PM CARES Fund, which was attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Both Shah and Sitharaman are the Trustees of PM Cares Fund.

During the meeting, Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus, Tata Sons; Justice KT Thomas, former SC judge, and Kariya Munda, former Deputy speaker appointed as the newly nominated trustees of the PM CARES Fund.

As per the PMO, the Trust further decided to nominate other eminent persons for the constitution of the 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 said that the participation of new Trustees and Advisors will provide wider perspectives on the functioning of the PM CARES Fund.

“Their vast experience of public life would impart further vigour in making the fund more responsive to various public needs,” PMO added.

The PM CARES Fund was created during the Covid-19 pandemic. The primary objective of the fund is to deal with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected individuals. 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. As per Centre’s data, a total of ₹7,031.99 crores was collected under PM CARES Fund between 2020-21.

Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairman of the PM CARES Fund and the Minister of Defence, Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance, Government of India are ex-officio Trustees of the Fund.