Union Budget 2019: Soon, Social Stock Exchange social enterprises and NGOs to reach investors

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to create an electronic fundraising platform for listing social enterprises - where investors could find and invest in NGOs and social concerns as they would in public listed companies - while presenting the maiden budget of Narendra Modi 2.0 government in Lok Sabha on Friday, July 5, 2019.

"I propose to initiate steps to create an electronic fundraising platform, a social stock exchange under the regularity ambit of securities and exchange board of India for listing social enterprises and voluntary organisations — working for the realisation of a social welfare objective so that they can raise capital as equity, debts or as units like the mutual funds," she said.

India's first full-time woman finance minister presented her maiden union budget at 11 am on July 5. Sitharaman reached the Parliament an hour ahead of time with the budget document folded in a red traditional cloth sealed with the government seal. Analysts and the media had predicted that her first budget will be focused on the middle class and the poor and that it will take the SoPs presented in the interim budget by Piyush Goyal in February further. Sitharaman has to deal with income tax exemption slabs, unemployment and form a pro-Janta budget with the added task of pulling the country out of a five year low. With former Education Minister Prakash Javadekar promising that the government will try its best to spend 6 per cent of the GDP on education and the PM stressing on the youth development and innovation, eyes are on Sitharaman's budget to bring the change.

The finance minister said that the Modi govt will examine steps to hike FDI cap in aviation, media, insurance. She added that the current rental laws archaic; modern tenancy law will be finalised and circulated to states among other proposals during her budget speech. She also said that many structural changes are needed for the country to become a $5 trillion economy, adding the target is eminently achievable.