Category: Opinions

Setting up the first regulated, non-profit focused ‘social stock exchange-listed’ social venture fund can be a major milestone for India’s non-profit sector

Reforms to PSL can have tremendous impact both on regional/sectoral development as well as improving the quality of bank assets.

Formal credit providers have increasingly gained prominence as a channel for distribution of non-credit products, such as insurance, investment and retirement products, to low-income households in India.

Personal insolvency needs to be treated as a social insurance option. A mechanism which relies on the interaction between creditors and borrowers must be put in place

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently allowed financial institutions to on-board new customers using video-KYC.

In this series of columns, members of a drafting team on the Working Group report on Social Stock Exchange detail important recommendations.

The Social Stock Exchange is envisioned as the venue that will originate pertinent funding structures for NPOs. One of the main hurdles that non-profit organisations (NPOs) face in securing financing from a wide variety of sources is the lack of robust information about their activities. To mitigate this problem, the establishment of a Social Stock Exchange (SSE) will prompt all NPOs that access capital through it, to submit to a minimum reporting standard.

The Covid-19 crisis has, among other things, brought into focus the importance of non-profits and impact-focussed, for-profit, enterprises.

A common minimum reporting standard has been recommended for all fundraising activity through the proposed Social Stock Exchange.

This problem can be solved by link-ups with large supply chains and networks that disperse risk and place small businesses in a better position to get loans and attract equity investors.