PM CARES Fund

Why is in news? PM chairs meeting of Board of Trustees of PM CARES Fund

• The government has set up the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) to deal with any kind of emergency or distress situation like posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• 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 Ministry of Corporate Affairs has clarified that contributions by companies towards the PM-CARES Fund will count towards mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure.
• ICICI Bank has been authorised, as a contribution collection banking partner for PM CARES Fund.
• PM CARES Fund is not a public authority under the RTI Act.
• Two funds released by PM is PM Cares (Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund), PMNRF (Prime Minister's National Relief Fund).
• The PM CARES fund does not need to be audited by the CAG, and can instead be audited by a private accountant, because it is a public charitable trust which consists of voluntary contributions from individuals and organisations, rather than containing any public funds