Manoj Mitta,TNN | Jun 20, 2014, 06.10 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Barely six months before IB came up with its controversial report on “foreign-funded NGOs”, the home ministry had published a list of the top 15 foreign donor agencies. Barring Action Aid, none of those agencies have figured in IB’s assessment of the foreign donors allegedly seeking to “take down Indian development projects”.

Similarly, there is little overlap between the Indian NGOs named in the IB report of June 3 and the top 15 “recipient associations” listed in the home ministry’s December 2013 report on the “receipt and utilization of foreign contribution by voluntary associations” in the year 2011-12.

Greenpeace International and its Indian chapter, which are cited the most in the IB report, are conspicuous by their absence in the home ministry’s tables on the top foreign donors and recipient associations under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

Other foreign donors named by IB but did not merit a mention in the home ministry report are Netherlands-based CORDAID as well as UK-based Amnesty International and Survival International. UK-based donor agency, Action Aid, is the only one common to both the home ministry list and IB report.

The latest available statistics under FCRA, thus, put in perspective IB’s suggestion that a “significant number” of foreign-funded NGOs had created an environment in which India’s GDP growth had been set back by “2-3%”.

According to the home ministry report, the top foreign donor in 2011-12 was the US-based Compassion International, which funds child sponsorship. Correspondingly, the top Indian recipient in that year was also an NGO engaged in child sponsorship, Chennai-based World Vision of India.

One of the entries in the home ministry’s list of foreign donors does have a clear corporate origin. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is, however, unlikely to be linked with any of the NGO-driven movements frowned upon by IB.

The leading foreign donors named by the home ministry include those that are religion-based: the US-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, US-based General Conference of Seventh Day Adventists and UK-based Ahmaddiya Muslim Association.

Likewise, the top 15 recipient associations listed by the home ministry include religion-based groups found to be engaged in a range of welfare activities: Kerala-based Believers Church India, Delhi-based Indian Society of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Aga Khan Foundation and Mata Amritanandamayi Math.

Other major NGOs in the home ministry’s list are Andhra Pradesh-based Rural Development Trust and Delhi-based entities such as Public Health Foundation of India and Plan International.

Not surprisingly, the home ministry’s list of “top 15 purposes” for which foreign contributions had been received and utilized range from rural development, welfare of children and construction of educational institutions and health facilities to non-formal educational projects , welfare of orphans and AIDS awareness.

The FCRA report of the home ministry bears out the IB report in one respect though. Namely, the countries from where a lot of the donations are flowing. Four of the top five countries listed by the home ministry have been mentioned in the IB report as well: US, UK, Germany and the Netherlands.

 Read mor ehere –  http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Home-ministry-has-own-list-different-from-IBs-of-donors-and-donees/articleshow/36858672.cms