National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has received final approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on February 22, 2023, to set up a Social Stock Exchange (SSE) as a separate segment of the NSE.
The Social Stock Exchange segment will provide new avenue for social enterprises to finance social initiatives, provide them visibility and bring in increased transparency in fund mobilisation & utilisation by social enterprises. Any social enterprise, Non-Profit Organization (NPOs) or For-Profit Social Enterprises (FPEs), that establishes its primacy of social intent can get registered / listed on Social Stock Exchange segment.
For eligible NPOs, the first step for onboarding starts with the registration on the Social Stock Exchange segment. Post registration, NPOs can initiate the fund mobilisation process by issuance of instruments such as Zero Coupon Zero Principal (ZCZP) via a public issue or private placement. Currently the regulations have prescribed the minimum issue size as Rs 1 crore and minimum application size for subscription at Rs 2 lakhs for ZCZP issuance.
For FPE, the process of issue and listing of securities shall be same as applicable for issue and listing of securities under the extant processes of the Exchange (based on eligibility criteria for the Main board, SME Platform or innovators growth platform, as applicable in addition to the criteria provided to be eligible as Social Enterprises).
Shri Ashishkumar Chauhan, MD & CEO, NSE said: “I take this opportunity to thank SEBI for permitting NSE to launch Social Stock Exchange as a segment. To bring in awareness, we have been conducting various events and hand holding Social Enterprises currently at various stages of onboarding on the Exchange. I take this opportunity to request Social Enterprises to get in touch with our teams to understand the mechanism and benefits from registering & listing on the Social Stock Exchange segment.”
