Veteran industrialist Ratan Tata, former Supreme Court judge KT Thomas, and former Deputy Lok Sabha Speaker Kariya Munda have been nominated as trustees of the PM CARES Fund, the prime minister’s office says in a statement.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the PM CARES Fund, which was attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah along with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Both Shah and Sitharaman are already the Trustees of PM Cares Fund.

As per the PMO, the Trust further decided to nominate other eminent persons for the constitution of Advisory Board to the PM CARES Fund. These eminent personalities included: Rajiv Mehrishi, Former Comptroller and Auditor General of India; Sudha Murthy, Former Chairperson, Infosys Foundation, and Anand Shah, Co-founder of Teach for India and Former CEO of Indicorps and Piramal Foundation. Prime Minister said that the arrival of new Trustees and Advisors will provide broader perspectives on the functioning of the PM CARES Fund.

“Their diverse  experience of public life would impart further vigor in making the fund more responsive to various public needs,” PMO added.

The PM CARES Fund was created during the Covid-19 pandemic. The main objective behind it was to provide relief to the the families or the individuals during the time of pandemic or natural calamities.

The fund consists entirely of voluntary contributions from individuals/organizations and does not get any budgetary support. Donations to PM CARES Fund would qualify for 80G benefits for 100% exemption under the Income Tax Act. As per Centre’s data, a total of ₹7,031.99 crore was collected under PM CARES Fund between 2020-21.

Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairman of the PM CARES Fund and the Minister of Defense, Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance, Government of India are ex-officio Trustees of the Fund.