ImpactAlpha, Nov. 25 – More than 1,100 participants from 20 countries will descend on Mumbai this week for the Sankalp Forum. Now in its 11th year, the global forum from Intellecap, the advisory arm of the Aavishkaar Group, brings one of the world’s largest spotlights to entrepreneurs and enterprises serving lower income segments and emerging middle classes across Asia and Africa.

Mumbai, Dec. 2 – Shloka Nath of Tata Trusts, one of India’s oldest philanthropies, is trying to reframe the climate challenge.

ImpactAlpha, Dec. 9 – India’s social stock exchange is expected to take the form of an electronic fundraising platform regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India that lists both social enterprises and voluntary organizations. The exchange in India promises to diversify capital sources available to more than two million social enterprises across the country.

The Innovation Challenge seeks non pollutant alternatives and systems to cut down single-use plastic

Mumbai, November , 2019: Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail (ABFRL) has launched a first-of-its-kind open Innovation Challenge with Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) to spearhead a change in packaging and find innovative alternatives to plastics.

According to an estimate by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India generates almost 26,000 tonnes of plastic waste daily. Approximately 43% of manufactured plastic in the country is used for packaging purposes, most of which is single-use plastic waste, As the apparel and textile industry is struggling with plastics waste, the Innovation Challenge aims to find solutions to one of the industry’s biggest challenges.

“At ABFRL, we aim to use 100% sustainable packaging material by eliminating any type of pollutant. Going forward, we will be exploring innovative packaging solutions to reduce our carbon footprint. We are pleased to partner with CAIF for this initiative. We endeavor to lead industry practices around sustainability and platforms such as these enable us to bring forth ideas and innovations that accelerate the adoption of sustainable fashion” said Mr Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director, ABFRL at the launch.

He further added “We are hoping to find solutions to one of the industry’s biggest challenge of reducing usage of single use plastic packaging. We are confident that the Innovation Challenge initiative will help the industry to transition to circular business practices”.

Dr. Naresh Tyagi, Chief Sustainability Officer, ABFRL, “In 2013, ABFRL began a unique Sustainability Program called ‘ReEarth’ which addresses the most significant economic, environmental and social issues that humanity faces today and since then we have done pioneering work in sustainable and circular fashion. This initiative is another step forward in that journey. We are delighted to partner with CAIF and are certain that innovators and startups present here will be able to leverage this opportunity to come up with eco-friendly alternatives to plastic”.

Circular Apparel Innovation Factory is an industry-led initiative with Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail and The DOEN Foundation as anchor partners and driven by Intellecap with vision to make India’s textile and apparel industry circular through building the capabilities and ecosystem needed for this transition. Open innovation challenges are one way by which CAIF addresses the discovery gap and helps its industry members to identify opportunities for change and possible partners for collaboration to make circular business practices a reality.

Vikas Bali, CEO Intellecap, “We know that ‘business as usual’ will not help solving the size of the problem India and the world is witnessing with regard to plastic waste. We are proud to help ABFRL as an industry pioneer in its journey to finding ways to rethink current approaches to packaging”.

CAIF Conclave, a first of its kind industry conclave was hosted by Intellecap in partnership with ABFRL and The DOEN Foundation. The conclave focused on the need for change towards circular business practices and showcasing some of the industry’s most forward-thinking efforts towards a circular economy.

The conclave, which happened as part of this year’s Sankalp Forum saw participation of 300+ industry participants and some of the country’s most innovative circular fashion startups.

MUMBAI : Bain Capital is looking to deploy around $1 billion in Indian companies over the next three years, underscoring the private equity firm’s bullish stance on this market despite the current economic downturn.

The US-based PE investor, which raised its fourth Asia-focused fund, the biggest so far, at $4.65 billion, has been a major investor in the country.

“If you look at over the last seven years, we have invested over $2.5 billion and are one of the biggest investors in the country. There is no reason why we cannot keep investing in India at the same pace,” said Amit Chandra, managing director and chairman of Bain’s India office, on the sidelines of Sankalp Global Summit held in Mumbai.

Chandra said Bain’s focus on India will be on writing a few large cheques.

“Our investments in Axis Bank, Genpact and Hero MotoCorp were over $500 million. So, single deals will continue to be the strategy going forward, as we have always focused on big deals. Single deals for us have been in the $500 million to $1 billion range,” he added.

While Bain does not have hard geographic allocations for deploying capital, Chandra said India features amongst the top three markets for the PE firm.

“India is one of the most important markets for us among the key markets that we invest in- Japan, China, India, Australia and South Korea. Historically, India has been 20-25% of any fund. This is just the Asia fund, we also invest into India from our global fund,” he added.

ImpactAlpha, Nov. 25 – More than 1,100 participants from 20 countries will descend on Mumbai this week for the Sankalp Forum. Now in its 11th year, the global forum from Intellecap, the advisory arm of the Aavishkaar Group, brings one of the world’s largest spotlights to entrepreneurs and enterprises serving lower income segments and emerging middle classes across Asia and Africa.

Mumbai, Dec. 2 – Shloka Nath of Tata Trusts, one of India’s oldest philanthropies, is trying to reframe the climate challenge.

Amit Chandra from Bain Capital Speaks to CNBC at Sankalp Global Summit 2019

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail (ABFRL) has launched a first-of-its-kind open Innovation Challenge with Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) to spearhead a change in packaging and find innovative alternatives to plastics.

