3 min readNew DelhiJun 30, 2026 08:39 PM IST
In a move aimed at strengthening the “government’s capacity to monitor foreign donations in real time”, Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched the FCRA 2.0 portal on Tuesday. He also launched the electronic Overseas Citizen of India (e-OCI) card, saying it will bring “great convenience” to more than 50 lakh OCI cardholders.
Shah said the two digital platforms would reduce paperwork, improve citizen services and strengthen oversight of foreign contributions and OCI-related processes.
At the launch event held in New Delhi, Shah said the two platforms would make governance more efficient and transparent, while also addressing long-pending difficulties faced by stakeholders, especially organisations dealing with foreign contributions under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA). “Both these initiatives started today will enhance facilities for citizens and, in particular, will resolve the difficulties faced by those receiving donations through the FCRA portal,” he said.
Shah said the revamped FCRA system would simplify compliance procedures for registered organisations and strengthen the government’s capacity to monitor foreign donations in real time. “Prior to 2014, the FCRA system was entangled in files and procedures and was beyond proper oversight, which is critical for both national security and development. After the (NDA) government was formed, the system was strengthened. The renewal of the FCRA portal today will greatly enhance ease of operations for organisations,” he added.
Shah claimed that due to the FCRA law, monitoring on foreign contributions “coming with wrong intentions” will increase. The portal has been designed as a fully digital, end-to-end platform covering applications, renewals, annual returns and other regulatory services. It is also integrated with several government and institutional databases, including PAN, Aadhaar, OCI, NGO Darpan, and the ICAI’s UDIN system.
“With the launch of this new system, the process of physically submitting documents will be eliminated. Facilities such as e-sign-based authentication, OCR (Optical Character Recognition), and the NGO Darpan bank account integration system will be ensured. Since all this data will be hosted on ‘MeghRaj’ (Government Cloud), the possibility of data theft will be greatly reduced. Along with this, an FCRA mobile application, an AI-powered chatbot, and a dedicated online dashboard for banks will also be launched in the coming months,” he said.
On e-OCI card, he said, “Initial problems faced in the OCI system have been resolved in this new system and it will bring great convenience to more than 50 lakh OCI cardholders. After 20 years, when a new passport is issued, there will be no need to re-issue the OCI booklet, and the cardholder’s registration number will also become unique. Moreover, with the digital OCI card, the problem of losing or damaging documents will be eliminated, and cardholders will be able to carry out real-time verification themselves.”
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According to the Union Home Ministry, around 14,500 active FCRA organisations are currently operating in the country, with 15,000 to 20,000 applications and roughly 17,000 annual returns received every year.