Sebi inducts 3 new members into technical group on social stock exchange

Markets regulator Sebi has included three more members in its committee on social stock exchange, which has been mandated to develop framework for onboarding profit and non-profit organisations on such bourses.

The new members are Mukund Chitale, president of Lok Manya Seva Sangh, a Sebi-registered investor association; R Balasubramaniam, founder and chairman of grassroots research and advocacy movement; and Prasanna Tantri, assistant professor at Indian School of Business.

They have been inducted with effect from October 7, an update by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday showed.

The technical group, which was set up in September, has now 17 members.

The committee, chaired by Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, former chairman of Nabard, would prescribe disclosure requirements related to performance, financials and governance and dwelling upon aspects related to social impact and social audit.

The decisions of the setting up of the technical group was taken following the recommendation of working group (WG) on social stock exchange (SSE).

Other members of the group include Vikram Gandhi faculty at Harvard Business School and founder of Asha Impact; Ingrid Srinath, founder director, Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy at Ashoka University; Pushpa Aman Singh, CEO of Guidestar; and Santhosh Jayaram, partner and head (Sustainability) and CSR advisory at KPMG.

In addition, Roopa Kudva, managing director of Omidyar Network India; Shaji Krishnan V, deputy MD of Nabard; Sanjeev Singhal, chairman of sustainability reporting standards board at ICAI; representatives of BSE, NSE and Sebi are also part of the technical group.

Earlier, working group (WG) on social stock exchange, chaired by Ishaat Hussain, submitted its report on June 1, 2020.

The working group outlined its vision and made high-level recommendations that include participation of non-profit organisations (NPOs) and for-profit enterprises (FPEs) on social stock exchanges subject to committing to minimum reporting requirements.

Additionally, it recommended standardisation of financial reporting by non-profit organisations on such bourses.

Besides, direct listing of non-profit organisations through issuance of bonds and a range of funding mechanisms, which include some of the existing mechanisms such as social venture funds under the alternative investment funds, have been recommended by the working group.

The social stock exchange can be housed within the existing stock exchange such as the BSE and the National Stock Exchange.

Social stock exchange is a novel concept in the country and such a bourse is meant to serve private and non-profit sector providers by channelling greater capital to them.