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hello everyone and welcome to help your ngos exclusive webinar planet people profit we`ve all gathered here today to understand how each one of us can make a big difference by simply making the right choices i like to take this opportunity to welcome our first speaker the evangelist dia mirza via is a renowned actor producer and activist she`s a committed voice for change and has contributed her efforts in the field of social change conservation and environment she is the u.n secretary general`s advocate for the sustainable development goals and has been the face of many pivotal environmental campaigns across india as a un environment goodwill ambassador and a global ambassador for the international fund for animal welfare vr works to further spread the message on priority areas including clean air clean seas wildlife protection and the climate change she`s also associated with the wildlife trust of india save the children and sanctuary nature foundation we are it`s an absolute pleasure to have you on board it is with great pleasure that i welcome our next speaker the policy maker amarjeet singh working with sebi for the last 25 years amarjeet has extensive experience in regulation and supervision of the securities markets he is the executive director in charge of corporate finance department and also heads the department of economic policy and analysis at seven america has been involved in various international regulatory initiatives he represents debbie as a part-time member on the board of national financial reporting authority and of governance of the indian institute of corporate affairs he has represented sebi on numerous committees set up by rbi and the government of india apart from an mba he holds a master`s degree in economic policy management from colombia university new york welcome amarjeet it`s a privilege to have you with us today moving on to our third speaker the practitioner chirag betha with over 18 years of experience in managing alternative investment strategies chirag was ranked as the fourth best fund manager in the world under the age of 40 by city wire in 2017. he`s a qualified chartered alternative investment analyst and has also completed his masters in management studies and finance chirag currently manages five funds largely in the field of alternative investments that includes quantum gold funds a multi-asset fund of funds an equity fund of fund and the esg fund he joined the quantum group in 26 2006 after uh gaining hands-on experience in the physical commodities market and working on projects for the federation of indian commodities exchanges pleasure to have you with us today um and finally i am vinnie bolakia the enabler representing help your ngo i joined healthcare ngo in 2015 and am currently leading a team of passionate individuals committed to helping ngos move a step closer to achieving the sdgs now without further ado let me ask the first question to the evangelist uh so they are from an actor to an activist how did you get involved in doing good and uh how did that evolve into your active participation and association with the uns teachings i want to start with thanking you for conducting this panel and for having this conversation i think it`s very important for more and more people to get engaged and understand what the sdgs are and it`s my privilege to be here um i have the extraordinary privilege of doing so much for our shared planet and the collective habitats around the world and as an sdhd advocate and un environment goodwill ambassador these are not just titles but our our opportunity is born from the passion and the love that i`ve had for um nature in the environment and wildlife right from childhood and perhaps it is my role in in public life that brought me this opportunity and it`s it`s a big privilege to be able to speak for an advocate for what is absolutely necessary for all of us to protect um as is becoming even more evident every day it`s not some idea that we need to protect it is a very necessary and important connection and a relationship that we share with these entities and species and habitats um i think i`ve always been driven right from my childhood to act i`ve always responded to uh you know the plight of those that cannot speak or express themselves especially animals uh i grew up in an environment where my mother would constantly be rescuing injured birds and animals and adopting them and helping them recover before she let them back into you know nature and i i think it was these early impressions and these early learnings of empathy that made me the adult that i was and it is the work that i did in the in the beginning of my adult life with organizations and ngos that help me understand that you know doing good uh is is not something that you do outside of the main area of your work it has to become a part of everything that you do and it`s not a separate entity uh you know i i don`t believe in the concept of philanthropy uh as separate from your human entity i think uh it`s uh it`s a very um it`s i don`t know i guess it`s a very strange way of looking at being uh the best person that you can be and and i think as all of us have the potential and the ability as individuals no matter what sphere or realm of life we are a part of no matter what our professional uh roles are whether we are journalists or entrepreneurs or you know directors of sebby or whoever it is that we are we have the incredible ability to do good and make a difference a positive impact on society and um i i think that it was this that [Music] that i work with you um by the united states to be their ambassador uh five years ago and uh it was a it was uh and subsequently working with uh the secretary general on the sustainable development goals and being a part of 17 incredible um leaders and advocates who are you know from different parts of the world there`s so much to learn from each of these advocates but also so much to learn from the goals themselves and everything that we hope to achieve through achieving these goals so it`s been a i think in many ways i can`t separate what the goals represent and what my life represents because it`s one and the same thing and i hope that more and more people as they come to understand what these goals are we`ll learn to see how the goals can become and an indelible part of our everyday lives and the choices that we make as individuals every single day for me they are the knock start they they they form a sense of direction and motivation and inspiration and kind of determine my choices on a daily basis absolutely we are also could you shed some light on what your role is as a u.n environment goodwill ambassador for india and as an sdg advocate well as as the as the name suggests uh the the as an advocate for the sustainable development goals it`s obviously to ensure that the maximum number of people a large that i have reached to that i can communicate with and kind of engage with learn about the goals and understand the goals better and that`s the primary role that i play and i use of course the power and the