27th April 2009: Meeting of Task Group on draft State Policy on Voluntary Sector held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

The Task Group set up for framing the State Voluntary Sector Policy in UP, meet again on 27th April 2009. The meeting was held in UPVAN Secretariat Lucknow. This group consisted of 15 members out of which only 8 could participate. The meeting began with the presentation of the tentative draft of state policy on voluntary sector in UP, which was prepared by the UPVAN Secretariat. After several discussions, it was decided to redraft the state policy for voluntary sector. The key members who participated in this meeting were Mr. Paresh Tiwari, Mr. Ashok Singh, Mr. Puran Barthwal, Mr. Diwakar Bhatt and Dr. Neelam Singh.

1st May 2009: Third meeting on the Task Force on, 'Compilation of Satellite Accounts in respect of Non-Profit Institutions in India'.

Third meeting on the Task Force on, 'Compilation of Satellite Accounts in Respect of Non-Profit Institutions in India' was held on 1st May 2009 in Central Statistical Organisation, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The meeting was organized under the Chairmanship of Mr. Ramesh Kohili, ADG (NAD) The participants included Mr. Ramesh Kolli- ADG (NAD); Mr. Vijay Kumar. ADG, ESD; Dr. S. S. Srivastava, Ex DG CSO; Ms. Sudha P. Rao, Adviser, Planning Commission; Mr. Parcsh Tewary, CEO, VANI; Ms. Shachi Uppal, Systems Manager CAPART; Mr. Sarvesh Kumar DDG, FOD; Dr. B. K. Sharma, Director DES, Delhi; Dr. Savita Sharma, DDG NAD; Dr. G.M. Boopathi, DDG, NAD, Mr. R, K, Khurana, DDG NAD; Dr. Vidya Dhar, Director, NAD; Mr. R. A. Dwivedi, Director. CPD; Ms. Anjana Dube, Director, NAD; Mr. Pradeep Chauhan, Economic Adviser, Himachal Pradesh; Mr. K. Asokan, Addl. Director, Kerala; Mr. P. K. Bhattacharya, Addl Director, Assam; Mr. B. S. Hiremath, JD, Kamataka; Mr. A. Sudershanreddy, Joint Director, Andhra Pradesh; Ms. Reena Singh, Joint Director, NAD; Mr. P. Manoj Kumar. Joint Director, RD; Mr. N. T. Krishna, DD; Mr. R. K. Pandey, DD Rajasthan; Ms. Anindita Sinha Ray, DD, NAD; Ms. Ruchika Gupta, DD, HRD; Mr. Naresh Kumar, UNV; Ms. Priya Srivastava, UNV; Mr. Satyendra Kumar, SSO, NAD; Mr. R. D. Sharma. SI, DES and Ms. Anubha Mittal, SI, NAD

8th May 2009: Another meeting of the informal think tank set up under the aegis of United Nations Volunteer (UNV) Program

During the last meeting of the informal think tank set up under the aegis of United Nations Volunteer (UNV) Program which was held on 20th February at Times Foundation, it was decided to schedule another meeting in May. On 8th May 2009 the meeting was held in office of Partners in Change to discuss International Volunteer Day (IVD) 2009, cross sector partnerships training, civil society forums for achieving MDGs in Gurgaon and to form the task force committee for IVD. The meeting was attended by representatives from UNV, VANI, National Foundation for Communal Harmony, Times Foundation, National Trust, Volunteer Services Overseas (VSO), Arcelor Mittal, Financial Management Service Foundation, Wave Care Foundation and Partners in Change The discussions mainly focused on the International Volunteer Day 2009 which will be celebrated on 5th December and would be based on the theme "Volunteering for our Planet", the focus would be on the issue of environment, global warming, climate change, etc. However there were suggestions to rephrase the theme as "Harmony between People and Environment". International Volunteer Day 2008 was celebrated in four cities of India as the part of The National Volunteering Program (NVP) that was launched in 2008. A Task Force was formed during the meeting to work in a more focused manner towards International Volunteer Day (IVD) 2009. The organizations who volunteered or were nominated were UNV (in the lead/coordination role), VANI, VSO (India), NFCH-Ministry of Home Affairs and Partners in Change. The first meeting of this task force will be held on 11th June 2009 at UNDP. Discussions also focused on the issue of employee volunteering, which was felt needs to become part of the day to day business, rather than becoming a no incentive additional burden for the employee that the company expects him/her to undertake beyond duty hours. Such processes need to be made part of the core work and has to be internalized if it is to sustain and add value to all- the company, employee and the community, and a matrix to measure these would be a useful contribution that UNV might like to consider developing. VSO is currently working out different mechanisms to engage retired people in volunteering activities since they have shown keen interest in being part of the voluntary sector. VSO is working out the modalities with partner organizations and support from college students in cities like Delhi is being used as a platform for more visibility of NVP. Arcelor Mittal intends to facilitate employee volunteering work in a more structured way in the current year. It would align the activities towards at least one of the MDGs. The company has taken up a project on climate change and environment, since the nature of their business is such that it has a huge impact on the environment. It involves 250,000 schools across India. The Company is working with the Govt. and some NGOs to take the idea forward. Discussions then focused on the important issues of taxation on NGOs, according to the new regulation any society that has 5% income from any kind of sales/business and 95% income from grants and donations gets no exemption and is liable to pay tax on 100% of its income. Some NGOs have also been asked to show that accounts for the last four years to determine their status in terms of taxation. Sharing the view on registration issues, it was said that companies should be encouraged to have trust/foundation, but should be registered under the same act as non profit entities. There needs to be creation of a vehicle under the Companies Act to take care of the social responsibility part. A presentation on Cross Sector Partnerships Training was made by PiC and who is also promoting Business-NGO partnerships towards the achievement of the MDG's. It would be convening a meeting with interested NGOs and Companies operating in Gurgaon to discuss a proposal to make Gurgaon district MDG compliant, and that initial discussions had been held with UN Millennium campaign in this regard.

