Women leaders have shown promise in improving business performance. A survey by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2019 – covering shopkeeping, sales or trade activities, manufacturing, construction, education, financial/insurance activities, and other economic services – observed that when enterprises have a gender-inclusive business culture and policies, they experienced 63 per cent increase in business productivity and profitability. Additionally, 60 per cent enhancement in the ability to attract and retain talent and a 59 per cent improvement in creativity, innovation and openness (ILO 2019).

Furthermore, globally, funders and investors are increasingly attracted to ethical and gender-inclusive funding, recognising its dual benefits to business and society. With a gender-smart approach, you can seize the opportunity to access the pool of funding by showcasing its tangible impact on gender-related outcomes, effectively aligning its initiatives with the evolving priorities of the investment landscape. Thus, by breaking down gender barriers, you can access diverse skills and expertise, strengthening your workforce and overall competitiveness.

The report summarizes key insights from the “Access to Green Finance – Sustainability Stars” event, which brought together investors, corporates, Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs), and Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) to explore catalytic finance solutions in India’s green economy, particularly in waste management and circularity.

If there is one sector in India that has witnessed visible, drastic change in the 21st century, it has to be that of sports. Consider this- at the turn of the century, India was considered as a one-sport nation, namely, a cricketing nation. Even in cricket, India was for most part, an “alsoran”. If you were to read any media coverage of India’s sports sector in the 90s and the early 2000s, you would notice an oft-repeated lament that Cricket in India grabbed all the eyeballs and investments, and all other sports were in a state of poverty. While much of the lament was true then, the narrative has been changing slowly, yet progressively over the last 25 years. 

This White Paper explores how such multi-stakeholder collaboration, matching and funding can happen. In answering the “how”, we have discussed various blended finance approaches case studies derived from their deployment in other social sectors, which could be adapted and deployed for raising funding within the sporting ecosystem, be it for building sporting infrastructure or for developing community sport or for achieving Olympic/Paralympic glory. Within the Indian context, the advent of the Social Stock Exchange provides for yet another exciting social financing mechanism to be explored in the days ahead. We also provide two recent example of Social Stock Exchange listings for readers to assess this platform’s potential.