strength in the reach of my social media platforms to do that outside of you know generating and creating content and creating opportunities of engagement and communication such as this and many others i engage a lot with young people students and uh you know advocates that also kind of represent different fields i work with ngos and um it`s really about building partnerships and helping how and determining how um different people can start to learn to work with each other in with these partnerships so i i think in a way as an advocate what i really work or function as is like a bridge between the policy and the science and the public and uh make i think in a way the sustainable development goals more um like tangible more reachable kind of in terms of just connecting and understanding what they are and simplifying them so that they`re more approachable to more people um especially young people and uh as the u.n environment uh goodwill ambassador i`ve had the privilege of like you mentioned in your introduction of me uh working on some of the most powerful some of the most urgent and important campaigns uh in raising awareness not only in india but globally in in an awareness that has then resulted in some very important shifts in policy uh but most importantly has driven and has resulted in some absolutely incredible public engagement unlike we`ve ever seen before especially during the last uh four four and a half five years we`ve seen more participation from young india in the history of this country uh in in in the sphere of environment than ever before so it`s um it`s a real privilege interacting and engaging with young people and but quite simply just taking the science and the policy and the understanding to people thanks for sharing that yeah in fact you know as you were mentioning earlier partnerships is really uh important and that`s what sdg 17 is right partnerships for the goals so i`m glad you`re really reaching out to nonprofits and partnering with them um okay adi our next question is which of the 17 sdgs are you most passionate about and why well honestly vinnie you know i think uh the fact of the matter is that there is an interconnectedness in all of these goals so it is impossible for us to achieve one goal if uh the others are not achieved right so it they`re all just like the human species and the natural world is interconnected with one another so are these goals but um i think given the urgency and the immediacy and the rate of um change and devastation and all that you know climate change is causing i think that there are three sdgs that directly impact all the rest and we as a human species now will be completely dependent on ensuring we achieve these three goals in order to achieve any of the others and that would be sdg 13. so if we don`t achieve sdg 13 which is climate action uh it would not be possible for us to achieve zero hunger or gender equality or education for all or nutrition for all and uh or any of the others so for me it is 13 life below water life on land these are all sdgs connected to nature and bring back bringing back and restoring the natural balance i just want to quickly use this opportunity to highlight why for those who may not understand or may not know um i think this recent i mean this ongoing health crisis uh caused by corporate 19 is a a very urgent and a very important example of our failed relationship and the outcome of our failed and broken relationship with nature unfortunately the human species has become the most populous species on the planet we`ve also unfortunately altered 75 of the earth`s surface uh with the arrogance and the ego that we think we control everything i think this invisible virus has taught us quite well that we are not actually in control of everything and we are completely dependent on the balance of the natural world in order to maintain health and therefore then to kind of achieve any kind of progress whether it is economic or any other the third thing that this pandemic has taught us is that and economists now are saying it there are all kinds of reports whether it`s the ipc report or the you know the world economic forum reports that have been revealed that say that all human progress and all economic progress now is completely and solely dependent on the health of environment and ecologies so that apart i think what this crisis has taught us is that if we do not re-interpret the way we live if we do not reimagine the world that we inhabit which is completely in sync with the understanding that our health our well-being our survival is totally dependent on the balance of the natural world um we are not going to get very far because climate change is causing unprecedented natural disasters and events that are causing huge devastation and destruction we saw you may have noticed that the temperature in a place called latin in canada was 49.5 degrees centigrade yesterday and day before um and and we are in you know they`re not even in the peak of summer yet so um it`s uh there are three crisises that we were contending with before this pandemic struck which was the climate crisis the natural crisis which was loss of ecological systems and species extinction and the third of course is the pollution crisis the pollution of air water and seas so if we do not reconsider the way we build our economies the way we consume the way we produce the way we live and understand fully that we are completely and solely dependent on the choices we make now to determine our survival and our health we`re in big trouble thanks yeah i was actually quite expecting you to mention that fbg is one of your favorites and like you mentioned you know all of the 17 sdgs are interlinked and uh even if for failure of one happens then you know it will hinder the progress of many others yeah we`re completely set back on most of the sdgs we had some progress on a few because of the pandemic and because of many other natural uh an ecological crisis that we are experiencing i mean it`s not like while the pandemic was is going on that you know we`ve not had um floods or cyclones or drought everything else continues to happen and that impacts people and causes huge setbacks sure um my next question is to the policy maker amarjeet from financial reporting to sustainability reporting uh sebi has now mandated the top thousand district companies to disclose on their environmental social and governance that is esd framework which i believe is a significant step towards the unsdgs do you think uh investors are now considering esg factors to be as important as the financial health of the company yeah yeah absolutely that is a short answer but before i you know deeper into it uh thanks for having me in this event thanks to you thanks to ajit and also my compliments to diya for you know the wonderful role she`s playing as a un environment goodwill ambassador for sdgs in india uh so you know to your question uh definitely the there is a growing awareness about est issues amongst all stakeholders be it investors you know the companies or society in general so uh investors are you know increasingly recognizing that