Context
The Honourable Finance Minister of India, in her budget speech of FY 2019-20, announce the creation of a Social Stock Exchange, an electronic fundraising platform under the regulatory ambit of SEBI for listing social enterprises and voluntary organisations.
SEBI constituted a working group (WG) in Sep 2019 which released its report in June 2020 The working group had made high level recommendations for SSE, which included participation of Not for profit organisations (NPOs) and For-profit enterprises (FPEs) on the SSE subject to committing to minimum reporting requirements. The WG report also made recommendations outlining the modalities for creating a Social Stock Exchange that will serve as a platform for fundraising and, also incorporate a set of procedures by which social impact of NPOs and FPEs will be measured and reported.
In September 2020, a Technical Group was constituted by SEBI to develop the framework for onboarding NPOs and FPEs on the SSE including defining for profit social investing / enterprises, prescribe disclosure requirements relating to financials, governance, performance etc. and dwell upon aspects related to social impact, social audit, information repositories etc. The
technical group report was group submitted in May 2021. Thereafter SEBI vide notification on July 25, 2022 amended necessary regulations to provide a broad framework for the SSE. There have been subsequent circulars from SEBI. The Bombay Stock Exchange received SEBI approval on December 27, 2022 to introduce the SSE as a separate segment on BSE.
GuideStar India had conducted an in-person workshop in Mumbai, followed by a virtual event in January. The video below is a brief overview of Social Stock Exchange.
To register your organisation on any of the exchanges, visit the links below
Here are important notifications and circulars of SEBI:
Amendments to LODR
Amendments to ICDR
Amendments to AIF
Notification of ZCZP
SEBI Circular of September 19, 2022
Here are resources to help you register/ list on the SSE at BSE/ NSE:
BSE FAQs
NSE FAQs
Presentations made by speakers at GuideStar India's NGO workshop
BSE Deck
NSE Deck
To learn more, write to mail@guidestarindia.org.