Asha Impact

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

Asha Impact has presented on important issues pertaining to urban development including affordable housing construction, city planning norms, solid waste management and access to basic civic amenities at strategic policy conferences. Our work with policy makers has beneﬁted largely from insights developed through engagement with our portfolio companies, and through interactions with a constellation of stakeholders including industry experts, builders, NGOs and others agencies. Asha Impact, engaged with Hardeep Puri, Minister of State, Housing and Urban Affairs and Durga Shankar Mishra Secretary, MoUD on issues related on development of Smart Cities.

National Housing Bank

The Trust has engaged extensively with the National Housing Bank to address issues related to consumer and developer ﬁnance. We have provided policy inputs on Credit Linked Subsidy scheme, a key pillar of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, on easing credit in the sector through relaxing lending norms for Housing Finance Companies and on providing access to External Commercial Borrowing for developers.

Niti Aaayog

Asha Impact has leveraged its relationship with private sector developers and Housing Finance Companies to help Niti Aayog identify sectoral challenges such as unavailability of land, delays in approvals and underdeveloped access to finance for small-mid private developers as the key bottlenecks to the growth of affordable housing in India. We have explored in depth the economics of Public Private Partnership models and have made recommendations to address some of the challenges. Asha Impact participated in the Champions of Change conference hosted by Niti Aayog to provide inputs on affordable housing.

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

Asha Impact, in partnership with Okapi Research Advisory, Rockefeller Foundation, and Shakti Sustainability Energy Foundation, commissioned a two-year long study to build a feasible policy and implementation roadmap for the mini-grids sector in India. The report, ‘Beyond Off Grid’ provides a framework that enables the national grid and mini-grid operators to work together towards an integrated electricity system. The report highlights the commercial, technical and regulatory implications of five models for interconnection. These models are designed to cater to the energy requirements of areas that are either unlikely to ever get the grid or expected to get grid connectivity in the near future or are already getting power from the national grid and ESCOs. Going forward, Asha Impact will continue engagement with sector experts and government bodies such as NITI Aayog on enabling rural electrification in the country.

Impact Investors Council

Kartik Desai serves on the Executive Council of the Impact Investors Council, an industry association comprising of 30+ India focused impact funds, representing over USD 1 billion of capital. As an industry body, IIC aims to attract new sources of capital and garner government support for the sector. In collaboration with IIC, Asha has hosted Sir Ronald Cohen, Chairman of the Global Social Impact Investment Steering Group and led the North India leg of the immersion tour for Prabhav, an LP-GP Convention hosted. The convention brought about greater mutual understanding on issues such as risk-return tradeoffs and social impact measurement. As the head of the research committee, Asha has been driving industry defining studies with top consultancies and research institutes such as McKinsey, Duke University and Brookings on the key growth trends and potential of the Indian impact sector, common impact measurement framework contextualised for India and mobilising greater government support for the industry.

Ministry of Rural Development

Despite the government's progress to electrify villages, household electrification remains abysmal. Based on policy and business learnings through engagement with DRE enterprises, Asha Impact along with sector experts including Bibek Debroy and Vivek Dehejia, has provided inputs to senior policy makers, and Amarjeet Sinha, Secretary MoRD on the bottlenecks associated with the provision of electricity and the role of the private sector in delivering power to consumers in rural India. We are currently writing a chapter in India Rural Development Review, with Dr. Jessica Seddon, to document India’s journey in electrification till date and to provide suggestions for meaningfully engaging the private sector to realise the government’s promise of 24x7 Power for All.

Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency

The advent of state level policies and regulations for mini-grids from the Uttar Pradesh government has paved the way for other states to take positive steps towards supporting mini-grids. Asha Impact has interacted with regulators at the central and state levels on the roadmap to successfully scale mini-grids and simplify the process to set-up interconnection models. We were invited to the monumental launch event of the Uttar Pradesh mini-grid policy by UPNEDA and UPERC which set the foundation for state level efforts to encourage mini-grids in India.