sustainability issues such as climate change can actually put the companies at risk companies performance at risk so momentum has been building over the past few years and my observation is that you know in the last year and a half since the pandemic started the needle has moved even faster towards you know the growing consciousness on the sustainability issues so it`s not just a you know a plain statement we also have the evidence that you know demonstrates that more and more sustainable investments are happening today and let me just give you some data you know in terms of evidence to just demonstrate that how investors are becoming more conscious about sustainability issues and how they are driving investments in the corporate world so just to give you some figures here the total assets in the sustainability funds uh increased from usd 550 billion at the beginning of 2018. this is the global data 2 usd 960 billion at the end of 2019. so it was 550 billion in the beginning of 2018 and it became 960 at the end of 2019. so in the first three months of 2020 when the pandemic was unfolding esc funds witnessed inflow of usd 45 billion dollars as compared to outflows see there was a crisis at that point of time so there were global funds outflows of 385 billion in the overall fund universe but the esc funds were still attracting funds fresh investments and if you look at the you know the subsequent quarters of 2020 in the area of sustainable investments you find that the total assets in sustainable funds they were at usd 1.6 trillion at the end of december 2020. so if you go back to the figure of 2018 there`s a 200 percent increase in three years so you know so investors are speaking with their checkbook it is not just a you know just a statement being made plain statement being made and let me also add when we`re talking global europe accounts for 80 percent of of these funds you know i said management let`s look at the indian situation in india i would say it`s uh just the beginning of pst investing that we started witnessing and it`s interesting to note out of those nine funds seven were launched after january 2020 so there`s a certain sort of you know interest in est investments and our uh you know the esc funds assets in india they doubled from previous quarter in the last quarter of 2020 i am saying to usd 1.3 billion so it is very small amount compared to the global first so that is why you know this is just the beginning as i said so there are two driving forces when it comes to esc investing one is the investors second is the governments and the regulators like us so we are trying to do our bit in this space so impact my awareness about stds grew over the last two years since i`ve been engaged in this work and we`ve actually mapped all the sdgs to our disclosure framework so we`ve come out with a framework called brsr which is as you mentioned in your question itself and that lays you know considerable emphasis on quantifiable metrics you know in terms of the impact the companies is causing on the environment or on the gender diversity issues or host of other issues so our expectation is that this pr sr will bring in a greater transparency in this space and will give a philip to you know sustainable investments and also a sustainable economy i will pause there yes i think esg`s popularity is also evident from the surge in the launch of esg themed mutual funds in india which is a pattern picked up from the international markets yeah that`s right that`s absolutely right but you say we have only nine i hope we have many many many more esg`s in the new year yeah so you know but we have to be little careful there as a regulator of course we are responsible for uh disclosures in the market and also there should not be any mis-selling i mean we would like to have more funds but you know from the point of view of protecting the interests of investors we would also like to make sure that a fund does not sell est just by enabling it it should be true to its label so those kind of concerns absolutely amazing if companies refuse to pivot towards the svgs since it may result in say loss of profit uh will sebi consider taking punitive action against them for you know not reporting uh their progress towards the sdgs so very that`s a great question so we have to understand this little carefully so let me try and illustrate it with an example just to make it clear so as i said our disclosure framework is rooted in sdgs we`ve mapped out all the stds into our disclosure framework so maybe let me pick one example let`s say sdg5 and so corresponding to that sdg5 seek information on from the companies on gender diversity in a company representation of women on the board of directors turnover of the women employees the rates at which they return after maternity leave the benefits which are provided to them um you know the the median wage structure of male versus female employees and so on so there`s a host of disclosures out there so idea is to get a sense from the companies from the organization are they really promoting gender diversity and equal opportunity for women within the company now supposing the company does not disclose this information or ask for the framework or maybe gives a misleading disclosure in terms of these disclosure requirements those companies uh we will have a right to take action but now the important point is supposing they disclose but they are not making progress on these in these areas or you know supposing they are uh nowhere flows to the targets they would have liked to set for themselves we will not be able to take action for their non-performance for non-performance investors will take action you know if if as an investor you see that this company is not doing so well in gender diversity you maybe you will decide not to invest in that company we will monitor very carefully the disclosures any non-disclosure and any misleading disclosure that we will have the right to take action as a regulator uh you know america interestingly the sdgs and the indian csr law were actually formulated and implemented around the same time in fact areas under uh the schedule seven of the companies act can actually be mapped to uh multiple sdgs simultaneously and lately the government has introduced penal provisions for non-compliance with csr rules which is actually a paradigm shift from the earlier uh comply or explained regime so i feel sebby also could you know do something similar and eventually consider uh introducing penal provisions so so just to clarify again penal provisions are there we have all the regulatory power see we we run our disclosure based really so any problem with disclosures we can make companies accountable and take action but when it comes to the esd space see this has been a light let`s understand our revolution we`ve had business responsibility reporting which was mandated by cb way back in 2012 it started with 100 companies progressively we expanded it to thousand companies now we`ve given it a total makeover and we are calling it a bigger brsr right so but we see a light touch regime and if you look at the world over very