Ratan Tata is a PM CARES trustee — What are the trustee's duties and how does PM CARES Fund work?

Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata, former Supreme Court judge KT Thomas and former Deputy Speaker Kariya Munda have been appointed as the trustees of the PM CARES Fund by the Centre. The appointment was announced on Wednesday – a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the PM CARES Fund on Tuesday.

What is PM CARES?

The ‘Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund’ or the PM CARES Fund is a public charitable trust which was set up as an exclusive and dedicated fund by the Centre to deal with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like the one posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was created on March 27, 2020, in the wake of the pandemic in India.

The trust has the Prime Minister of India as the Chairperson and Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister as the Trustees. Further, the Prime Minister has the power to nominate three trustees (in a pro bono capacity) to the Board.

Besides Ratan Tata, KT Thomas and Kariya Munda, the government has also nominated three names for the constitution of the advisory board to the PM CARES Fund. The three eminent persons who have been nominated are Rajiv Mehrishi, the 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.

What are the duties of the Trustees?

According to the government’s communiqué, the PM CARES Fund Trust was constituted with the objective “to undertake and support relief or assistance of any kind relating to a public health emergency or any other kind of emergency, calamity or distress, either man-made or natural, including the creation or upgradation of healthcare or pharmaceutical facilities, other necessary infrastructure, funding relevant research or any other type of support.”

The Fund Trust also has to “render financial assistance, provide grants of payments of money or take such other steps as may be deemed necessary by the Board of Trustees to assist the affected population.” Besides these, the Fund Trust can also undertake any relief, support or assistance activities to effectively respond to emergency and distress situations – the ones which are not inconsistent with idea of forming the Trust.

As the trustees, Tata, Thomas and Munda, along with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman have the responsibilities of maintaining the accountability of the Trust, along with fulfilling the objectives with which it was set up. Further, they have also been charged with managing the contribution process to ensure proper application of the Trust property, and preparing and submitting all filings, accounts and returns as required under applicable law.

According to PM Modi, the new trustees and advisors will provide “wider perspectives to the functioning of the PM CARES Fund.” Lauding their eminenece, the PM said that their “vast experience of public life would impart further vigour in making the fund more responsive to various public needs.”