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July 31, 2012
Acumen Fund: Going where other VCs won’t
This post gives a preview of Acumen Fund and its operations, as an investor, to the world. It talks about the founding principles of the fund, and includes a Q&A section with Jacqueline Novogratz. Read more here.
July 31, 2012
Intermediaries move slowly to promote sustainable investing
While 72 per cent of financial advisors in a recent survey expressed some interest in sustainable investment, only 21 per cent of respondents are currently engaged in actively promoting it to their client base. The ‘Gateways to Impact’ report quotes an insufficient track record as a barrier for advising for […]
July 31, 2012
Impact Investment 101 in Asia
This blog post gives an overview of the author’s experiences in the midst of impact investment centric activities in India and then in IIX (Impact Investment Exchange Asia) in Singapore. The blog talks about the active impact investment and social enterprises in India that are making a real difference, and […]
July 31, 2012
Ultimate Impact: Unifying an investment portfolio within a Donor-Advised Fund
Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) have grown in use over recent decades, serving as the core philanthropic vehicle for community and public foundations. This Issue Brief introduces the concept and structure of DAFs and explores their potential as impact investing vehicles, and examines the case for DAFs being especially suited to […]
July 31, 2012
Impact investment and the definining and quantifying difficulties
There still exists considerable ambiguity surrounding the ease definitions of impact investing, yet it is wrong to say that impact investing lacks integrity because of lack of definition. There are a lot of factors that lend vagueness to impact investing, the diversity of activity that impact investing encompasses, which gives […]
July 31, 2012
East Africa: Impact investors give Pearl US$25 million
Pearl Investors and its African Agricultural Capital Fund had to take all of two years of intense negotiations to secure funding for its East Africa focused agriculture investment. Now a group of impact investors (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gatsby Charitable Foundation, JP Morgan, and Rockefeller Foundation) have collectively helped it […]
July 31, 2012
What is the impact of impact investing
Impact investing is the concept of doing social good by investing in projects of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) themes. This puts them in a separate class from philanthropic nonprofits, yet not completely in the class of the traditional for-profits in terms of operations. Read more here.
July 31, 2012
Market for Social Impact Investing by Private Equity Funds Stands at US$4 Billion in the United States
This report by INSIGHT at Pacific Community Ventures values the total assets managed by U.S. private equity managers with the goal of achieving both financial returns and intentional social benefits at approximately $4 billion. Read it here.
July 31, 2012
India: Jairam for green toilets on train
For the lower and middle class Indian, trains are the preferred method of travelling. However the sanitation facilities on the trains are less than satisfactory – the waste is thrown out of running trains onto the tracks. Now the rural development minister Jairam Ramesh is campaigning for the improvement of toilet […]
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06 Key Lessons for informing policy decisions: Mainstreaming tribal-specific climate adaptive capacities in vulnerable coastal regions within National Action Plan on Climate Change
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Four Key Lessons for Policy Consideration: Scaling Climate Adaptive Capacities among Small and Marginal Farming Communities in the Sundarbans
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Five Key Lessons for Policy Consideration: Scaling Climate Action Programs for Landless Rural Communities in Semi-Arid Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin in South Asia
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View Blog Posts
GST 2.0 and Tax Cuts: Can They Make Growth Fairer and Greener?
India's latest GST reform, being termed as GST 2.0, is more than just slashing rates. By simplifying the tax structure, cutting levies on essentials, and supporting renewable infrastructure, it's open..
Reimagining Sports in CSR: From Tokenism to a Vehicle for Multiplying Impact
In 2023–24, Indian companies spent about ₹1,396 crore of their CSR budgets on sports — just 4% of the total ₹34,909 crore Indian corporates spent on CSR that year. Most of the rest went to edu..
Interactive SHG Map of India: 7.5 million Women Self Help Groups are spread across 27 States and 6 UTs in India
Under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), India has 7.5 million Women Self Help Groups (SHGs) spread across 27 states and 6 Union Territories. Each of these small, self-governed, and peer-co..