The government said on Wednesday that eminent figures, including industrialist and former chairman of TATA Sons Ratan Tata, former Supreme Court justice KT Thomas, and former deputy Lok Sabha speaker Kariya Munda, have been nominated to serve as trustees of the PM CARES Fund.
The declaration was made the day after the newly appointed members, together with Union home minister Amit Shah and finance minister Nirmala Sitharman, attended the board of trustees meeting that was presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office said, “Prime Minister welcomed the trustees for becoming an integral part of the PM CARES Fund. Sitharaman and Shah are the other trustees”.
Anand Shah and Rajiv Mehrishi, both previous chairs of the Infosys Foundation, along with Sudha Murthy, a co-founder of Teach for India, have been proposed for the advisory board of the Fund.
“Prime Minister said that participation of new trustees and advisors will provide wider perspectives to the functioning of the PM CARES Fund,” the statement said.
The trustees recognised the fund’s assistance during critical times, notably the PM CARES for Children programme, which provides help to 4,345 children.
“It was discussed that PM CARES has a larger vision on effectively responding to emergency and distress situations, not only through relief assistance, but also taking mitigation measures and capacity building,” the statement read.
In order to provide urgent help during the Covid-19 pandemic that began in 2020, the PM CARES Fund was established. All contributions are entirely exempt from income tax, and the Prime Minister serves as the ex-officio chairperson.
Among its programmes is PM CARES for Children, which was established on May 29 of last year to assist children who, between 11 March 2020 and 28 February 2022, lost both of their biological parents, guardians, adoptive parents, or biological parents who were still alive to the Covid-19 pandemic.