19-Feb-2019: World Bank Signs Agreement to Launch New Social Impact Bond

The World Bank, UN Women and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), along with some ten leading wealth managers and corporates, came together to launch a new social impact bond – women’s livelihood bonds - that will help rural women in some of India’s poorest states to set up or scale-up their own enterprises. This will be the first time that a social impact bond will connect investors with rural women entrepreneurs.

Till date, India’s National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) - the country’s largest initiative to improve the livelihoods of the rural poor, supported by the World Bank - has brought 50 million rural women into collectives and Self-Help Groups (SHG). Over the last 5 years these rural women’s collectives have leveraged $30 billion in financing from commercial banks.

But while women’s collectives could borrow from banks and microfinance institutions, individual women entrepreneurs faced many challenges when seeking to finance their own enterprises. Loans of Rs. 0.5 - 5 lakh is often viewed as being too small and too risky and charged interest of 20 to 24 percent.

The new women’s livelihood bonds (WLB) will now enable individual women entrepreneurs in sectors such as agriculture, food processing, services, and manufacturing to borrow around Rs.1 lakh to Rs. 1.5 lakh at 13 percent or less per annum - almost half the current cost.

Women in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and the North Eastern states, among others, are expected to receive most of the credit.

Support for individual women’s enterprises will help create millions of jobs. For instance, an investment of Rs.1 crore could potentially support 100 women entrepreneurs, in turn providing jobs to another 300 to 400 people.

The new bonds will not only enable SHG women to graduate from “group borrowing” to “individual borrowing” but will also allow them to shift from development assistance towards more market-financed programs.

The bonds will be raised by SIDBI with the support of the World Bank and the UN Women. SIDBI will act as the Financial Intermediary and channel funds to women’s entrepreneurs through Participating Financial Intermediaries.

The WLB will be unsecured, unlisted bonds with a fixed coupon rate of 3 percent per annum and a five-year tenure.  They will be backed by a corpus fund to be mobilised through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contributions and through grant support from UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). The Corpus Fund will monitor and track the program.  The Corpus guarantee cover will enable women entrepreneurs to access credit at much lower rates of interest.

Some of the biggest wealth management agencies like Centrum, ASK, Ambit, Aditya Birla capital among others have reached out to high net worth individuals and impact investors to raise funding. Companies like TATA Communications, Chemicals, Trent and Voltas have also expressed interest in investing.

It is expected that nearly Rs. 300 crores will be raised through multiple tranches in the coming months.

18-Feb-2019: Three important initiatives on women’s safety conceptualized by the WCD Ministry

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has conceptualized several initiatives to promote safety of women in their living spaces, working spaces and the public spaces. Three of these important initiatives will be launched jointly by the Home Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh and WCD Minister, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi in New Delhi.

Panic Button: The idea of having a panic button on the mobile phone was conceived way back in 2015 and after a series of deliberations with the Ministry of Telecom, mobile phone manufacturers and mobile telephony service providers, the  Ministry of Telecom mandated a physical panic button on all mobile phones in the country. It was also noted that such a panic button must be backed by an emergency response mechanism through the local police when panic button message would alert the specified family members etc. of a woman in distress situation. This system was then conceptualized in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs and state governments were asked to put in place a dedicated Emergency Response Centre through which the entire system will be operated. The emergency response system can be triggered in the following manners:-

• On the smart phones, the power button (which is dedicated panic button) when pressed three times quickly.
• Dialing 112 from any phone.
• In case of feature phones, long press of the touch key 5 or 9.
• Using 112 India Mobile App which is available for free downloading.

The emergency message coming out of the above modes, will trigger a response from the emergency response centre through a team of trained personnel who can handle emergency requests of various kinds and get the necessary relief services launched. For Women and children, 112 India App provides a special SHOUT feature which alerts registered volunteers in the vicinity of victim for immediate assistance.

The emergency response system was soft launched in Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland recently and is being launched in 14 more states on 19.02.2019. A total amount of Rs.321.69 crores has been provided for this initiative through the Nirbhaya fund.

SCIM portal under Safe City Project: In order to provide safety for women in public spaces, the Government has identified eight cities for implementation of Safe City project. The 8 major cities which have been chosen are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai. Detailed projects for this have been prepared jointly by the municipal bodies and the local police authorities. The projects include creation on ground assets & resources and mindset safety of women. Some of the key  features of the safe city project include:

• Identification of sensitive hot spots in each city,
• Installation of CCTV surveillance covering the entire hot spot.
• Automated number plate reading machines to be deployed in extremely sensitive areas.
• Intensive patrolling in vulnerable areas beyond the identified hot spots.
• Improving street lighting and public toilet facilities for women.
• Others like setting up women help desks in police stations, augmentation of women support centres etc.

All the above measures would be coordinated through an Integrated Smart Control Room in the city. In order to facilitate States to monitor and manage the Safe City projects and avoid duplication on ground, an online Safe City Implementation Monitoring (SCIM) portal has been developed by MHA. SCIM will facilitate online tracking of deployment of assets and infrastructure created under the Safe City projects. SCIM facilitates an evidence based online monitoring system. SCIM also creates a digital repository of assets, infrastructure and social outreach programs, as well as best practices achieved in each City.

DNA Analysis Facilities in States: In view of the complaints of delay in cases of sexual assault investigations, it was proposed that dedicated DNA analysis facilities should be created in the forensic science laboratories on a mission mode. Timely testing of DNA samples from the crime scene is the quickest process of obtaining forensic evidence in cases of sexual assault on women. In the initial phase, dedicated DNA analysis facilities have been sanctioned for the forensic science laboratories located at Chennai, Madurai, Agra, Lucknow, Mumbai and Kolkata. The equipments to be provided under this initiative include refrigerated facility for samples, automated DNA extractor & sequencer, centrifuges, genetic analyzers etc. A sum of Rs.78.86 crores has been sanctioned for this initiative through the  Nirbhaya fund. Expert technicians are also being recruited and trained for the forensic analysis.

The One Stop Centre Scheme, funded through the Nirbhaya Fund, is being implemented by the WCD Ministry and 314 centres have started working across the country. These centres have helped 2.2 lakh women so far. Similarly Women Helpline has been made operational in 31 states/ UTs and assistance has been provided to over 25 lakh women. The Minister has stated that besides the initiatives referred above, fast track special courts for cases of sexual assaults are also being established in collaboration with Ministry of Law for which Rs.767 crores has been sanctioned through the Nirbhaya Fund. Projects for Central Victim Compensation Fund for Rs.200 crores and Cyber Crime Prevention Against Women and Children for Rs.224 crores have also been appraised and approved under above and in the Nirbhaya Fund.

5-Feb-2019: Safe City Project

Empowered Committee of Officers for Nirbhaya funds scheme has approved pilot Safe City projects in eight selected metropolitan cities, namely, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Lucknow with a view to provide safety to women in public places at a total cost of Rs. 2919.55 crore. Out of these, funds have been released to States for five projects.

The cost of the projects is shared between the Central Government and the concerned States in 60:40 ratio. The Safe City Project in Delhi is fully funded by the Central Government.

The criteria for selection of next batch of cities for the project have not been decided.