PM CARES stands for the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund. It was created in March 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, to receive voluntary contributions from individuals, institutions and companies for emergency relief and disaster-related assistance. It is constituted as a public charitable trust rather than by statute: the Prime Minister is its ex-officio Chairperson and the Ministers of Defence, Home Affairs and Finance are ex-officio Trustees. Because the trust was not created by an Act of Parliament, its accounts are audited by a private chartered accountancy firm rather than by the Comptroller and Auditor General - a distinction that sits at the centre of the transparency debate around the fund.

The figures describe a fund that is growing without being spent. Interest of Rs 469.38 crore on fixed deposits alone dwarfs the Rs 87.85 lakh disbursed during the year, so the corpus rose by more than Rs 1,279 crore even as donations shrank by 30 per cent. That combination - a large idle corpus, minimal disbursement, and audit by a private firm rather than the CAG - is what keeps PM CARES in the accountability debate, including litigation over whether it is a 'public authority' under the Right to Information Act. For exam purposes the fund is a standing case study in the difference between a statutory body, a fund charged on the Consolidated Fund of India, and a charitable trust set up by office-holders acting ex officio.