Category Archives: Collective Giving

Farzan Ustad in Richmond students launch program to help peers with disabilities

Three Richmond high school grads have developed a student program to educate and raise awareness about disability-related issues in the younger generation.

Inspired 2 Uplift (I2U), founded by MacNeill grads Farzan Ustad, Ali Azhar and Aidan Gibbons, focuses on tackling the stigma around disability and creating a more inclusive environment for students.

“We felt there’s always been a lack of communication between students with disabilities and students from the regular school. Just how we interact with each other and all those societal norms and stigmas,” said Gibbons.

“We felt it was always unfair to always put the stereotype on a community that has never really talked to or able to experience or be able to communicate and interact with.”

In April 2022, the trio, then in Grade 11, initiated I2U as Mission Unstoppable, initially focused on raising awareness for people with disabilities. They later pivoted towards offering concrete support to students in their school’s life skills department.

“We wanted to not only advocate and talk about these stigmas but to also show physically what we will do to erase them,” explained Gibbons.

The buddy program, offered in partnership with the life skills department, allows students from the regular school program to mentor and build connections with those in the life skills program who have intellectual or developmental disabilities.

Through the program, students work one-on-one to offer mentorship and support through different indoor and outdoor activities every week.

“The administration loved the idea because it’s something that has never been done before, at least in the Richmond School District,” said the trio, adding that making an impact on MacNeill’s students spurred them to work harder to raise awareness about the experiences of people with disabilities.

“I think the main disconnect has always been that… it’s always hard to connect with people that you don’t see every day. It’s normal human behaviour and we want to bridge that gap,” added Gibbons.

“It really comes down to giving us the ability to familiarize ourselves with the life school students and make them feel accepted not just in the life skills wing, but in the MacNeill community.”

Another co-founder, Ustad, said they are looking to expand the program to help other students globally.

“We want to eventually become a non-profit and an organization that supports students globally,” he said.

“We don’t know when we’ll get there, but we know that it is our goal to impact countless lives and not just in Richmond.”

I2U has since raised $300 for the Disabilities Rights Fund to empower people with disabilities in developing countries. The program has also donated more than $500 worth of school supplies to students at MacNeill secondary and Mitchell elementary schools.

Ervad Zarrir F. Bhandara is a true hero!

 He has donated his platelets and plasma over 538 times, saving over 1,614 lives. His selfless act of compassion has helped countless people in need.

Ervad Bhandara is not only a lifesaver, but he is also an inspiration to us all. His dedication to helping others is truly remarkable. He is a role model for us all, and we should all strive to be more like him.

In his own words, “It is my passion to save lives, be it animals or humans which I do with compassion.” This statement perfectly encapsulates Mr. Bhandara’s character. He is a person who is driven by a deep desire to help others. He is not motivated by fame or recognition but by the simple act of making a difference in the world.

Ervad Bhandara’s story is a reminder that we all have the power to make a difference. We may not be able to donate platelets and plasma as often as he does, but we can all do something to help others. We can volunteer our time, donate to charity, or simply be kind to those around us.

Let us all follow Ervad Bhandara’s example and make the world a better place.

Caption: R to L Dr. Freddy Alamshaw, Dr. Jasmine Mistry, Zarrir Bhandara, PT Shazeen Siganporia, Dr. Raj Prasad, & (to be) Dr. Anjali Alamshaw

Rati and Riah Forbes: Creating deep-rooted impact for vulnerable communities

Forbes Marshall’s Rati and Riah Forbes are working to improve the lives of underserved communities, and learning how to be more strategic with their personal giving

Rati and Riah Forbes: Creating deep-rooted impact for vulnerable communitiesLeft-Rati Forbes, director, Forbes Marshall; head, Forbes Foundation with Riah Forbes, digital initatives, Forbes Marshall. Image: Neha Mithbawker for Forbes India

Rati Forbes had a privileged childhood. Her father was an eminent businessman and her mother a paediatrician. At the age of 13, she started volunteering regularly at one of the Trusts where her mother was involved. That marked the beginning of her giving journey. “Even though both my parents were extremely busy, my mother had set aside some time for this clinic once a week, and so did my father,” she says. Having such role models, as well as being part of the Zoroastrian religion, where the norm is to give whatever one can, shaped her thinking from early childhood.
 

