The Finance Minister kickstarted a discussion on Social Stock Exchanges (“SSE”) in her July 2019 Budget Speech. The SEBI took the cue from her statement and constituted a working group to examine the feasibility of a SSE in India. A SSE is a platform where investors (including the public) can buy or sell securities of a social enterprise on a recognized stock exchange. Although it may sound like a new concept in India, there are a few countries such as Canada and Singapore which have established some kind of SSEs.
Over the next few weeks, we will, through crisp infographics, videos and blogs, explain the operations and functioning of SSEs in different jurisdictions and outline if there are learnings for India.
In this post, Ashish Nath Jha explains the manner in which Canada has established its SSE, which it has termed as Social Venture Connexion (“SVX”). He also discusses what types of enterprises can be listed on the SVX and the investment process. We hope that the SEBI Working Group can factor in the experiences of other countries and formulate a set of regulations that is tailored for the Indian social enterprises environment.
