Union Home Minister Amit Shah on 1 July unveiled the revamped FCRA 2.0 portal alongside a new e-OCI booklet service aimed at the 5 million-plus strong Indian diaspora. The portal integrates Foreign Contribution Regulation Act filings with Aadhaar, PAN and the government’s Darpan NGO database, enabling real-time monitoring of foreign donations. For corporates that route CSR money through Indian foundations, the move means faster acknowledgements—but also swifter red-flags if documentation is incomplete. The headline for globally mobile talent is the e-OCI card. Once an application is approved, card-holders receive a digitally signed PDF that can be stored on Apple Wallet or Google Wallet and presented at e-gates. Crucially, the decades-old requirement to re-issue the physical OCI booklet each time the holder gets a new passport after age 20 has been scrapped, removing a pain-point that often grounded executives at short notice. Because the e-OCI system pulls passport data directly from the MEA’s Consular Passport & Visa (CPV) database, companies should remind employees to renew passports early; any mismatch will automatically place the OCI in "pending validation", making the e-card unusable until corrected. NGOs and corporate CSR teams must create new login credentials on FCRA 2.0 before 31 July to continue filing returns. The Home Ministry says legacy credentials will be de-activated in August, and late migration may attract penalties under Section 35 of FCRA. Mobility, tax and CSR departments should coordinate to ensure dual compliance where companies both hold OCI-eligible staff and channel overseas funds into India.
Source: The Times of India