few jurisdictions have mandatory requirement so we are one of the few jurisdictions where we said you have to mandatorily disclose as for our framework so that will kick in from the next year this year it will be voluntary next year it becomes mandatory correct got it uh moving on to the practitioner uh chirag do you believe as a fund manager prioritizing sustainability is a far more important than focusing on returns and how do you reckon your investors will react to this should have your own new sorry sure uh thank you vinnie uh thank you for having me on the panel uh i think uh congratulations to via for the great advocacy she`s doing towards sdgs and also emerging given the push that we all need as investors from a regulatory perspective it`s all coming from there uh so so i think great thank you for both of them coming to investors yes investors do look for returns overall but if you look at the uh overall framework broadly right profitability and responsibility are complementary as opposed to being funded contradictory right and if you look at the relationship between the two it`s getting stronger by the day i mean if you look at uh you know gone are the days when you know corporations used to believe that pollution was just a free factor labor was just a cost factor and scale and scope was everything for them right the so-called social license to operate which was taken for granted by many companies is being challenged today uh the social trends the environment trends that we are seeing fast unfolding and also there is at the same time rising public expectations for better accountability from these corporates all this is having far-reaching financial consequences for the companies and therefore uh if you are not accountable like for companies who are not accountable for their behavior have risk associated with them and may fail to generate the long-term return that investors are looking for the compounding that we call or the compounding of returns that investors are looking for over the long run will not be met because of these risks or will be endangered by this risk so overall it is in our self-interest in the self-interest of our investors that we replace the question in terms of asking how much return to how much sustainable return right uh it`s a it`s a kind of misconception people think that sustainable investing is about changing the world it`s not it`s about understanding how the world is changing around us that is very very important and those changes are very very rapid like diabetes upon the climate change climate change it`s it`s unfolding very very rapidly and if you look at certain sectors in the economy are already getting impacted by the climate challenge that we have sectors like energy agriculture insurance transport logistics all are already feeling the brunt of climate change that we are having at hands also if you look at the macro level india as a country has not created the climate problem but it has to be at the center of any potential solution to mitigate the climate challenge at hand why is that so because if india is not part of a solution then it will undo what other countries are bringing to the table the hard work that they are doing towards mitigating uh issues surrounding climate change that will all be get undone because if uh india as as it progresses will start consuming a lot more things be it air conditioners automobiles etc etc and if we do not grow sustainably in all these our consumption habits then i think it will lead to an impact uh in terms of uh the climate issue with or just go out of hand right so this means that government will be at the uh under pressure from all these global counterparts in terms of how india behaves towards its consumption habits and government will surely pass it on to companies consumers and if your companies you are investing in are not geared towards growing sustainably then then there will be some risk some problems for those companies going ahead so overall uh we need to invest in companies which are good sustainable companies and if you look at trades of these companies which are good sustainable uh they have proactive stakeholder engagement there is no evidence of harmful relationships uh they are uh well aware of the social and environment trends that are unfolding and they kind of uh impart them into a risk management incentive processes overall so they are ahead of the curve ahead of the disruptive changes we might see from a regulatory perspective from a consumption perspective uh they are innovative they are efficient they have a good board management which is adaptable to all these changes and therefore it all speaks about the esg standards all speak about how good the quality of management of these companies are right so uh these strong esg companies or sustainable companies are less exposed to tail risk overall uh for example could be environmental accidents or need punishment from regulators so they are uh kind of incorporating all this into their business activities and uh in a nutshell if i have to define uh why it is important from an investment perspective is if you think of investing is all about incorporating the future right so esg risk and opportunities are an important component of that future evaluation and therefore cannot be ignored by us as investors so overall i think uh it`s been uh it`s been it has become very very important to look at sustainability as a criteria into our investments and i think that will reap rewards in the long run and as america said i think it has been very well uh although it was very very nascent and it still started in india it`s been a very very uh well received by the investors if you look at the growth of est funds although esg funds have done well but that`s that`s the only thing uh not driving investors it is uh because esg is giving them an opportunity to work with their wallets to what where their belief and value systems are and therefore we are seeing that grow and we will see that growth improve manifold going forward as well thanks china dia as the u.n environment goodwill ambassador you led the beat plastic pollution campaign in 2018 which eventually led to india proposing phase out of single use of plastics by 2022 which i think is phenomenal um what are the three things that you wish to achieve over the next uh say one or two years uh it will be phenomenal if we achieve this goal because the fact of the matter is that even when our prime minister made that commitment to the world that india would phase out single-use plastics by 2022 18 states in our country had banned single-use plastics but the ban had not been implemented on the ground barring two states none of the other states have been able to achieve this and i think that draws our attention to the problem really that the world is suffering at large and uh and the only way that we can really bring change and and this forms a very big part of what i would hope to be able to achieve within my lifetime is the understanding that uh we no longer as the human species have the privilege of being disconnected with our understanding of all that that