mumbai a decade ago when the countrys economy and markets were on a high indias religious and charitable institutions had the enviable experience of being recipients of generous private donations from foreignersthis fiscal could well mirror the trend of 199596 at a time when the economy is on a relatively high growth trajectory munificence reminiscent of the inflows of a decade ago appears to be well underway inflows in the form of private donations from foreigners to religious and charitable institutions in india which had topped the 1billion mark in 199596 could well reach those levels againalready in the first half of 200405 donations have aggregated 561 million compared to 681 million for the entire 200304 this when donations received by locals from nris during the same period have barely crossed 100 million and grants from other governments have beenlower for several years now the slowdown in grants could well be due to a conscious policy the upswing in inflows through the private donations route has taken both the government and the banking regulator by surprise though there are no plausible reasons offered for this there is a view that part of these flows could be loans disguised as donations prior to september 01 ngos were reckoned to have received funds from abroad disguised as borrowings under the 5million external borrowings scheme administered by the rbi however after 911 the scenario changed with tight controls being put in place to monitor inflows especially to track sources of terrorist funding nonprofit organisations are not eligible to raise loans from abroadhowever the government has now announced its intention to open a window to the ecb route for qualified ngos engaged in microfinance activities personal gifts or donations to religious institutions in india are part of private transfers in the current account of the balance of payments figures these inflows are not under the rbis regulatory domain technically the home ministry regulates such donations