• Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the Board of trustees of the PM CARES Fund. It was attended by newly-nominated trustees former Supreme Court judge Justice K.T. Thomas, former deputy Lok Sabha speaker Kariya Munda and Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata.

• PM CARES Fund trustees Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also attended the meeting. 

• A presentation was made on the various initiatives undertaken with the help of PM CARES Fund, including the PM CARES for Children scheme which is supporting 4,345 children.

The trust also decided to nominate some eminent persons for constitution of Advisory Board to PM CARES Fund. They are: 

• Rajiv Mehrishi, former Comptroller and Auditor General of India

• Sudha Murthy, former chairperson, Infosys Foundation

• Anand Shah, co-founder of Teach for India and former CEO of Indicorps and Piramal Foundation.

What is PM CARES Fund?

• A public charitable trust under the name of Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) has been set up keeping in mind the need for having a dedicated national fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected. 

• PM CARES Fund has been registered as a Public Charitable Trust in March 2020.

• Prime Minister is the ex-officio chairman of the PM CARES Fund and minister of defence, minister of home affairs and minister of finance are ex-officio Trustees of the Fund.

• The fund consists entirely of voluntary contributions from individuals/organisations and does not get any budgetary support.

• The PM CARES Fund collected Rs 10,990 crore since its inception in March 2020 until March 2021.

• The head office of the Fund is Prime Minister’s Office.

Objectives of setting up PM CARES Fund:

• To undertake and support relief or assistance of any kind relating to a public health emergency or any other kind of emergency, calamity or distress, either man-made or natural, including the creation or upgradation of health care or pharmaceutical facilities, other necessary infrastructure, funding relevant research or any other type of support.

• To render financial assistance, provide grants of payments of money or take such other steps as may be deemed necessary by the Board of trustees to the affected population.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store