CSR funds can be used to set up hospitals: Govt
The move was announced in a circular by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs
The government on Thursday said that spending funds on setting up makeshift covid-19 hospitals and temporary care facilities can be considered as an eligible corporate social responsibility activity.
The move was announced in a circular by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
Last year, when the first wave of covid-19 cases had hit in March and the disease was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, the ministry had allowed use of spending funds for covid-19 as an eligible CSR activity. Thursday’s move was a clarification to last year’s circular.
On January 22 this year, the MCA had also issued an order saying that spending funds on awareness campaigns and public outreach programmes to promote vaccination against the infectious disease would also be considered an eligible CSR activity.
The government is looking for increased involvement of corporates in India to tackle the second wave of the pandemic, which has led to cases reaching record levels. On Wednesday, India added more than 300,000 cases while over 2,000 patients died, both new records.
The exponential jump in daily new cases has led to shortage of beds, medical oxygen and drugs like remdesivir, while the vaccination effort is also seen slowing down due to constraints of manufacturing capacity.
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