knowledge of our interdependence with nature and the interdependence of the natural the health of the natural world with our health when we talk about pollution and single-use plastics is actually a very big contributor to pollution uh whether it is air pollution soil pollution or water pollution i just shared three disturbing uh facts uh recent scientific studies have revealed that there are plastic microns or plastic microbes that have been for found in the placenta of the uterus now if plastic has entered our bloodstream the human bloodstream it essentially tells us that plastic actually goes nowhere and while it may be a life-saving material in many cases for many things our medications are packaged in this material and you know like i said life saving there are it is the same tendency of the material which is to outlive us all and outlive many generations that should have made us accountable for the production and the scale of production and the management of this plastic where is all this waste going how are we dealing with this waste is a question that world leaders policy makers consumers and companies should have asked when we started using it at the extent and the accelerated quantum of plastic that was being used for packaging so there are two couple of things that i feel that we need to definitely implement with urgency not just as as a country not not just india but globally needs to it needs to happen one is the extended producers responsibility if you are a company that is packaging our food or beverage or any item of sustenance that i use in my everyday life and you`re using plastic to package it with you have to be held accountable for where that packaging is going to go are you introducing it into a circular economy what are you doing with that pace that is generated the second is civic bodies need to become more strengthened and waste management as a system and it is a profit making a department it`s something that can genuinely uh lead to a lot of income for many communities if it is streamlined and implemented effectively across the country so waste management is a very critical area of our focus that we need to concentrate on uh we so extended producers responsibility proper waste management systems that hold citizens equally accountable as we do industry and basically there is a partnership between the public and the obviously the government sector uh where we make this system accessible and possible uh there are incredible examples of individuals working in urban centers right now to make this a plausible dream that to make this a reality uh but we need a lot more momentum because as somebody who`s traveled from the source of the ganga all the way to sea slow travel through five states and i`ve seen plastic pervade into the most natural most pure places of our country where there is no human activity plastic has reached so it it started off with me wondering if there are no collection systems there are no management systems here how is where is all this plastic going to go it`s obviously going to land up in our rivers and our seas and then eventually in our food chain but so that`s a very important part the third area that i really hope uh it`s difficult to kind of say one thing but in context to the question that you asked the third aspect in seeing this as a as a reality would be to build or kind of really support green innovation you know i i want to as a woman give an example i know there probably not enough women in this forum i can`t really tell how much female representation we have here but a small item of personal hygiene that we use to protect our lives actually up until a few years ago i didn`t know it was made mostly of plastics and is incinerated which again causes further pollution levels is the sanitary napkin right now i know for a fact that there is a sustainable biodegradable completely healthy option of that available in the market today it`s not been mainstreamed yet but the the question i want to ask is how long before governments ask you know you the big companies that manufacture these products why they are not making the most sustainable choice why are they making people sick with their products why are they polluting our air and our water and our soil we cannot afford to turn our heads away from all of this anymore so this is only three small examples in connection to plastic there are many more things but i think at the core of what i`m saying is because this this this platform is is you know about money and profit and planet i just want to leave you all with a statistic a number that`s i think very critical and i really believe that it is counter-intuitive for governments for policy makers for industries and individuals to not consider this nature and its services are responsible for 44 trillion dollars of economic value generation which is basically half of the global gdp percent of the world`s poor are dependent on nature for livelihoods and quite frankly if we don`t have health we have nothing so that is not just a mahavra it`s not just a saying it`s a fact and so far the world i feel has developed or shaped economies from a place of double conscience you know i`m okay to kill a few as long as i`m feeding a few million i think that that moral conflict has to shift we have to change the way we think in the way we operate and we function thanks for sharing those numbers and your thoughts with us the social stock exchange is a pioneering and welcome move by sebi which will definitely offer or say more funding structures for indian social enterprises and ngos there are concerns however that the ssc will make it easier for larger ngos to raise capital and create an elite group say you know of ngos listed on the ssc what are your views on this i i don`t agree you know so that`s not the correct perception and let me let me try and explain that so first of all you know we need to see as per the recommendations of the of the two expert groups that say we had set up for you know setting up the social stock exchange which are the entities which will be eligible for listing on the social stock exchange so there are uh you know certain eligibility norms and let me give you some important ones only in the interest of time so the first one is that an entity who is engaged in uh you know social creating social impact who has a social intent that should be its primary goal and we have drawn a list of 15 eligible activities which are again you know going back to sdgs and also the need the io work uh so that is point number one you know you have to be an entity which is genuinely having an intent to create impact next let`s look at some quantitative numbers those who will be eligible to list especially the non-profits so there are two criterias one is you know you should have a minimum fund raise of rupees 10 lakhs and minimum annual spend of rupees 50 lakhs in the past financial year this may seem high if you see from smaller ngo perspective but let me add and that`s very important we also have lower thresholds of rupees 5 lakhs for fundraising a year and 25 lakhs for will spend in a year this is a category which