Leading bourse The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) has received final approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to launch Social Stock Exchange (SSE) as a separate segment of the NSE.

The final clearance was received on February 22, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) said in a statement. 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 and utilisation by social enterprises.

"To bring in awareness, we have been conducting various events and hand holding social enterprises currently at various stages of onboarding on the exchange," NSE MD and CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan said. Also, he has urged social enterprises to get in touch with the NSE to understand the mechanism and benefits from registering and listing on the social stock exchange segment.

 Under the rules, any social enterprise, NonProfit Organization (NPOs) or For-Profit Social Enterprises (FPEs), that establishes its primacy of social intent can get listed on SSE segment. For eligible NPOs, the first step for onboarding starts with the registration on the Social Stock Exchange segment.

The SSE sector will give social entrepreneurs additional ways to raise money for charitable causes, give them prominence, and boost the transparency of how those funds are used. According to a statement by NSE, any social business, whether it be a non-profit organisation (NPO) or a for-profit social enterprise (FPE), that can demonstrate the importance of its social objective may register with or be listed on the SSE sector.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Union Budget speech of 2019-20, had proposed creation of a SSE, under the regulatory ambit of Sebi for listing social enterprises and voluntary organizations working for the realization of a social welfare objective, so that they can raise capital as equity, debt or as units like a mutual fund (MF).

The capital market regulator SEBI gave its in-principle approval to the stock exchange BSE for the SSE as a separate section in October of last year.

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