15th May 2009: Meeting with Ministry of Finance on deferment of amendments in definition of "Charitable Purposes" under section 2(15) in the Finance Act 2008.

VANI led delegation with CEO comprising of technical experts Mr. Joselyn Martin, Mr. Sudhir Verma, Mr. Samir Minocha met with Mr. Pradip Mehrotra, Director (TPL-I), Ministry of Finance, Government of India on 15th May 2009 to present inputs on deferment of amendments in definition of "Charitable Purposes" under section 2(15) in the Finance Act 2008. Interventions were useful and VANI was invited again on 19th May for a larger audience. Inputs for this meeting were also received from Mr. Sanjay Patra and Mr. Manoj Fogla and included series of meetings within the sector from November 2008..

Document Presented to Ministry of Finance, GOI

19th May 2009: Another meeting following the one held on 15th May 2009 on deferment of amendments in definition of "Charitable Purposes" under section 2(15) in the Finance Act 2008.

VANI led delegation with CEO and experts Mr. Joselyn Martin, Mr. Sanjay Patra and Mr. Manoj Fogla for a subsequent meet following the meeting on 15th May. On 19th May 2009 the delegation met with Mr. Ashutosh Dikshit, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Government of India to submit inputs on deferment of amendments in definition of "Charitable Purposes" under section 2(15) in the Finance Act 2008.

Document Presented to Ministry of Finance, GOI

25th May 2009: Meeting of Task Group for drafting State Policy on Voluntary Sector in Uttarakhand

In order to access the progress of the draft and to further discuss the suggestions of the task group members, VANI in association with SAMBANDH and UPVAN is organizing a meeting in Dehradun, Uttarakhand on 25th May 2009. The experiences and suggestions of recent meeting held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh on 27th April 2009 will also be shared in this meeting and some new ideas and suggestions will be compiled and submitted to Government of Uttarakhand.

Last year on 22nd and 23rd May 2008, VANI organized a consultation on State Voluntary Sector Policy in Utarakhand. The meeting was organized in association with DISHA. The task group formed after the consultation met to discuss the methodology and identified the key issues of the state in order to draft the State Voluntary Sector Policy.

22nd June 2009; Cambodian Delegation from Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (CCC) visits VANI

A three member delegation from Cooperation Committee for Cambodia (CCC), which was in India on an exposure visit, was hosted by VANI on 22nd June 2009. CCC is the pre-eminent membership organization of the non-government sector in Cambodia. Since 1991 it has taken a lead role in representing the voice of Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) to government and donors communities and effectively representing the professional interests of NGOs across diverse sectors. The purpose of this exposure visit was to provide opportunity for key project staff and management to learn and share practical experiences on mechanisms, challenges and methodologies to promote NGO Good Governance in Cambodia, to learn how Good Governance and accountability principles are being practiced in India and to know about potential mechanisms for NGOs to get engaged and influence in decision-making processes regarding social and development issues

There is widespread harassment and confusion being caused to thousands of voluntary organizations throughout the country due to certain amendments made in the definition of 'Charitable Purpose' (Section 2(15) of the Income Tax Act 1961) by the Finance Act, 2008, which has become operational w.e.f April 2009.

1. This amendment results in withdrawal of tax exemption for voluntary organizations engaged in a wide variety of social welfare and development activities with funds from central and state governments, common public and corporations, like child rights, women's empowerment, environmental protection, strengthening panchayats and municipalities, savings and micro credit, legal aid, human rights, social forestry, agricultural production, water conservation, training and capacity building, research and publication.

2. This amendment was made without any consultation with the voluntary organizations, despite the fact that National Policy on Voluntary Sector announced by your Government in July 2007 envisages a mutually transparent and accountable relationship between the government and the voluntary sector in the context of achieving the national development priorities of the 11th Plan.

3. The amendment is undermining the capacity of voluntary organizations in resource mobilization from public and private sources in the country, and its interpretation has been left to individual Income Tax officers in various jurisdictions. VANI has requested the Hon'ble Finance Minister to put a moratorium on the implementation of this amendment till such time that proper consultations with voluntary sector have been held and measures to safeguard the interests of genuine organizations are put in place.

VANI appeals to the Civil Society to send representations to Hon'ble Finance Minister for deferment of this amendment or putting up a moratorium till consultations with voluntary sector are held.

Regional (South) workshop on Good Governance in CSO will be held in Kerala in August 2009

4th International Students Peace Festival

The 4th International Students Peace Festival is going to be held from 27th September to 1st October in Chandigarh, India. Yuv Satta is organising this Festival in association with a host of organisations. The last date for registration is 30th July 2009. Read More…

Call for Nominations for C.S. Fellows

National Foundation for India (NFI) is calling for nomination for a grass roots award-cum-fellowship programme to encourage social leadership for the last few years. The fellowship has two categories - Voluntary Sector Workers and Community Leaders. The applications for the above should reach NFI by 15th September 2009. For further details please contact:

Dr. Asok Kumar Ray
National Foundation for India Core
4A, UGF, India Habitat Centre
Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110003
Tel.: 011-24641864/5; 24648490
E-Mail.: info@nfi.org.in; roy2000@nfi.org