Mumbai: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has granted Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 2010, registration to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) of Maharashtra, thereby allowing it to receive foreign donations for “social” initiatives.

This marks the first instance of a state government’s relief fund receiving FCRA approval, a move that will enable the fund to supplement financial aid for victims of natural disasters, major accidents, communal violence, terrorist attacks, and for individuals requiring medical or educational assistance, as reported by The Hindu.

State relief funds generally rely on domestic contributions. The Centre’s latest decision departs from its earlier stance in 2018, when it declined foreign aid for flood relief efforts in Kerala.

The CMRF, registered as a Trust under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950, is overseen by the Maharashtra government under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister. A tender floated in February indicated that the average number of transactions handled by the CMRF are between one lakh and 1.5 lakh per year.

The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES), established in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, was exempted from FCRA provisions and permitted to maintain a separate account for foreign donations.

The Home Ministry regulates foreign donations through the FCRA to ensure that such funds do not adversely affect country’s internal security, added the report. All associations, NGOs, or groups intending to receive foreign funds for social, educational, religious, economic, or cultural activities must be registered under the Act.

So far this year, FCRA registration has been granted to 244 organisations, including the Ramakrishna Mission in Kolkata, the Ramakrishna Mission Hospital in Itanagar, and several Buddhist associations. As of May 30, India has 16,141 FCRA-registered NGOs.

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Mumbai, Aug 13 (PTI): The RBI will introduce a new mechanism from October 4 for clearance of cheques within hours of being presented to banks, reducing the current time period of up to two working days.

Cheques will be scanned, presented, and passed in a few hours and on a continuous basis during business hours. The clearing cycle will be reduced from the present T+1 days to a few hours.

Cheque Truncation System (CTS) currently processes cheques with a clearing cycle of up to two working days.

To improve the efficiency of cheque clearing and reduce settlement risk for participants, and to enhance customer experience, the RBI has decided to transition CTS from the current approach of batch processing to continuous clearing with 'on-realisation-settlement'.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a circular for introduction of Continuous Clearing and Settlement on Realisation in CTS.

"It has been decided to transition CTS to continuous clearing and settlement on realisation in two phases. Phase 1 shall be implemented on October 4, 2025 and Phase 2 on January 3, 2026," it said.

There will be a single presentation session from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Cheques received by the branches shall be scanned and sent to the clearing house by the banks immediately and continuously during the presentation session, RBI said.

"For every cheque presented, the drawee bank shall generate either positive confirmation (for honoured cheques) or negative confirmation (for dishonoured cheques)," it said.

During Phase 1 (from October 4, 2025 to January 2, 2026), drawee banks will be required to confirm (positively/negatively) cheques presented on them, latest by the end of the confirmation session (7:00 PM), else those will be deemed to have been approved and included for settlement.

In Phase 2 (from January 3, 2026), the item expiry time of cheques shall be changed to T+3 clear hours.

Giving an example, the RBI said the cheques received by drawee banks between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM will have to be confirmed positively or negatively by them by 2:00 PM (3 hours from 11:00 AM).

Cheques for which confirmation is not provided by the drawee bank in the prescribed 3 hours shall be treated as deemed approved and included for settlement at 2:00 PM.

RBI further said that on completion of settlement, the clearing house will release the information of positive and negative confirmations to the presenting bank.

"The presenting bank shall process the same and release the payment to the customers immediately, but not later than 1 hour from successful settlement, subject to usual safeguards," it said.

RBI directed banks to make their customers adequately aware of the changes in the cheque clearing process.

Banks have also been asked to be in readiness to participate in continuous clearing in CTS on the prescribed dates.