According to an estimate by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India generates almost 26,000 tonnes of plastic waste daily. Approximately 43% of manufactured plastic in the country is used for packaging purposes, most of which is a single-use plastic waste. As the apparel and textile industry is struggling with plastics waste, the Innovation Challenge aims to find solutions to one of the industry’s biggest challenges.

Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director of ABFRL, said, “At ABFRL, we aim to use 100% sustainable packaging material by eliminating any type of pollutant. Going forward, we will be exploring innovative packaging solutions to reduce our carbon footprint. We are pleased to partner with CAIF for this initiative. We endeavor to lead industry practices around sustainability and platforms such as these enable us to bring forth ideas and innovations that accelerate the adoption of sustainable fashion.”

“We are hoping to find solutions to one of the industry’s biggest challenge of reducing the usage of single-use plastic packaging. We are confident that the Innovation Challenge initiative will help the industry to transition to circular business practices,” he added.

Dr. Naresh Tyagi, Chief Sustainability Officer, ABFRL, stated, “In 2013, ABFRL began a unique Sustainability Program called ‘ReEarth’ which addresses the most significant economic, environmental and social issues that humanity faces today and since then we have done pioneering work in a sustainable and circular fashion. This initiative is another step forward in that journey. We are delighted to partner with CAIF and are certain that innovators and startups present here will be able to leverage this opportunity to come up with eco-friendly alternatives to plastic.”

Circular Apparel Innovation Factory

Circular Apparel Innovation Factory is an industry-led initiative with Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail and The DOEN Foundation as anchor partners and driven by Intellecap with a vision to make India’s textile and apparel industry circular through building the capabilities and ecosystem needed for this transition. Open innovation challenges are one way by which CAIF addresses the discovery gap and helps its industry members to identify opportunities for change and possible partners for collaboration to make circular business practices a reality.

Vikas Bali, CEO of Intellecap, said, “We know that ‘business as usual’ will not help solving the size of the problem India and the world is witnessing with regard to plastic waste. We are proud to help ABFRL as an industry pioneer in its journey to finding ways to rethink current approaches to packaging.”

CAIF Conclave

CAIF Conclave, a first of its kind industry conclave was hosted by Intellecap in partnership with ABFRL and The DOEN Foundation. The conclave focused on the need for change towards circular business practices and showcasing some of the industry’s most forward-thinking efforts towards a circular economy.

The conclave, which happened as part of this year’s Sankalp Forum saw the participation of 300+ industry participants and some of the country’s most innovative circular fashion startups.

“Never provide poor solutions to poor people,” says Chetana Gala Sinha, Founder of Mann Deshi Mahila Sahkari Bank and Foundation, focused on women micro-enterprises.

Sinha, who set up the cooperative bank in 1997 with a small amount raised from friends, has been a proponent of financial inclusion and one that treats all as equal. The bank now has a capital of Rs 150 crore and over one lakh rural women are banking with Mann Deshi.

Speaking on the sidelines of recently concluded Sankalp Summit on impact investing, Sinha said rural people have come out of poverty mindset and are embracing technology. “Mainstream banking sector needs to take more risks with women micro-entrepreneurs. Microcredit being given to rural women self-help groups need to be extended women run micro-enterprises.”

Women run micro-enterprises are already there, and they need scaling, which is difficult with the fragmented economy in India. She also spoke about creating an ecosystem to facilitate micro-enterprises by leveraging technology and improving ease of doing business in rural areas.

Here’s an excerpt from the conversation Sinha had with CNBC-TV18 about impact investing and the funding challenges for women micro-entrepreneurs running social enterprises.

Q: I was reading some data which said that while in the normal commercial enterprises only about 8 to 10 percent women are running it, but when it comes to social enterprises a lot more women are running social enterprises and when it comes to financing for that how far are we?

Chetna: So honestly, we have to walk 1000’s of miles for that, but one thing I’m a bit more hopeful about that things is now very different. When you talk about women-owned businesses, women-owned social enterprises and investing in that. Because of technology, you have real-time cash flows. A lot of informal economy is coming in digital. The question is that if it would be easier for them, that whole supply chain of digitalization should be done and people are coming forward. So, if you have that, on one side you have the credit rating, on the other side you have the digitalized working capital or you have those transactions. You can find out how much is the working capital required, so you have real-time data on the financial transactions of these people.

And then the third is with technology we can leverage the last mile.

Finance Minister talked about the social stock exchange. How will the social stock exchange operate, if the micro-enterprises don’t flourish? So micro-enterprises are ready, these women have already started the business, and they now need to scale. Scaling is difficult with the fragmented economy in India, the way we have villages, but now, the shared economy is coming together and e-platforms are coming up. Let me give you an example of GST or registration of businesses for micro-enterprises or getting food and drug licenses. I feel that ease of business is still a big challenge in this country and this is what the government has to make real.

Q: Ease of doing business ranking comes in every year. And we see that India is improving in a lot of parameters. You are saying that it’s actually not reflecting especially on the rural side or micro-enterprise side?

Chetna: India is like a mini Europe. So in some states, you will see that it’s doing very well. But in some states like North India how many women enterprises are there? Like in Bihar, UP, I know Ajeevika is doing great in Bihar but I think we should now graduate from that. So in that way, I think that ease of doing business index has improved but do you just want to surpass five more countries or want to surpass thirty-five countries like China? In villages, women have never been to school but they are doing digital transactions. So why do we think that we are happy being better than just five more countries? India is having the highest number of IT Engineers. I think we just have to be more ambitious.