Impact Linked Debt
India faces a significant gap in the availability of specialized medical technicians (~23 L by 2022) due to a dearth of financing options for high-quality, high-cost training in allied healthcare. Poor credit history, informal source of employment of the co-borrower, and limited access to professional networks and mentors restrict the access of training and associated employment to first-generation graduates. Impact Investors through the use of blended finance can provide loans at affordable rates to low-income students to access training whereas philanthropic Funders can effectively leverage their capital to de-risk the transaction through guarantee structures. Creating a market-led and scalable approach to healthcare skilling by creating the right financial incentives for all stakeholders can significantly impact the shortage of skilled allied healthcare professionals.


India Education Outcomes Fund
The India Education Outcomes Fund (IEOF), announced in October 2018 is a pooled-structure of an outcomes fund to commission impact bonds at scale with a focus on Education. Leveraging our thought-leadership in Blended Finance, Asha Impact Trust provided advisory support for the set-up of Social Finance India, part of the Social Finance Global Network, established with the support of the GSG Group to help operationalize the $1Bn pooled structure. Read more on our engagement with IEOF.
Bridging the digital divide in Education
Covid-19 has disproportionately impacted school education putting restrictions on the traditionally practiced classroom-based teaching and learning in schools and compelling these institutes to shift to remote-based or digital learning platforms for both teaching and student assessments. As per NSSO's 2017-18 survey, only 4.4 % rural households have a computer, against 14.4 per cent in urban areas, with just 14.9 percent rural households having access to the internet against 42 per cent households in urban areas. We aim to support interventions that aim to bridge the digital divide through blended learning solutions that are linked to learning outcomes.