Rati has been a director at the Pune-based Forbes Marshall group of companies—a provider of energy conservation and automation solutions for the process industry — since 1992. Till 2011, she was involved in overseeing the human resources function after which she stopped being operationally involved with the company; apart from the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and the Foundation arm. Rati heads the Forbes Foundation and has initiated several programmes for underprivileged women and children from neighbouring communities across health, education, and women’s empowerment.
 

“At Forbes Marshall, the social initiatives work has gone on since the late 60s, when CSR was not the buzzword it is today,” says Rati. Her father-in-law, Darius Forbes—the founder of Forbes Marshall—always had a social worker in the company since the late 60s.
 

One day, while driving home from work, he witnessed an accident and carried the victim to the hospital. That was when he realised that in the factory area in Kasarwadi, Pune, there were no hospitals till about 10 to 15 miles away. Soon after, he set up a small OPD and a two-bed hospital on the factory premises. Today, the hospital accomodates 28 beds and provides free medical assistance to members of the local community.
 

Carrying the founder’s legacy forward, the Forbes Foundation was set up in 2012 to invest in organisations and social innovation projects in Maharashtra and outside its immediate geographies with a focus on tackling issues in education, building resilience in communities, and supporting good governance.
 

To address the high incidence of adolescent girls dropping out of school in and around the factory premises in Khed taluka near Pune, the Forbes Foundation partnered with Yojak, a local NGO. Early findings revealed that because of the area’s proximity to both Pune and Mumbai, most mothers are employed as staff or domestic help in those areas. 

Even the fathers are working in other locations. These girls are either left with their grandparents or with old aunts and are not sent to school purely out of safety concerns as the girls have to walk 5 to 6 km to reach school. To tackle this problem, the team focusses on the most vulnerable girls through an internally-designed vulnerability index. Their coordinators remain in touch with families of these girls for all their emotional and other needs, which they say makes a difference in the overall wellbeing of the home, thus ensuring the girls stay in school. A scholarship has also been offered to these girls. What started with five  schools and 47 girls has grown to include 15 schools with 700 girls. Four other local companies have collaborated on this initiative. Playing the role of an anchor partner, “our aspiration is that, in the next five to seven years, 80- 85 percent of girls in that area should have finished school,” says Rati.
 

Over the last few years, the CSR team at Forbes Marshall has implemented The Shared Value initiative to help young engineers, who are socially or economically backward, to enhance their skills and enable them to find jobs and have a sustainable career. 

“We looked at the opportunities and challenges in our own business. We then zeroed down on the annual maintenance contracts (AMCs) that we offer our customers. A shortage of resources was a hindrance in timely execution of the contracts. We also found that as customer sites were at a distance and in remote locations, travel costs were large,” says Rati.
 

The first batch was started in November 2018, in collaboration with an NGO in Vadodara, which helped them recruit local candidates. In the first year, Forbes Marshall’s own business increased by 30 percent; with an added increase of 115 percent in 2020-21. The candidates have supported Forbes Marshall’s own service engineers, by swiftly visiting sites to attend to commissioning or product failure jobs, thus meeting the needs of the customer.
 

As of now, about half the candidates selected from the four completed batches have been directly engaged with Forbes Marshall. All the rest are employed too. “We are now looking at expanding the programme to other geographies in India,” says Rati.
 

Following in the footsteps of Rati is her daughter Riah. She started volunteering since she was 12. Every year, on her birthday, she could choose the kind of party she wanted and then also the kind of community service she was going to offer. “So, one year, we gave food at a local food bank and on another occasion, we read at a blind school. It was a nice way of getting me equally engaged in both,” she says.
 