will be called aspiring to this on social stock exchange now you may have the aspiration but you may not be familiar with this you know complex financial world in terms of how to list how to make use of the new platform so there we have a very good suggestion the capacity building fund one capacity building there`s a proposal to set up a capacity building fund the corpus size that has been indicated is 100 crores so that capacity building fund will assist these entities which are aspiring to list on the social stock exchange so i think it`s the interest of smaller entities has been very much kept in mind by developing our recommendations let me also add another important dimensions how do the stock markets for bulldozer they work on the principle of disclosure right so any entity so when you come even if you are non-profit if you are coming to a stock exchange for the purpose of fundraise so you have to have certain discipline you will have to be more transparent in terms of what you do you will have to be more accountable you know uh to the investors who are or other stakeholders who are invested in you so i think it offers a great opportunity to my mind uh to various uh it`s not a question of elite anonymity to anybody who`s interested in better governance better transparency better accountability to come and list here and create a niche for itself so it`s a unique opportunity we`ll see how where we land on this the project has just gone off the drawing board and you know we still have some way to go yeah in fact we set up helper ngo back in 2000 and our objective since then has been to increase uh transparency in the social sector uh just wanted to add a quick question yours you were mentioning that one of the eligibility criteria requirements is you know the average for the funds raised in the last financial year so uh we`ve submitted our comments uh you know to the technical groups uh report on the ssc and that was another suggestion that we`ve made that you could probably consider the average of state three financial years like in the case of csr to you know exclude exceptional items so maybe that`s something that say we could consider george we`ve received your comment i remember so we would look at that great um also in the sse report sebi has highlighted mutual fund funding structures for ngos like the hdfc cancer fund or help your ngo systematic giving plan and quantum smile facility could you also give us a flavor of uh the innovative structure that sebi is considering under the sse yeah i`m happy to do that so you know before i talk about the innovative financial structures or instruments uh let me share with you you know uh uh just uh some perspective on where does cb fit into all this i mean why is sebi getting into the social sector so to say so uh so see there are two two parts to to this one is the indian securities market the indian stock market as we all know is very well developed right uh it has we figured in the top ten markets of the world uh we compared with the best in the world in terms of you know the institutional infrastructure the products the practices uh the regulatory structure all that we compare very well so we have the point i`m trying to try to make is that we have uh expertise as sebi i`m saying we have a lot of expertise in this space on the other hand you`re moving to the need for you know funding the sdgs or funding the development goals and so on you can`t just leave it to the government spending and the conventional sources of finance you need to explore social capital philanthropic capital patient capital whatever you want to call it you know you need tons of it so the idea the thinking behind the social stock exchange initiative was that on the one hand you have a good securities market infrastructure on the other hand you have need for developmental funds can these two marry so you know can you can this infrastructure serve the cause of the social sector by facilitating fundraise through stock exchange mechanism so basically you know can we develop some new structures and mechanism within the securities market or can we improvise on our existing mechanisms and so on so these are the questions that we asked the expert group and the group came up with a variety of you know recommendations on number of instruments that can be deployed and just to give you a quick uh reference we have social impact bonds and development impact social impact funds i`m sorry development impact bonds zero coupon zero principal bonds and then we have this donations through mutual fund root i will not go into these details one can refer to the report and read all of this but let me pick one which i personally like a lot and that is the mutual fund structure so that`s a very simple structure so the the expert group has recommended you know mutual fund industry can actually utilize that and how does it work so uh we have two well-known examples let me illustrate again with examples one is the htfc although i should not name any particular fund but there are not many so i have to unconstrain stfc cancer cure fund where the investors can choose to donate the interest income you know arising from their investments either fully or partially you can just have to sign off and you know then the rest of it is taken here and the funds go to the indian cancer society second is the quantum so so uh quantum mutual fund smile facility where help your ngo is also involved and that again enables investors to redeem part of their units for donation to ngos which are registered and i believe some sort of oversight you have through your ngo on them so which again gives me as an investor some comfort that my money is going to the right place so i think i like the simple the simplicity of this structure is very easy to understand very convenient to operate when i`m investing in mutual funds i can i simply have to sign off on all of this so i think there`s a need for more such uh funds to come i just pause there absolutely absolutely i agree with you um i i would also like to highlight the difference in the two so one obviously with the systematic giving plan facility that we`ve started with quantum via the smile facility there is no locking period uh the principle is not repaid back to the investors the whole objective is to you know donate uh say 10 annually over a period of time to non-profits and also uh with quantum we`ve covered six different sectors pan india these are non-profits working pan india so it`s not i mean the funds are not focused to say one uh ngo or one cause it`s spread across different causes and on supporting non-profits working across several sdgs with this i would like to quickly give you a brief about our products that emerged touched upon let me just uh share my screen hold on so help your ngo launch two products uh the systematic giving plan and your red button with the aim of building a corpus for ngos and thereby helping them achieve the sdgs now let`s discuss why is it important to create a corpus university endowments and foundations in countries like the uk and the usa invest their corpus for long-term capital appreciation