For a family that has just lost someone in a building collapse or an industrial accident, the name of the fund behind the compensation is rarely the first question on their mind. The immediate concerns are survival, funeral expenses, hospital bills, and the uncertainty of what comes next.
But the announcements that follow such tragedies point to a larger question about how India’s emergency relief actually works. India has two national funds led by the Prime Minister. One was created in 1948, in the aftermath of Partition. The other launched in March 2020, as the country confronted COVID-19. Both accept voluntary contributions, both offer tax benefits, and both are charitable trusts rather than funds set up by an Act of Parliament.
More than six years after PM CARES was created, the older Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund — PMNRF — is still very much in use. And this month, PM CARES is back in the news over the size of its reserves. So it’s worth slowing down and answering the questions people are actually asking: what are these two funds, why are there two, and what does each one mean for an ordinary citizen?
Why is the PM CARES Fund in the news?
In August 2026, PM CARES published its audited accounts for 2024-25, and the figures drew wide attention.
As reported in the audited receipts and payments account, the fund closed the year with Rs 8,452.07 crore, up from Rs 7,173.03 crore a year earlier. Over the same year, it spent Rs 87.85 lakh — down from Rs 15.60 crore the previous year. Per the statement, nearly 93% of the corpus — Rs 7,846.65 crore — was held in fixed deposits, with another Rs 605.41 crore in savings accounts, and the fund earned around Rs 475 crore in interest during the year, close to the roughly Rs 480 crore it received in fresh donations.
Two details drew particular notice: the size of the balance against the amount spent, and the timing. As reported, the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025 were signed by PM CARES officials on 6 August 2026 — more than a year after the financial year closed.
The takeaway: The attention is driven by a large balance, low spending in the year, and a delayed disclosure — all drawn from the fund’s own audited statement.
President Ram Nath Kovind pledges to donate one-month salary to PM-CARES Fund to help the nation tide over the crisis of COVID-19. He appeals to all fellow citizens to donate generously to PM-CARES Fund to help defeat COVID-19.
— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) March 29, 2020
What are the two funds, and how do they differ?
India has two national relief funds, both chaired by the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) is the older one. Per the Prime Minister’s Office, it was established in January 1948, following an appeal by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, with public contributions to assist people displaced from Pakistan after Partition. Its mandate has since widened. The PMO states its resources are now used primarily to give immediate relief to families of those killed in natural calamities like floods, cyclones and earthquakes, and to victims of major accidents and riots, and that it also partially defrays the cost of medical treatment such as heart surgery, kidney transplantation, cancer treatment and acid attack cases.
PM CARES — the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund — is the newer one, registered as a public charitable trust in New Delhi on 27 March 2020. According to the fund’s stated objects, its purpose includes relief or assistance relating to a public health emergency or any other emergency, calamity or distress — man-made or natural — including the creation or upgradation of healthcare or pharmaceutical facilities, other infrastructure, and funding relevant research, as well as rendering financial assistance or grants to the affected population.
If your family faces a disaster, accident or major illness, per the PMO the fund that renders immediate relief and partial medical assistance is PMNRF. Photograph: (transforminglivestoday)
What they share, per their official descriptions: both are charitable trusts rather than bodies created by an Act of Parliament; both run entirely on voluntary contributions with no budgetary support; and both offer donors a 100% deduction under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act. As for why a second fund was created when the first already existed — the government’s stated explanation is that PM CARES was set up as a dedicated fund for large-scale emergencies like the pandemic, not as a replacement for PMNRF.
The takeaway: On paper, PMNRF’s stated focus is immediate and medical relief; PM CARES’s stated objects additionally name healthcare infrastructure, pharmaceutical facilities and research. Both are trusts run on donations, not Parliament-created bodies.
When is each fund actually used?
The clearest record is in the relief announcements that follow disasters — and it’s PMNRF whose name usually appears, even if you’ve never noticed it.
In July 2026, after a fire at an unlicensed fireworks unit in Ahmedabad, the Prime Minister’s Office announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh from PMNRF for the next of kin of each person killed, and Rs 50,000 for those injured. In August, following a stampede at the Ashokdham temple in Lakhisarai, Bihar, the PMO again announced Rs 2 lakh from PMNRF for the next of kin of each deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured. Per PMO statements, the same figures have followed other accidents, collapses and landslides. Families don’t apply for this — the PMO announces it and the district administration routes it.
For PM CARES, the trust’s own material points to its FY 2024-25 spending as the current public record: per the audited statement, the Rs 87.85 lakh spent during the year went towards the PM CARES for Children scheme, which supports children who lost parents to COVID.
The takeaway: In the recent public record, disaster ex gratia payments are announced from PMNRF, while PM CARES’s most recent reported spending was on the PM CARES for Children scheme.
Who runs each fund, and who audits it?
The Prime Minister chairs both, but the governance on record differs.
For PM CARES, per the trust, the Prime Minister is ex-officio Chairman, and the Ministers of Defence, Home Affairs and Finance are ex-officio Trustees, with the Prime Minister empowered to nominate three further trustees who are eminent persons in fields such as research, health, science, social work, law, public administration and philanthropy. As reported, its accounts are audited by an independent private accounting firm rather than the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
For PMNRF, per available records, the fund has been administered by the Prime Minister’s Office since 1985, and payments require the approval of the Prime Minister.
