Kerala has emerged as the top destination for foreign aid in the country, with the exception of New Delhi, which is the headquarters of many of the foreign aid agencies. Records with the ministry of home affairs, showed that Kerala was home to 1,979 NGOs. The Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA) filings with MHA showed that 1,529 active NGOs in Kerala had Rs 4,083 crore with them, towards the end of FY16.This surplus money left with each NGOs at the end of the fiscal includes fresh foreign funding received during the year, amount broughtforward from the previous year and the interest on the funds. FCRA filings revealed that at the end of FY2016, Delhi's NGOs had a surplus of Rs 7,106 crore, the highest amount among Indian states or union territories.In Kerala, the district that received maximum foreign funding was Pathanamthitta. Its 133 NGOs together registered a surplus money of Rs 2,904.04 crore during FY16, which was 71% of the overall surplus money left with the Kerala organizations that received foreign fund that financial year. Second on the list was Ernakulam with Rs 288.78 crore from 329 NGOs, followed by Kottayam with Rs 243.89 crore from 225 NGOs.Other districts with surplus cash were: Alappuzha (Rs 45.39 crore from 66 NGOs), Thiruvananthapuram (Rs 169.17 crore from 151 NGOs), Kozhikode (Rs 122.19 crore from 113 NGOs), Thrissur (Rs 90.92 crore from 198 NGOs), Wayanad (Rs 63.05 crore from 82 NGOs), Idukki (Rs 32.56 crore from 49 NGOs), Kannur (57.49 crore from 88 NGOs), Kasaragod (Rs 2.60 crore from 8 NGOs), Kollam (Rs 14.86 crore from 29 NGOs), Malappuram (Rs 13.80 crore from 49 NGOs) and Palakkad (34.47 crore from 55NGOs).An analysis of the recipients of the foreign funds in Ernakulam showed that the nature of 58% of the NGOs with FCRA licence was 'religious-Christian'. Of the remaining, much of those registered as 'social' were registered and run by Christian organizations or individuals. For example, Lisie Hospital, Kochi; St Magdalene Girls Home; Carmel Hospital, Aluva; St Joseph's Hospital Dharmagiri, Kothamangalam and Archbishop Attipetty Memorial Dispensary were registered as 'social' institutions. However, these institutions are open to the public and do not restrict their services to the members of their religion only. Though only a handful in number, Hindu religious organizations also attracted funding and Mata Amritanandamayi Math figured in the top 10 foreign aid receiving institutions in the country.“Foreign funds have been coming to Kerala for decades, though it wasn't very substantial during the early years. Back then, the Church was the main recipient and the money was spent on building schools and hospitals. This nature changed in 1959 as a flow of funds with political aim happened during the Liberation Struggle (Vimochana Samaram). CIA was accused of sending funds to Kerala and to certain extent, it was true. Now, there is a mushrooming of NGOs in the state and nobody knows how they spend their money,“ said former MP Sebastian Paul “There is no proper auditing of whether the funds are utilized for the intended purposes. It seems foreign aid has become a sort of business now ­ there are people who prepare project reports for NGOs and also canvas funds for them,“ he added.As FCRA violations increased, the Centre cancelled the licences of 20,000 agencies in the last week of December 2016. Prior to this, there were 33,501 NGOs in India, with FCRA registrations. Of those, nearly 16,700 had filed their returns with the ministry towards the end of March 2016 and between them, they had a surplus of Rs 34,304 crore.