and typically the capital distributions from them fund thirty to fifty percent of their annual operating budgets here we`ve taken uh the example of howard university`s endowment now imagine if ngos could rely on a similar pool of capital we built our products uh to create a steady stream of fun flows for ngos thereby um you know enabling them to focus on their work and not waste resources on one reason so how can you help it`s simple answer this question are you a mutual fund investor if yes then sgp the systematic giving plan is for you and if no then your red button is the product for you now what is sgp sgp is a first of its kind initiative in the world which enables mutual fund investors to contribute 10 percent of their investments to wetted ngos so in simple terms uh like you currently have the growth and dividend units there will be sgp units and 10 percent of only the sgp corpus is donated annually there is complete flexibility and no lock-in period so in case the investor suddenly needs the funds parked under fgp one can simply switch back to the uh you know funds in under growth or dividend units in uh 2018 quantum was the first fund house kind enough to allow sgp to be the first pilot with them via the smile facility moving on to the lgp process there are three easy steps step one invest in the eligibles comes schemes of the mutual funds for example uh there are six schemes for the quantum investors uh step two on the payout date every year ten percent of the lgbt corpus is uh donated to the selected ngos and step three help your ngo offers end-to-end services so right from wetting the ngos and issuing donation receipts to sharing program reports we did some calculations and even if just one percent of the current aum in the equity funds is moved to sgp units and 10 percent of it is disbursed to ngos that would mean 1500 crore rupees being disbursed to vetted ngos every year to further the sdgs now that is the potential on cascading impact of sgp while we have partnered with quantum so far uh we are also encouraging other fund houses to adopt sgp and a push from sebby for this will definitely help uh now let`s understand what your red button is it is a one-click solution to create a corpus for ngos moving on to the audit button process just like sgp there are three simple steps you click on your red button and donate the funds are invested in semi-approved mutual funds every year around 10 of the corpus is disbursed to wetted ngos and helper ngo shares the donation receipts and program reports now apart from individuals even corporates may choose to adopt your red button by simply incorporating the your red button logo on their home page uh you know which will offer their users and clients an option to support credible ngos and further the sdgs but like i mentioned earlier it is a one-click solution now why is it important to support these products firstly they offer an opportunity to help achieve the sdgs both our product i mean both the products are simple plug-in launch mechanisms available for adoption to all fund houses and corporates um everything is customizable so right from the ngo grantees percentage contribution in fact even the payoff schedule and we have seamlessly completed three payouts cycles for both the products and know that the back-end mechanisms are working perfectly uh we are proud to share that sgp received the award for the best social impact initiative in 2018. uh thank you so much for patiently listening we`ve shared links to both our products uh in the chat box and a lot of questions have been pouring in for the panelists uh so let`s quickly move to the last segment of our webinar the q a session i hope uh it`s okay with all of the panelists if we just extend of the webinar by say 10 minutes so we can say take one or two questions for panelists great uh chirag the first question is for you how has the esg fund performed so far as compared to the other alternative investment funds managed by you so uh each fund kind of performs as per its own mandate invests and performs as per expanded but if you look at the esg fund for example we launched in july 2019 and it`s been a short track report of less than two years but if you were uh to dissect it because if you look at the last two years it there has been a market cycle of its own right because of covet market shelves fell sharply and then it recovered and rebounded uh much sharply after that so in this period the esg fund uh that we offer has done excellently well uh and in each of the period when it fell markets fell lower and when it rebounded in each of the period it kind of outperformed the traditional market cap indices it also outperformed the esg indexes overall so that really tells us that you know if our process of es you are vetting companies on sustainability is working well for us it`s a very short trek record investors should only come into this kind of funds with a very long-term horizon not looking at just a two-year track report that we have but have a five seven-year view let markets run through cycles and that is where the true benefit of sustainable investing can be reaped so it is not a short-term product uh though the short-term performance isn`t excellent but uh look have a long-term view when you`re coming in sustainable funds so overall uh we see that from a risk perspective the drawdowns of volatility has been better uh returns have been higher so overall on a risk adjusted performance basis the fund has done really well ah thanks for chirag dia have you been able to influence your friends and family to follow a sustainable lifestyle uh they are your own mute i hope so a small example would be when the world was open and we could visit restaurants my nephews before the server would bring the drink that they`d ordered they would say please make sure that you don`t give us plastic straws uh and and that would be like a moment of trauma i think um more and more young people and families across india are recognizing how important it is to uh go back to basics live in better harmony with nature understand that our consumption patterns have adverse effects on our health and the health of the environment and you know um i`m going to use this opportunity to make a request to amarjeet because i was listening in very keenly to everything he was saying um and i`ve often wondered why this hasn`t been done before but i think this is this is my opportunity so i`m going to quickly jump in and say it amajit i really want sebby to consider because we need to build a green recovery from this pandemic and it is it is definitely something that is going to define our present and our future in terms of health and prosperity to um make a certain percentage of csr mandatory for organizations and actions that secure and protect ecosystems forests and wildlife i think a very big part of our green recovery and because ecosystem restoration is the mandate of this decade and will define everything everything uh we must must must as a nation make this an example you know uh the the world leaders today i mean of course uh the secretary general has been appealing