FCRA rules hit overseas COVID aid to hospitals, NGOs
Updated:
Updated:
May 08, 2021 22:39 IST
FCRA approvals take a lot of time, the government needs to urgently grant an exemption for all such donations, tax and legal experts said.
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FCRA approvals take a lot of time, the government needs to urgently grant an exemption for all such donations, tax and legal experts said.
Indian entities, including hospitals and charitable trusts, hoping to receive COVID-19 relief material from overseas individual donors or donor agencies, could be in trouble, unless they are registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) with a stated objective involving provision of medical care.
Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis
MUMBAI: Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis has accused the BMC of suppressing actual number of Covid deaths by placing several incidents of Covid deaths in the “deaths due to other reasons” category.
In a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, Fadnavis said World Health Organisation and Indian Council for Medical Research norms required that every death of a Covid positive patient is reported as Covid death, the only exception being death due to accident/suicide/murder or in extreme cases like death of a Covid positive brain-dead patient or 4th stage cancer patient.
“It is clearly seen that to supress the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) or death rate the BMC is misusing this (deaths due to other reasons) category to the extent that when the deaths due to other reasons category in Rest of Maharashtra is 0.7%, in Mumbai it is reported 34.9% in this second wave of Covid. Even in the first wave when Rest of Maharashtra was 0.8%, Mumbai report
BBC News
By Shruti Menon
image copyrightGetty Images
India has been hit by a huge second coronavirus wave, but its government has said the pandemic is showing signs of slowing down in some regions.
What s happening to infection rates?
India s surge in infections began around mid-March and increased rapidly, reaching a peak of more than 400,000 recorded daily cases on Friday, 30 April.
Over subsequent days the numbers fell, with just under 360,000 on Monday, 3 May - leading to speculation that a peak had been reached.
But in the past few days, they have started to rise again, in line with a weekly pattern of fluctuations that shows the numbers usually dipping on a Monday.
Coronavirus in India LIVE Updates: India on Thursday reported over 4.12 lakh fresh cases and nearly 4,000 deaths in 24 hours. India's top scientific advisor has said a third wave of Covid infection is inevitable and it is necessary to be prepared for new waves. India has been reeling under the second wave in which the country has been recording over 3.5 lakh daily Covid-19 cases and over 3,000 deaths. Struck by shortage of oxygen, hospital beds.