On foreign contributions, both funds accept them, but the route on record differs: as reported, PM CARES was given a special exemption under Section 50 of the FCRA, 2010 to accept foreign contributions.
The takeaway: The PM has a role in both. PM CARES has three named ministerial trustees and an independent private auditor; PMNRF is run through the PMO with disbursements on the PM’s approval.
Is either fund covered by the RTI Act?
This is where readers often assume PM CARES is unique. On the record, it isn’t — the same question, and the same government answer, apply to both funds.
For PM CARES, the government’s position, set out in an affidavit to the Delhi High Court, is that it is a public charitable trust, not a “public authority” under the RTI Act, and is not owned or controlled by the government. On the same basis, the Prime Minister’s Office has declined to disclose donor identities, contribution amounts and detailed utilisation records. That question is not settled: as recently as January 2026, a Delhi High Court division bench was hearing the matter and observed that even an entity treated as a “state” or performing public functions does not automatically lose its right to privacy under the RTI Act, with the appeal continuing.
In both cases you’re giving to a charitable trust, not a government budget line. Photograph: (AP)
The older fund has faced the same challenge. The PMO has stated that PMNRF is also not a “public authority” under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, directing applicants to its website instead. And its court history is similarly unresolved: in the case PMNRF vs Aseem Takyar, a Delhi High Court division bench delivered a split verdict on 23 May 2018 — one judge holding the fund was not a public authority, the other holding that it was — after which the matter was referred to a larger bench.
The takeaway: Neither fund currently treats itself as a “public authority” under RTI; both point applicants to their websites; and in both cases the courts have not conclusively settled the question. This is the established pattern for both Prime Minister-led funds, not a treatment unique to PM CARES.
What has each fund actually been spent on?
Beyond the headline numbers, the disbursement records give a sense of what each fund does in practice.
For PM CARES, the spending on record is overwhelmingly COVID-related. In May 2020, per a PMO statement, the trust allocated Rs 3,100 crore for the COVID-19 fight — nearly Rs 2,000 crore for ventilators, Rs 1,000 crore for the care of migrant workers, and Rs 100 crore for vaccine development. Its FY 2020-21 audited statement, as reported, recorded larger outlays: Rs 1,311 crore for 50,000 made-in-India ventilators to government hospitals, Rs 1,392.82 crore on procuring COVID vaccine doses, Rs 201.58 crore on oxygen plants, and Rs 50 crore to establish two 500-bed COVID hospitals in Muzaffarpur and Patna. In the years since, per reporting on its accounts, its spending has centred on oxygen plants, ventilators and the PM CARES for Children scheme.
The Children scheme is the clearest on-ground example of what PM CARES does. Per the government’s scheme details, it supports a child orphaned by COVID with a whole scaffold rather than a single payment: admission to a Kendriya Vidyalaya or a private school, a scholarship through school, a Rs 5 lakh Ayushman Bharat health cover, and a savings corpus topped up so it reaches Rs 10 lakh by the time the child turns 18. From 18, that corpus pays a monthly stipend; at 23, the beneficiary receives the full Rs 10 lakh to start adult life.
For PMNRF, the record is a longer history of disaster relief and rehabilitation. Publicly documented examples include relief disbursed to families after the 2001 Gujarat earthquake and aid channelled through the fund following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, along with responses to the 2013 Uttarakhand floods, the 2014 Assam violence and the 2015 Tamil Nadu floods. The fund has also backed longer-term rehabilitation: as documented, Rs 138.65 crore was approved from PMNRF to build 50 multipurpose cyclone shelters across three West Bengal districts, later handed to the state government. Alongside these, per the PMO, it continues its routine role of immediate relief to families in natural calamities and major accidents, and partial support for major medical treatments.
The takeaway: PMNRF’s defining act is a fast, one-time relief payment to an individual after a disaster. PM CARES’s disbursements on record run to COVID-era needs — ventilators, vaccines, oxygen plants — and the Children scheme, which stays with a beneficiary for years. One fund closes a file; the other can follow a beneficiary to age 23.
What does this mean for an ordinary citizen?
Setting the acronyms aside, here is what each fund practically means for you.
If your family faces a disaster, accident or major illness, per the PMO the fund that renders immediate relief and partial medical assistance is PMNRF. After a recognised disaster, the ex gratia is announced by the PMO and routed through the district administration — families don’t apply separately. For medical help with treatments like heart surgery or cancer care, applications go through the PMNRF office, with details on pmnrf.gov.in.
If you want to donate, both funds accept voluntary contributions through their official portals — pmnrf.gov.in and pmcares.gov.in — and both give you the same 100% deduction under Section 80G. In both cases you’re giving to a charitable trust, not a government budget line. The difference is purpose: a PMNRF donation flows toward immediate, individual relief; a PM CARES donation toward its stated emergency-response and capacity-building objects.
If you want to see where the money goes, both funds publish audited accounts on their official websites, which is currently the main public record — since, as covered above, neither answers RTI applications as a “public authority.” The figures to look for are the closing balance, the year’s spending, and how the corpus is held.
The takeaway: For direct relief, PMNRF is the fund on record. For donating, both offer identical 80G benefits through their official portals. For scrutiny, both funds’ audited accounts are the main public record, since neither currently falls under RTI.
