UPPSC PYQ 1 (2020) — Geography
Which of the following ocean currents is associated with Indian Ocean?
- Florida current
- Canary current
- Agulhas current
- Kurile current
Answer: C. Agulhas current
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Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) 2.0 Portal and the Electronic Overseas Citizen of India (e-OCI) Card in New Delhi on July 1, 2026, marking a major digital governance reform in the regulation of foreign funding to Indian non-profits and in services for the Indian diaspora. The dual launch touches two related domains of governance: regulatory oversight of foreign contributions received by NGOs and associations, and ease-of-living reforms for over 50 lakh Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cardholders spread across the globe.
The reform is significant because it replaces a largely manual, paper-heavy compliance regime with a fully digital, real-time monitoring system, while simultaneously removing long-standing friction points for OCI cardholders, such as mandatory booklet re-issuance every time a new passport is obtained. Both changes reflect the broader Digital India push toward integrated, verifiable, and transparent public service delivery, and both fall under the administrative ambit of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
For aspirants preparing for UPSC, UPPSC, MPSC, TNPSC, WBCS, RPSC, BPSC, and CGPSC, this topic is directly relevant for GS Paper II (Governance and Government Policies) and frequently appears as prelims questions on nodal ministries, e-governance platforms, and NGO/FCRA regulation, as well as mains questions on transparency in foreign funding and ease-of-living reforms for the diaspora.
The regulation of foreign contributions in India dates back to the original Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976, enacted during the Emergency era to monitor foreign funds flowing to political and social organisations amid concerns about foreign interference. This was repealed and replaced by the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, which tightened registration, renewal, and utilisation norms for NGOs and associations receiving foreign donations, and made the Ministry of Home Affairs the nodal authority for administration and enforcement. Subsequent amendments in 2020 further restricted sub-granting of foreign funds and tightened compliance requirements such as opening a designated FCRA account at the State Bank of India's New Delhi branch.
Until now, FCRA compliance — registration, prior permission, annual returns, and renewal — was processed through a portal that still involved significant manual verification and delays, drawing criticism from the NGO sector over slow approvals and limited real-time visibility into application status. FCRA 2.0 is positioned as the next generation of this system, aimed at ending these delays through end-to-end digitisation and integration with other government databases.
On the citizenship side, the Overseas Citizen of India scheme was introduced through the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003, and operates under Sections 7A to 7D of the Citizenship Act, 1955. The scheme was later merged with the Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card scheme in 2015 to create a single OCI card system. However, the physical OCI booklet historically had to be re-issued whenever a cardholder obtained a new passport before turning 20 years of age, or after turning 50, creating recurring paperwork for the diaspora. The e-OCI Card is designed to close this gap through a permanent digital registration number.
Launch Details
FCRA 2.0 Portal Features
e-OCI Card Benefits
Legal and Institutional Framework
Political and Constitutional Dimensions FCRA is a parliamentary statute — the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 — enacted by Parliament under its Union List legislative competence relating to foreign affairs (Entry 10, List I) and is administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs; it is not a constitutional body or provision. Similarly, the OCI scheme operates under the Citizenship Act, 1955, a law enacted by Parliament under its exclusive competence over citizenship, naturalisation, and aliens (Entry 17, List I). Framing both reforms correctly as statutory (not constitutional) is important, since FCRA regulation of NGOs periodically raises political debate over its use to restrict civil society space, making it a recurring subject of parliamentary and judicial scrutiny.
Economic and Financial Dimensions Real-time monitoring of foreign contributions strengthens the government's ability to track inflows into India's non-profit sector, reducing scope for diversion or misuse of foreign funds and improving auditability through integration with ICAI's UDIN system. For the diaspora, digitisation of OCI services lowers the compliance and transaction costs associated with physical booklet reissuance, while cloud hosting on MeghRaj is expected to reduce the government's own infrastructure and processing costs over time.
Social Dimensions The reform directly affects India's civil society ecosystem — NGOs working in health, education, disaster relief, and rights-based advocacy — by potentially easing the historically slow and opaque FCRA renewal process, provided the promised speed gains materialise in practice. For the diaspora, the e-OCI Card addresses a long-standing grievance of over 50 lakh cardholders who faced repeated paperwork despite having no functional change in their status, reinforcing the government's ease-of-living and diaspora-engagement agenda.
Governance and Administrative Dimensions The integration of PAN, Aadhaar, OCI, NGO Darpan, and ICAI's UDIN system into a single portal reflects the broader Digital India model of interoperable, database-linked service delivery, reducing duplication of verification effort across agencies. Hosting on the MeghRaj Government Cloud is intended to enhance data security, while the planned AI chatbot, mobile app, and bank-facing dashboard signal a phased rollout toward a fully self-service, real-time compliance ecosystem — though successful execution will depend on inter-agency data-sharing protocols and grievance-redressal mechanisms for rejected or delayed applications.
International Perspective The e-OCI Card launch is significant for India's diaspora diplomacy, easing engagement for over 50 lakh OCI cardholders — a substantial global Indian-origin population — with India's administrative and citizenship-adjacent services. Digitised, real-time FCRA monitoring also has an external dimension, as it strengthens India's ability to demonstrate transparent oversight of cross-border funding flows to international partners and financial-integrity bodies that scrutinise NGO funding channels globally.
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Which of the following ocean currents is associated with Indian Ocean?
Answer: C. Agulhas current
Without green house effect, the average temperature of earth surface would be
Answer: B. –18°C
1. In Ease of Doing Business Report 2020, India's rank is 63. 2. India ranking for Ease of Doing Business in the year 2019 was 77.
With reference to the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Report, which of the following statement(s) is/are correct?
Answer: B. 2 only
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Geography · 2020Which of the following ocean currents is associated with Indian Ocean?
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