FDI in Religion: 2010-2010 State Wise Topper

The top association that received over one crore rupees in the Financial Year 2010/2011- State Wise list.

Data pulled from the MHA's FCRA website. The name of the entity leaves no room for doubt, if you have just bing. Yeah, it is possible, and is true, that the total money poured into a state would be more than the money received by the top recipient. However, if you look at the data, it is evident that many of these associations are Christian institutions. Clearly the inflow of money is skewed towards Christianity.

Foreign Direct Investment - in Religion (2009-2010)

Much has been written on FDI, I understand the need of the capital investments, but I am some where between S. Gurumurthy and Cho Ramaswamy on their differing stands when it comes to FDI in the retail sector. When Lakshmi (wealth) enters without Saraswathi(wisdom) and Parvathi(power), it simply upsets the apple cart - so I think. To achieve dharma (sustainability) it requires a balance. One reason why I am deeply suspicious of the FDI in religion. Some blogs in the blogsphere are sharing a list of top Tamil Nadu NGOs that received crores of rupees. Here is one such. They have sourced the information from FCRA website (it is part of Ministry of Home Affairs website). The FCRA lists the following salient points:

I. A total of 38436 Associations have been registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act upto 31.3.2010. During the year 2009-10, 2022 Associations were granted registration and 388 Associations were granted prior permission to receive foreign contribution.

II. 21508 Associations reported a total receipt of an amount of Rs.10,337.59 crore as foreign contribution. This includes Associations which received Nil amount.

III. Among the States and the Union Territories, the highest receipt of foreign contribution was reported by Delhi (Rs. 1815.91 crore), followed by Tamil Nadu (Rs. 1663.31 crore) and Andhra Pradesh (Rs. 1324.87 crore).

IV. Among the districts, the highest receipt of foreign contribution was reported by Chennai (Rs. 871.60 crore), followed by Bengaluru (Rs. 702.43 crore) and Mumbai (Rs. 606.63 crore).

V. The list of donor countries is headed by the USA (Rs. 3105.73 crore) followed by Germany (Rs. 1046.30 crore) and UK (Rs. 1038.68 crore)


VI. The list of foreign donors is topped by the Gospel For Asia Inc, USA (Rs. 232.71 crore) followed by the Fundacion Vicente Ferrer, Barcelona, Spain (Rs.228.60 crore) and the World Vision Global Centre, USA (Rs.197.62 crore).

VII. Among the Associations which reported receipt of foreign contribution, the highest amount of foreign contribution was received by the World Vision of India, Chennai, Tamil Nadu (Rs.208.94 crore), followed by the Rural Development Trust, Ananthapur, A.P. (Rs.151.31 crore) and Shri Sevasubramania Nadar Educational Charitable Trust, Chennai, T.N. (Rs. 94.28 crore).

VIII The highest amount of foreign contribution was received and utilized for Establishment Expenses (Rs. 1482.58 crore), followed by Rural Development (Rs. 944.30 crore), Welfare of Children (Rs. 742.42 crore), Construction and Maintenance of school/college (Rs.630.78 crore) and Grant of Stipend/scholarship/assistance in cash and kind to poor/deserving children (Rs. 454.70 crore).

FCRA has analyzed the data from the last three years 2007-08 through 2009-10, and summarizes the following:

a) The United States of America continues to be the biggest donor country.
b) The World Vision International, USA has contributed the maximum amount of foreign contribution as a donor organization.
c) The National Capital Territory of Delhi has received the highest amount of foreign contribution.
d) Among the Districts, Chennai has received the highest amount of  foreign contribution.
e) Among the recipient Associations, the World Vision of India, Chennai received the highest amount of foreign contribution.
f) 'Establishment Expenses' is the biggest sector for which foreign
contribution was utilised.

I encourage you to visit the FCRA website and read the whole report. FCRA does a decent job of presenting the data by cutting and slicing it in terms of organization, states, cities and entities receiving and donating.