to uh um countries to kind of help uh developing nations monetarily with contributions but i feel like we in on our own are quite capable of a a green recovery so long as our policies and our government can implement that and enforce it in a way on uh industry please consider this i think we`d all be very very grateful if it became a reality i mean yes we could also tax carbon but that`s a separate conversation for another time but we should definitely consider making a certain fixed compass component percentage of csr mandatory for green recovery so thanks sir for that input let me first give the bureaucratic answer and my apologies for that so that piece is uh actually uh that is handled by the ministry of corporate affairs not by savvy maybe you can propose it to them yeah yeah definitely so but let me also mention you know in our new disclosure framework uh we have put a lot of emphasis on disclosures relating to climate change so you know air emissions greenhouse gas emissions waste management the whole range of disclosure in fact my colleagues were telling me there are about 500 data points now not just for car not just for climate but others also all taken together and these are all very quantitative measurable comparable sort of disclosure requirements so i think this will make a huge difference but we have to wait and see but i`ve taken your point but as i said my apologies this is not strictly within our domain but be the man to propose it grateful thank you in fact the next question is for you uh will any incentives be offered to investors to encourage them to use the ssc platform so you know as i mentioned there are two reports on the subject and the first report has dwelt extensively on uh on incentives in fact during the deliberations it was recognized that if it has to fly uh you have to have certain incentives for all stakeholders so which will be you know investors donors and even for the platform itself and all others who participate in this so there are uh certain uh you know proposals for capital gains tax related reliefs or securities transaction tax related reliefs also the on the csr you know the there is a recommendation that the the entities npos are the ngos which list on ssc they should be able to receive they should be eligible for csr funding similarly the companies which want to contribute to this capacity building fund of 100 crores which i mentioned earlier uh that should qualify as their you know as a part of their csr spend so there`s a range of uh you know incentives which have been proposed but again they`re not within sebi`s domain the different agencies who deal with it and they`ll have to take a call so it`s a lot of collaboration which is required you know on these matters absolutely in fact i think there was mention of uh trading of csr certificates also for over 10 csr funds that`s right absolutely yeah okay thanks uh chirag back to you what is the exit policy for the esg fund and have you exited any stock because it fails to meet uh some of the criteria after you`ve added it to your esd portfolio yes if you look at the esg landscape it`s all evolving right if you look at the mandate in terms of information given out by corporates is improving the practice is improving the accountability is improving so we are moving towards a better uh future for sure but uh in this uh there are a lot of things that come to light uh given the evolving uh scenario that we have because of forward or any other business challenges that they may face there are decisions taken by the companies and what decisions that they take make us evaluate us them further on what kind of practices that they have what kind of actions they have taken so all that new information we have to absorb evaluate and analyze those companies so yes there are companies that we have exited in last few years uh given that there are more emphasis on esg scores uh if the company is good on esg positive score on esg it becomes part of the portfolio we are true to label like american said esg funds have to be true who live we are very much true to label and esu does all the heavy lifting in terms of allocation to stocks and if the stocks that we evaluate we kind of do a six monthly update on a minimum on each stock and if there is some new information that has come to light and that`s not uh appropriate esg behavior and that esg sport falls we will exit out of those so we have kind of moved out of a few stocks over the last two years given their scores fell there for example i`ll give you not naming the company but there was a company which kind of stopped disclosing a lot of information they kind of stopped engaging with us engaging we think is a very essential thing uh because that is where we can nudge companies to become more better they cannot be complacent and stay where they are they have to improve and uh if the company doesn`t engage doesn`t give us more information or any information that they stop it becomes difficult for us to evaluate that company and that is why where we are forced to move out of those companies so uh i think uh yes there will be exits there will be as few information comes you will absorb analyze and and take our portfolio actions as may be necessary thanks chirag uh there is one question on sgp which i can take is there an option to choose the percentage and join particular scheme of mutual funds so like i was mentioning earlier so far under fgp we`ve only partnered with quantum mutual fund and for their investors there is a fixed percentage a ten percent contribution uh made to six different ngos of your choice annually um okay emerging uh there`s one question for you current semi norms don`t allow crowdfunding of financial lease transactions unless they are through an nbfc which increases cost of finance for a company can sebby quickly act on this and come up with a regulation so if i understand the question right um probably the uh being asked is why don`t we have crowdfunding right so there are you know um there are issues around that mainly pertaining to investor protection so this has been considered in the past and our conclusion was uh we we need to watch out this space and you know and perhaps you are not ready but i i mean i do take it as an input and uh we will see thanks thanks amarjeet um i know we haven`t been able to take all questions but i`m sorry we`re running short of time so we`ll have to end the q a now i`d like to take uh i`d like to make a special announcement uh that help your ngo will be donating one lakh rupees to the wildlife trust of india and uh with this i`d like to thank our speakers dia amarjeet and chirag ngo for sparing time to speak with us today and sharing valuable insights i thoroughly enjoyed this discussion and i`m sure all of the attendees did as well thank you all for signing up and attending this webinar uh special thanks to quantum for assisting us in hosting this and it`s been an absolute uh pleasure being with all of you today and thank you have a great evening thank thank you thank you really nice meeting everyone and thank you to everybody who joined thank you so much thank you