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Tag: #India

  • Muthoot Finance hikes CSR spend to Rs 174 crore for FY27

    Muthoot Finance hikes CSR spend to Rs 174 crore for FY27

    Muthoot Finance, India’s largest gold loan non-banking financial company, said on Monday it will boost its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spending to Rs 174.03 crore for fiscal year 2027, extending programmes in healthcare, education and housing to underserved communities nationwide.

    The Muthoot Finance CSR outlay follows FY26 spending of Rs 106.42 crore, which the company said reached approximately 3.37 million beneficiaries through initiatives spanning education, healthcare, livelihood support, community development and sports promotion.

    “At Muthoot Finance, we believe sustainable growth must go hand in hand with meaningful social impact,” Managing Director George Alexander Muthoot said in a statement.

    He said the FY26 results reflected the company’s commitment to underserved communities through healthcare, education, housing and social inclusion programmes.

    Education remained a central focus of the Muthoot Finance CSR strategy, with flagship programmes including the Muthoot M. George Excellence Awards, higher education scholarships and the Muthoot Shiksha Jyothi initiative supporting nearly 11,900 students, including first-generation learners, the company said.

    Muthoot Finance has also established several educational institutions, including Sanskara School in Kochi, the Muthoot Institute of Technology and Science, and the newly launched Kalaivani School in Tamil Nadu.

    On healthcare, the company said its Muthoot Snehasraya programme and related interventions benefited more than 100,000 people in FY26 through medical outreach, rehabilitation support and community healthcare services.

    The company’s housing initiative, Muthoot Aashiyana, has built more than 270 homes for vulnerable and disaster-affected families since its 2018 launch, providing shelter and stability to underserved households, Muthoot Finance said.

    Muthoot Finance also expanded its Soundscape Project, which provides digital hearing aids to children with hearing impairments, reaching 267 beneficiaries across Kerala, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

    Separately, the company’s prison rehabilitation programme, Radio Parvaaz, supports emotional wellbeing and informal learning among inmates, alongside initiatives for children of incarcerated parents.

    Other community programmes included Box of Hope for fisherwomen’s livelihoods, a maritime safety programme for coastal communities in Tamil Nadu, and Pedal for Progress, which distributes bicycles to tribal students.

    Deputy Managing Director George Muthoot George said the company aims to move beyond addressing immediate needs toward empowering communities for long-term self-reliance.

  • CSR Social Stock Exchange: India opens 10% investment window for firms

    CSR Social Stock Exchange: India opens 10% investment window for firms

    The corporate affairs ministry has opened a new funding channel for nonprofits, allowing companies to direct up to 10 per cent of their mandatory corporate social responsibility spending into zero coupon zero principal instruments listed on the Social Stock Exchange, in a move aimed at deepening transparency in social sector financing.

    The amendment, effective immediately, inserts the subscription to such instruments into Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013 — the schedule that governs permissible CSR activities for profit-making companies required to spend at least 2 per cent of their three-year average net profit annually on social causes.

    Under the revised CSR Policy Rules, 2014, definitions for both not-for-profit organisations and zero coupon zero principal instruments have been formally introduced for the first time, providing regulatory clarity to companies seeking to deploy funds through the Social Stock Exchange.

    Not-for-profit organisations will be able to issue these instruments through the Social Stock Exchange in accordance with regulations set by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the ministry said in a statement on Friday.

    Unlike conventional bonds, zero coupon zero principal instruments carry no interest payments and no repayment of principal, functioning instead as a regulated grant or social investment vehicle designed to fund public welfare projects.

    “It helps in furtherance of a transparent and credible mode of funding CSR projects by companies and enables social enterprises to access a wider pool of capital,” said Anshul Jain, Partner Regulatory at PwC India.

    The 10 per cent cap on CSR Social Stock Exchange investments per financial year is intended to balance innovation with fiscal discipline, ensuring core CSR commitments remain intact while creating fresh pathways for social capital mobilisation.

    The Social Stock Exchange, established under SEBI oversight, is designed to bring market discipline and disclosure standards to social sector funding — a segment historically dominated by opaque grant-making and bilateral philanthropy.