After FCRA licence suspension, think tank CPR claims Government of India is one of its donors

The centre has over 30 funders from India, including the Government of India, and abroad, the think tank said in its statement

Soon after the Centre for Policy Research’s (CPR) registration under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) was suspended for a period of 180 days, officials from the think tank told The Hindu that the Government of India is one among the over 30 donors it has.

“The centre has over 30 funders from India, including the Government of India, and abroad. The entire range of funders and partners are listed on our website and are in our annual reports. The CPR is a member of the Indian Council of Social Science Research and is also recognised by the Department of Science and Technology,” a CPR official told the publication. Other donors of CPR include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania, the World Resources Institute and Duke University.

With the suspension of its licence, given under the FCRA, the Centre for Policy Research will not be able to receive any funds from abroad.

Along with the suspension, the I-T notice to CPR also sought an explanation on the donations that the think tank had received from Namati, an international legal empowerment group. While the I-T notice claimed that CPR had been using the donations from Namati to file and litigate cases, CPR rubbished these allegations.

“There have been allegations that CPR is involved in undertaking litigation and activism through one of its environmental projects. This is a baseless claim. CPR’s partnership with Namati is not to file litigation and legal complaints. It is to conduct research into the functioning of administrative processes set up for environmental monitoring,” a CPR official told the publication, adding that all the work that comes out of its relationship with Namati is available in the public domain.

Based on the order by the Ministry of Home Affairs, CPR has been charged with three major violations: utilising foreign contributions for “undesirable purposes”, transferring the foreign contributions to undesignated accounts, and the publication of news articles.

"CPR has and continues to cooperate fully with the authorities. We are in complete compliance with the law and are routinely scrutinised and audited by government authorities, including the Comptroller and Auditor General of India," CPR said in its statement.