Discuss how digital platforms such as NPO Darpan and FCRA online services have changed the regulation of civil society in India. What challenges remain?

Civil society often delivers welfare schemes to the last mile. It was once regulated through paper files and scattered registrations. Two platforms have moved this oversight to a digital model built on a single identity: NITI Aayog's NPO Darpan and MHA's online FCRA services. Transparency has improved, but the cost of failing to comply has also risen sharply.

How digital platforms have changed regulation

• Single identity: NPO Darpan is run by NITI Aayog's Voluntary Action Cell. It gives each organisation a Darpan ID, which is mandatory for any NPO seeking grants from Union ministries [1].
• Link to banking: Under the PML (Maintenance of Records) Amendment Rules, 2023, banks must register their NPO clients on DARPAN. This ties the ID to basic banking [2].
• Rules-based foreign funding: An NGO can get FCRA registration after at least three years of operation, or seek prior permission for a specific project. The process is online and "transparent… and consistently applied" [3][4].
• Traceable money trail: All foreign contributions must first arrive in a single designated account at SBI's New Delhi Main Branch. For large grants paid in tranches, 75% of each tranche must be used and verified before the next one is released [3].
• Enforcement: MHA cancels registrations under Section 14, FCRA 2010. A cancelled association cannot apply again for three years [5].

Challenges that remain

• Low digital capacity: The State of Nonprofits Digitization Report 2026 is a private survey of 500 non-profits. They scored below 50% on digital maturity and had fallen behind even in the earlier wave of digitisation [6].
• Compliance decides survival: Grants, bank accounts and foreign funds all now run through portals. A missed online filing can threaten an NGO's existence, not just delay its work [1][2][5].
• Separate portals: Darpan (NITI Aayog) and FCRA (MHA) are separate systems, so NGOs have to enter the same data more than once. NITI Aayog's planned NGO Darpan 2.0 is meant to be an on-demand platform that draws data from other systems [7].
• Oversight vs. civic space: A single central bank account and tranche conditions are harder for small rural NGOs to manage. This raises concern that oversight could turn into over-regulation.

Digital platforms have made the regulation of civil society more transparent, traceable and uniform. The next step should be to help NGOs comply, not only to police them. That means an interoperable Darpan 2.0, help desks in regional languages, and funders paying for basic digital skills. Such support would protect the freedom of association under Article 19(1)(c) and advance SDG 16's goal of accountable institutions.