A discussion held at British Council focussed on how to encourage social enterprises in India and how the government can help in their expansion
To encourage the social enterprises in India, a discussion was held at British Council. In their discussion, they focused on how Indian government can play an important role in encouraging the sectors growth. The objective of the event was to share knowledge and networks for the development of a social enterprise friendly policy framework in India and to learn the contexts of economic, cultural and political that has supported the development of the social enterprise sector in UK and India. India has seen a rapid expansion of social enterprise activity over the last decade. The ecosystem in India is relatively well developed with social enterprises active across all major sectors of the economy.
In the discussion, it was said that there are many schemes under the various ministries of the government which have direct or indirect implications for social enterprises but, there are no formal reference to social enterprise in policy or programming at the national or state level.
British Council recently held a research on social enterprise policy framework in India where it was revealed that Government could help by making several policies and strategy documents and dialogue as well as practical activities and programmes at state and local level. Adapting present policies to the need of social enterprise can have a significant impact on the success and scale of social enterprises in India. In the discussion, the work process to support social enterprises was also discussed where it was told that UK, to encourage and support the development has a strong regulatory mechanism, spending and investment interventions, tax reliefs and national funding support.
The discussions focused on achieving specific recommendations in supporting policies at national level in four theme areas which were-
(a) There should be clarity and consensus on understanding of social enterprise in term of definitions and conception. There is a need for a legal status and a specific definition to define social enterprise in India.
(b) Government’s role and responsibility in developing social enterprise ecosystem in the country.
(c)Role of different institutions especially financial institutions and incubators in building policy environment. There are high number of non- performing social enterprises, chiefly because of the lack of adequate support at the incubation and pilot stage.
(d) Challenges for Government to promote social enterprises.
Social enterprises are affected by organisation registration, finance and investment, tax incentive and subsidies. There has also been significant growth in availability of social investment due to increasing awareness of its potential value and programmes which blend grants with investments to make them accessible and affordable.
Jyotsna Sitling, joint secretary, MSDE and DG, NIESBUD, and HK Mittal, adviser, member secretary, National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board from India and Peter Holbrook, CEO, Social Enterprise UK and Keron Boyle, head of social finance, UK Government Cabinet Office from UK joined the dialogue.