[7][8][9][10] The Fund has collected financing through public donations from Indian citizens as well as foreign groups such as Russia's State-owned defence exports company Rosoboronexport.

[37] In April 2020, the Government of India issued an ordinance to exempt donations made to the Fund before 30 June, allowing them to qualify for a tax deduction under section 80G of The Income-tax Act, 1961.

In order to remedy the illegality of the original exemption, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs amended the relevant schedule to the Companies Act 2013, to allow CSR donations to funds that were not set up by the Government of India.

[25] Legal experts have also argued that a dedicated fund for addressing concerns from the COVID-19 pandemic would be more effective than the PMNRF, which deals with various kinds of disasters and crises.

[65] Private individuals who have pledged support to the PM CARES include actors Akshay Kumar,[66] Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh,[67] Shah Rukh Khan,[67] producer Karan Johar.

[34][35] The Fund has since received pledges of support from a number of foreign entities and persons, including Russia's State-owned defence exports company Rosoboronexport.

[12] In August 2020, petitions filed under the Right to Information Act 2005 by the Indian Express to 32 public sector undertakings (PSUs) in India indicated that a total of ₹21050 million had been transferred to the PM CARES Fund, primarily from their corporate social responsibility budget allocations for 2019-20 and 2020–21.

[15] RTI applications filed directly to PSUs have also demonstrated that the transfer of finances to the PM CARES Fund were taken from staff salaries.

RTI applications filed to government-funded educational institutions also indicate that a total sum of ₹218.1 million has been transferred to the PM CARES Fund from staff salaries and pension accounts.

[70] On 3 April 2020, doctors' associations at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi objected to a circular from the hospital's administration, indicating that a day's salary would be deducted from their accounts and donated to the PM CARES Fund.

[73] On 17 April 2020, the Jharkhand High Court ordered six petitioners to deposit ₹35,000 each in the PM CARES Fund, and install the Government of India's COVID-19 surveillance and tracking mobile application, Aarogya Setu, as conditions for granting him bail in a criminal case.

[74] In August 2020, the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued a similar order, requiring a deposit of ₹100,000 as costs into the PM CARES Fund.

An additional sum of ₹1000 crore would be allocated to states and union territories to address issues faced by migrant workers, including provisions for accommodation, food, medical treatment and transportation.

[88] On 24 June 2020, the Government of India issued a statement, indicating that 6% of the ventilators ordered by the Fund, i.e. 2,923 of 50,000, had been made, and were allocated to states and union territories facing a high number of cases, such as Maharashtra (275), Delhi (275), Gujarat (175), Bihar (100), Karnataka (90) and Rajasthan (75).

[89] Two government-appointed clinical evaluations committees raised concerns, on 16 May 2020 and 1 June 2020, about the procurement of sub-standard ventilators financed by the PM CARES Fund.

[22] In August 2020, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare disclosed in response to petitions filed under the Right to Information Act 2005 that two indigenously manufactured ventilator models had failed trials.

The ventilators were manufactured by Jyoti CNC Automation and Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone and were funded by an allocation of ₹225 million from the PM CARES and had failed trials by a technical committee appointed by the Ministry.

[91] The civil hospital in Ahmedabad had also written to the Central government in May 2020, indicating that the ventilators acquired by the PM CARES Fund allocations were not functioning as required.

[21] On 10 April 2021, the Pimpri-Chichwad Municipal Corporation in Maharashtra reported that 17 out of 72 ventilators supplied using PM CARES Fund had broken down and had not been repaired, and were lying unused.

[94] On 16 July 2020, BJP leader Prabhakar Shinde asked the Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai to take legal action against officials who were not using ventilators donated via PM CARES purchases.

Joint Secretary (Health) Vipun Nayak told the court that a decline in COVID-19 cases during January and February 2021 had led to a slow-down in the construction managed by the Central Government.

Officials working with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India stated that they were not allowed to audit the fund, since it was "based on donations of individuals and organisations".

[36] In June 2020, a private firm of chartered accountants, SARC and Associates was reported to have been appointed as auditors for the PM CARES Fund for a period of three years.

[112] Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh stated that Chinese donations accepted to the PM CARES Fund ought to be returned.

[119] The Supreme Court of India had previously dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Manohar Lal Sharma for questioning the legality of the constitution of PM CARES Fund for COVID-19, describing the petition as 'misconceived', in April 2020.

[120] A number of petitions concerning the lack of transparency and accountability of the PM CARES Fund are pending in High Courts in India.

[123] On 4 June 2020, the Delhi High Court heard a public interest petition filed, seeking to bring transparency to the PM CARES Fund by making the Right to Information Act 2005 applicable to it.

[103] On 22 May 2020, Praveen Kumar, a lawyer in Bengaluru, filed a criminal complaint against Sonia Gandhi and other opposition leaders following tweets by them criticising the Fund on grounds of transparency and accountability.

[126] In September 2020, an anonymous user on the social news aggregation website, Reddit, purchased a domain name "pmcares.fund" and created a satirical browser game.

The page displays browser game that involves a figure representing Prime Minister Narendra Modi overcoming several obstacles including the judiciary, media, and economy, and also an error message stating that details of the PM CARES Fund are unavailable because of the lack of government disclosures.