Skilling NGO Unnati First on Social Stock Exchange

Mumbai, Dec 13 (PTI) Skilling-focused non-profit SGBS Unnati Foundation on Wednesday became the first entity to list on the newly created platform Social Stock Exchange (SSE).

Capital markets regulator Sebi's whole-time member Ashwani Bhatia said the platform will provide a transparent and credible mechanism for investors to identify, evaluate and support social ventures creating positive change in our society.

The SSE idea, which has not been successful in any part of the world till now, was first promised in the 2019 Finance budget and Sebi had earlier come out with norms.

Unnati is the first non-profit organisation to set out with the intent of raising Rs 2 crore and got 90 per cent subscriptions on the issue. It will deploy Rs 1.8 crore for skilling 10,000 college students in their final year of graduation and make them industry-ready.

"It (SSE) will create new opportunities for social enterprises to showcase their work, scale up their operations and enhance their accountability and governance. The first listing marks the beginning of a new era of social finance," Bhatia said.

He also said the Sebi will be notifying revised norms on SSEs shortly, wherein it has announced halving the minimum issue size to Rs 50 lakh and reducing the minimum application amount to Rs 10,000 to encourage retail participation.

NSE's managing director and chief executive Ashishkumar Chauhan said the bourse which operates the SSE platform already has 39 registered non-profits, and several of them have initiated fundraising plans, which will help in interventions across various sectors like health, social justice and tribal affairs.

Unnati's founder director Ramesh Swami said SSE should give NGOs a stamp of approval and nobody should dare question these organisations on credibility, documentation and impact.

Money is not an issue in India, and pointed out that religious bodies like temples, mosques and churches alone are sitting on Rs 80,000 crore of wealth, he added.

Tata Sons board member Amit Chandra said that until now, non-profits have depended on foreign capital to fund social sector interventions, and questioned why should a foreign donor take care of India's problems, and added that ordinary Indians are capable of solving the problem of their brothers and sisters.