 "IEG applies afresh after licence cancelled under FCRA over procedural lapse")
The Institute of Economic Growth (IEG) has submitted a fresh application to the home ministry for reissuing its licence that was not renewed under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act on procedural issues.
“IEG’s FCRA renewal application has been turned down because of pending compliance — certain documents were not submitted as part of the renewal process. Meanwhile, the Institute has applied afresh for registration,” said a press statement by IEG.
The institute categorically denied that its registration certificate has been cancelled.
Sources said the Delhi-based autonomous institute has to get the licence renewed every two years but this time it could not submit affidavits and documents by the deadline.
The IEG official responsible for filing affidavits and documents retired but government communications were sent to his email address, said sources, explaining the issue.
“There is no violation of FCRA rules. There were only minor technical issues,” said one of the sources.
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FCRA rules are strict and their requirements should be taken seriously, said sources adding the officer concerned at IEG did not take note of the procedure.
The institute has resolved the technical lapse and applied afresh for renewal of licence, they said.
IEG receives most of its funding from government bodies such as the Finance Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry, the health ministry and state-run Indian Council of Social Science Research.
Only a small portion of the funding is from outside India and that is based on projects, sources said.
“IEG is an ICSSR Institute and is largely dependent on the government for funding, not on foreign funds. In 2022-23, the project grant from FCRA projects was approximately four per cent of the total grants of IEG, a small amount,” the statement said.
IEG, a multidisciplinary centre for advanced research and training, was set up in 1952 by economist VKRV Rao. It provides training to officers of the Indian Economic Service (IES) and publishes research papers on agriculture and rural development, environment and resource economics; globalisation and trade; industry, labour and welfare; macro-economic policy and modelling.
IEG's past faculty, board of directors and trustees include distinguished intellectuals and policymakers such as V T Krishnamachari, C D Deshmukh, P N Dhar, A M Khusro, Dharm Narain, C Rangarajan, C H Hanumantha Rao, Nitin Desai, T N Madan, P C Joshi, Bimal Jalan and former prime minister Manmohan Singh.
N K Singh is the president of the Institute, Ramesh Chand is the chairman of the board of governors and Chetan Ghate is the director.