Mumbai/New Delhi, Sep 28 :Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in its board meeting today approved frameworks for Gold Exchange and Social Stock Exchange (SSE).

The Gold Exchange is expected to create a vibrant gold ecosystem in India commensurate with India’s large share of global gold consumption.

The Gold Exchange would be a national platform for buying and selling ‘Electronic Gold Receipt’ (EGRs) with underlying standardized gold in India and also create a national pricing structure for gold.

“The Gold Exchange is expected to offer a host of benefits for the value chain participants as well as for the entire gold market ecosystem, such as, efficient and transparent price discovery, investment liquidity, assurance in the quality of gold, etc,” a statement from Sebi said after the board meeting.

Sebi held its board meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday under the Chairmanship of Ajay Tyagi. The Part-Time Members joined the meeting through video conferencing.

The regulator said that the framework for the Social Stock Exchange (SSE) has been developed on the basis of the recommendations of a working group and a technical group constituted by Sebi.

Social enterprises eligible to participate in SSE shall be Non-Profit Organization (NPO) and For-Profit Social Enterprise (FPE) having social intent and impact as their primary goals.

“Social enterprises will have to engage in a social activity out of the list of 15 broad eligible social activities approved by the board,” SEBI said.

Eligible NPOs may raise funds through equity, Zero Coupon Zero Principal (ZCZP) bonds, Mutual Funds, Social Impact Funds, and Development Impact Bonds. NPOs desirous of raising funds on SSE shall be required to be registered with SSE.

Social Venture Funds under Sebi (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations will be rechristened as Social Impact Funds (SIFs). The corpus requirements for such funds shall be reduced from Rs 20 crore to Rs 5 crore.

Sebi shall engage with NABARD, SIDBI and stock exchanges towards institution of a capacity building fund with a corpus of Rs 100 crores.(UNI)