Sankalp Forum

The Global Sankalp Summit is a leading social impact industry platform bringing together policymakers, business leaders, social entrepreneurs and civil society to promote collaboration in the impact investment sector. Asha Impact has been a knowledge partner and an active member of the Global Sankalp Summit. The forum facilitates networking and thought-provoking plenaries to create awareness about the emerging trends in the industry, drive a domestic capital for enterprises and facilitate collaboration amongst government officials, social entrepreneurs, and business leaders.

The Real Deal

Asha Impact participated in the world’s first impact investing television programme on social entrepreneurship, ‘The Real Deal’ aired by NDTV in 2016. It brought together India’s best for-profit social entrepreneurs in a competition that was judged by a panel of impact investors including Jayesh Parekh (Managing Partner Jungle Ventures), Audrey Selian (Director, Artha Initiative), Kartik Desai (Executive Director, Asha Impact), Amar Singh (Founder, Clove Dental) and Radha Kapoor (Founder, Indian School of Design and Innovation). Asha Impact along with other co-investors invested in one of the finalists, Saahas Zero Waste, following the company’s stellar performance.

Village Capital

Village Capital is a US based impact fund and accelerator that has developed a unique system to support a high volume of quality early-stage enterprises in sectors such as financial inclusion, energy access, and education. Asha Impact was the investment partner for the 2015 FinTech program and an active partner of Village Capital across its acceleration programs in education and energy. Additionally, as a funding partner, Asha Impact worked closely with the Vilcap Program Team to analyze business models, curate workshops, recommend mentors and invest in the winners.

India Education Outcome Fund

Asha Impact is working on a taskforce set up by the Global Steering Group to launch a $1 billion Outcome Fund which would support development impact bonds in the education sector. An Outcome Fund of this scale would be the first of its kind in the world to mobilise risk capital and philanthropic funding to improve the learning outcomes of over 2 million students in government & affordable private schools across the country. Asha Circle members Ashish Dhawan and Vikram Gandhi are also members of the Social Finance India board.

Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs

ANDE is a global network of more than 260 organizations across 150 countries to propel entrepreneurship in emerging markets. As a member of the India Steering committee, Asha Impact seeks to further the agenda of unlocking new financial instruments, particularly in debt, which is still hard to access for Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs). These instruments, including Masala Bonds and Social Impact Bonds, provide critical capital to scale innovative social businesses. The India chapter regularly hosts convenings, webinars and networking sessions to foster corporate partnerships to strengthen SGB and discuss insights from ANDE’s flagship programme, Global Accelerator Learning Initiative.

SOCAP

Asha Impact is dedicated to building the capacity of entrepreneurs through supporting incubation of promising early stage start-ups and popularizing social entrepreneurship through various media avenues. Through numerous national and global conferences, discussion forums, the team has closely mentored social entrepreneurs on how to build scalable and sustainable business models, raise capital from investors and strengthen operations on the ground. The Asha Team was amongst the selected delegates invited to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017 jointly hosted by the US and Indian governments. Kartik Desai, has also represented the IIC at SOCAP 2017 to discuss trends and share learnings from the Indian impact investment sector

Advocacy At Asha Impact

Policy Advocacy in Specific Social Sectors

The Trust conducts advocacy focused on identifying and addressing policy bottlenecks of scaling inclusive business models in specific sectors. MORE

Research & representations based on learnings from the investments and engagement with sector experts and practitioners
Sectoral focus of the advocacy activities includes Affordable Housing, Energy Access and Waste Management

Developing the Impact Investment Industry

The Trust engages in targeted activities to support a robust impact investment industry and to build social entrepreneurship in India. MORE

Supply side interventions cover advocacy initiatives to unlock new sources of capital and promote blended finance instruments in India.
Demand side interventions include capacity building of entrepreneurs through incubation and mentoriship.

TRUST ACTIVITIES

National Housing Bank

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Niti Aaayog

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Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

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Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

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Ministry of Rural Development

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Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency

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Impact Investors Council

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India Education Outcome Fund

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Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs

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Village Capital

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SOCAP

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Sankalp Forum

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The Real Deal

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Our Supporters

Chandra Foundation