With an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a master’s in public administration and international development from the Harvard Kennedy School, Riah works on digital initiatives, communication, and strategy for Forbes Marshall.
 

Her work experience at Google, Endless Computers (a social enterprise building low-cost technology for emerging markets), and Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm, has allowed Riah to bridge technology with social impact. Riah spends 80 percent of her time on the family’s core business. The remaining 20 she spends on the company’s social initiatives.
 

Rati and Riah Forbes: Creating deep-rooted impact for vulnerable communitiesCurrently, the mother-daughter duo is working with Dasra, a strategic philanthropy foundation, on a project examining the community work they have been doing and rethinking how to articulate their overall theory of change to measure the impact of what they’ve been doing so far. Rati says, “Initially, my personal philanthropy was disparate and instinctive, but I quickly realised that was not a sustainable approach.”
 

Deval Sanghavi, co-founder of Dasra, says, “Rati and Riah are funders who believe in going deep and leading with inclusion in their philanthropy. They strive to focus on the most marginalised and underserved communities and are also willing to support innovation by non-profits. This can serve as an inspiration for other funders, looking beyond conventional funding standards like scale.”
 

Talking of innovation, Rati says, “We identify and support innovative pilots within organisations that lack funding and help to spread education to children who would not be able to access quality inputs. In 2020, the Forbes Foundation provided funding to a Teach for India’s vertical called TFIx that supports entrepreneurs who are working with migrant communities in remote areas of the country.”
 

It also supports one or two entrepreneurs in each cohort to understand on-ground impact. For instance, they support Learning Companions founded by a TFIx entrepreneur, which works with the Bharwads, a community of cowherds living near Nagpur. Part of the organisation’s role involves considering how children from this community, who only speak the tribal language, would access mainstream Marathi medium school content
With the help of an NGO, Rati and Riah continue to work with women in several villages in the area on different empowerment programmes. 

The duo wants to support underserved communities through small organisations. Dasra has performed the due diligence and helped them identify organisations that are local and understand the social, cultural, and the local nuances. “Many of these organisations are doing incredibly good work on the ground, but very little is known about them, or they have very small budgets. But they are indeed moving the needle on critical issues,” says Rati. 

 

Justice and governance is also a part of their CSR as well as personal philanthropy. “We have good government schemes, including at the state level, but often, NGOs are not working towards catalysing them,” says Rati. “Most of the time, communities are not aware, nor do they know how to access it. We are working with a couple of NGOs and making it imperative to at least try and access a few government schemes, and we also hold them accountable to that.” 

Rati and Riah Forbes: Creating deep-rooted impact for vulnerable communities
 

Riah’s most recent personal social initiative was during the pandemic, addressing the wellness of leaders in the social space. She realised it was an incredibly challenging time for them because of their inability to access their communities and donors with the same ease as earlier. Many organisations did not have the infrastructure to go remote, and she also noticed that many NGO founders were really burnt out. They couldn’t talk to anyone about it and were seeking a safe confidential space to think through some of their organisational challenges.
 

“The challenges they were having were well beyond tech. It was not a question of how to use Google Meets or Google Docs, but how to programme manage one’s team or how to partner with a bigger organisation. ” Based on this, Riah felt it was more important to work on creating a space where people could be honest and openly think through things together.
 

Riah comes to philanthropy from a place of humility and empathy for not just for the problem that they want to solve, but also for the people who are working on the ground. “They [NGO leaders] have much to teach us. And if we are having a conversation with them, chances are we will go away very enriched and enlightened if we just listen and ask questions.”
 

She finds it challenging that there’s an expectation that people who work in this space do it out of pure, selfless passion, and therefore don’t need to be compensated in the same way as anyone working in one of their businesses.
 

“Despite this very strong passion and commitment, the work can be hard and draining, and as donors, we should consider supporting the wellbeing of the leaders and their teams,” she adds.
 

