New Delhi, 30 June (H.S.): Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday launched the FCRA 2.0 Portal and the electronic Overseas Citizen of India (e-OCI) Card. He said the two digital initiatives would enhance citizen services, reduce paperwork, and enable real-time monitoring of foreign contributions received under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA).

Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, Intelligence Bureau Special Director Mahesh Dixit, and other senior officials were present at the launch event.

Shah said that in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of Minimum Government, Maximum Governance, technology is being used to make governance more transparent, efficient, and secure. He noted that the FCRA system had earlier been burdened with paper-based files and complex procedures, but has now been modernised to make it more effective.

He said that through the FCRA 2.0 Portal, all major processes, including applications, renewals, and submission of annual returns, will now be fully digital. This will eliminate the need for physical submission of documents while providing features such as e-sign-based authentication, Optical Character Recognition (OCR)-based document analysis, and integrated verification through multiple government databases, including the NGO Darpan portal.

The Home Minister said the portal would facilitate effective real-time monitoring of the receipt and utilisation of foreign contributions, thereby strengthening both national security and good governance.

He added that an FCRA mobile application, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot, and a dedicated online dashboard for banks would also be launched in the coming months.

Describing the e-OCI Card as a major convenience for people of Indian origin living abroad, Shah said it would benefit more than five million OCI cardholders. He said OCI booklet holders would no longer be required to obtain a new OCI booklet after the issuance of a new passport upon attaining the age of 20. Instead, they would only need to update their new passport details online.

He added that the digital OCI card would eliminate problems arising from lost or damaged documents while also enabling real-time verification.

According to the government, nearly 14,500 organisations are currently registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. Every year, approximately 15,000 to 20,000 fresh or renewal applications and around 17,000 annual returns are received.

The FCRA 2.0 Portal has been developed on MeghRaj, the National Government Cloud, and has been integrated with various government platforms, including PAN, Aadhaar, OCI, NGO Darpan, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India's UDIN system, and banking networks. The integration is expected to expedite application processing, strengthen compliance monitoring, and ensure more effective control over the misuse of foreign contributions.

Under the e-OCI Card system, the entire process—from application to card issuance—will be conducted online. The initiative will eliminate the requirement for physical documents, reduce processing time, lower administrative costs, and enable smoother and more secure travel through digital verification at airports.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar