On 22 June 2026, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs adopted the
Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Rules
granting the Indian government sweeping new powers to police the activities, operation, management and leadership of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) receiving foreign funding.
The amendments significantly expand an already restrictive legal framework established under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 2010, which regulates the receipt and use of foreign contributions by individuals and organizations in India. It prohibits contributions for activities deemed to be detrimental to the “national interest,” an overbroad term open to misuse. Since 2010, successive governments have amended the Act three times, most significantly in
2020
, when the law was expanded to ban the transfer of foreign funds between organizations, to cap administrative expenditure and to require funds to be routed through a single designated bank account. In 2016, three United Nations Special Rapporteurs jointly
urged
the Indian government to repeal the FCRA, warning that it was being used to silence organizations whose priorities did not align with those of the government.
In 2011, the Indian government notified rules to the FCRA, and has amended them 10 times since then. The latest amendments further perpetuate the Indian authorities’ use of the
FCRA
over the
last decade
as a tool to silence peaceful dissent and the exercise of fundamental freedoms and obstruct independent human rights work in the country. Such misuse has been repeatedly noted by various UN mechanisms, most recently by the UN Human Rights Committee in 2024 in
its concluding observations
on the fourth periodic review of India’s implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
The new rules apply to nearly
14,500 organizations
that currently hold a FCRA license, and to all non-profits who may want to apply in the future. Existing non-profit orga
