The Union Home Ministry has given the last chance to the 4,842 institutes and organisations to retain their licences to receive foreign funding.

In a notification issued by the ministry, it is stated that to retain their registration under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), the institutes have to disclose their annual income and expenditure statements to the government by October 18, after paying penalty. 

The institutes which are given final chance to continue their FCRA registration include IGNOU, Mumbai University, ICMR, Punjabi University, North Eastern Hill University, Pondicherry University, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College and Indian Institute of Rural Development besides others.

It is mandatory for every organisation to be registered under FCRA to receive funds from abroad. Under the law, it is also compulsory for the organisations to submit their details regarding income and expenditure to the government annually else their registration will be cancelled.

According to the home ministry, FCRA registration of over 18,600 organisations and institutes were cancelled for not filing the returns during 2010-11 to 2014-15, despite serving repeated notices. The ministry had given the organisations a month’s time between May 15 and June 17 of this year to file their returns. As many as 13,681 of them responded to the ministry’s notices or filed their returns. However, 4,842 of these institutes and organisations did not respond despite repeated notices.

Now, for these 4,842 institutes and organisations, its the final opportunity to file the returns by October 18, the home ministry said.

The Government of Singapore will set up a Skill Center at Guwahati, Assam which will cater to the entire North-Eastern region.  

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh announced this after a meeting with a high-level delegation represented by the High Commissioner of Singapore, Lim Thuan Kuan. T

An MoU has already been formalised between Singapore and the State Government in this regard.

“A Skill Center is proposed to be set up at Guwahati by the year 2019,” the Ministry for Development of North-East Region said in an official statement, adding that the Ministry will coordinate in this initiative.

The Indian delegate led by Dr Jitendra Singh, consisted of senior officers from the Ministry of DoNER, Department of Space and Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions.

The Central Government has formed an inter-ministerial committee to review and monitor the safety measures in its schools across the country.

The decision was taken during a meeting between Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar and Women & Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi in wake of the brutal killing of a seven-year-old child in a Gurugram school student and rape of minor in Delhi school.

“The existing measures for school safety were reviewed and new suggestions were discussed during the meeting.  A  committee of six secretaries will be constituted to monitor the implementation and progress of the guidelines,” Maneka said.

The committee members will include secretaries from Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Women and Child Development Ministry, Tribal Affairs, Minority Affairs, Social Justice and Empowerment, and Drinking Water and Sanitation. WCD minister secretaries will prepare a roadmap and a timeline to implement the suggestions by a panel after conducting a series of meetings.

During the meeting, it was also suggested to utilise the Nirbhaya funds for various school safety measures. In order to make students aware, it was suggested to show a short film about child abuse in schools, along with setup of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) awareness booths and to employ women drivers.

“Setting of POCSO booths, where students can be made aware of the mechanism to file complaints, screening of ‘Komal’ — a short film on the concept of good touch, bad touch — were among the measures discussed. We also suggested that Nirbhaya fund can be utilised for the purpose,” Maneka said.

The meeting was also attended by representatives of the National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), CBSE, NCERT and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan.

During the meeting, the measures suggested by the participants is to enhance the role of parents and teachers in safety and security aspects of school operations, to expand the scope of School Management Committee (SMCs) in private schools and to implement Gender Champions programme in schools were among the existing measures reviewed during the meeting.