As part of her thesis during her graduate programme at Harvard Kennedy School, Riah examined why there were not enough successful women or minority entrepreneurs in India. Her research revealed that most don’t have access to coaching and mentorship. She is working with a few NGO founders to understand and mitigate challenges related to this. 

Rati and Riah Forbes: Creating deep-rooted impact for vulnerable communitiesA programme in Khed taluka, Pune, to address the issue of violence against women and facilitate their access to rights and entitlements through legal counseling. 

Riah believes they should not look for a business model or investment opportunities while giving to the vulnerable or the marginalised communities, but give them unrestricted grants.
 

In the last three years, the duo has put aside a sizeable chunk of their personal wealth portfolio towards impact investment.
 

Rati feels Riah has had exposure to the best of education that has shaped her thought and approach and has driven her to being more strategic in her philanthropy. Riah, on the other hand, believes Rati’s on-the-ground experience is invaluable. She can validate an idea quickly or propose an alternative approach. “She’s pattern-matching across decades of experience to say, yes, that makes sense, or no, I don’t think so. We are very fortunate that our values are aligned.”
 

Rati uses a quote by Pierre Omidyar—philanthropist and founder, chairperson of eBay—that resonates with her. He says, “Charity is inherently not self-sustaining, but there are problems in the world, such as natural disasters, that require charity. Philanthropy is much more. It comes from the Latin for “love of humanity”. Philanthropy is a desire to improve the state of humanity and the world. It requires thinking about the root causes of issues so that we can prevent tomorrow’s suffering. And if we want to make sustainable change, we have to put all the tools at our disposal to their best possible use.”
 

She concurs. “There’s a big difference between pure charity and philanthropy. A lot of Indians continue to do charity, but philanthropy is really thinking more deeply about issues, and understanding how we can move the needle, especially those of us in privileged circumstances.”

The Good Mind – Voices of Service & Leadership

On Monday 08 May 2023 the ZTFE held  ‘The Good Mind – Voices of Service &  Leadership’: a dialogue for people of All Faiths and none to mark ‘The Big Help Out’ and encourage volunteering.
Good Reasoning and Service are concepts common to all that is Good and are also reflected in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 1.
These sessions may also contribute to helping the Youth to develop their voice, their resilience, do better in their University and Job Interviews while being stronger cohesive forces for the good of the Community of Communities (a concept highlighted by our late Queen HRH Elizabeth II).
We are grateful to all our speakers and to those in the audience who shared their volunteering projects.
We appreciate Lord Karan Bilimoria for joining this dialogue and encouraging its further outreach in the World.
With best wishes and warm regards,
Karishma.
Dr. Karishma Koka, ZTFE Managing Committee Communications Officer.
May we become the caretakers to serve those who need and increase the strength of the Divine (Verse 34 of the Gathas of Zarathushtra  and the Ahunavar)
May we resonate with all those who take good actions Verse 51.22 of the Gathas of Zarathustra.
We are grateful to all our speakers and to those in the audience who shared their volunteering projects.
Prayer: Ervad Yazad Unwalla, Ervad Yazad Cyrus Unwalla is a practising Ervad and a teacher in Religious Education, Politics and Economics.
Speakers:
Rev. Phil Chadder: Chaplaincy Training and Development Officer, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service
Mehool Sanghrajka MBE, Managing Trustee of the Institute of Jainology (IOJ), entrepreneur in education technology
Nikita Shah Nikita Shah, Co-founder of Jain Student Association UK
Rozy Contractor: Zoroastrian proud of her roots,and community. She is an IT-sector business-growth professional
Mahya Sethna: student in the U.K. and currently in the 4th year of a 5 year Design Engineering MEng
Dr. Satpal Singh: Professor Emeritus, SUNY at Buffalo School of Medicine, Founding Trustee of the Sikh Council for Interfaith Relations

FOOD SCHEME RUN BY MANCHERJI EDALJI JOSHI MEMORIAL TRUST FOR POOR AND INFIRM ZOROASTRIANS

Dear Members of our respected Zoroastrian Community.

The Managing Trustees of Mancherji Edulji Joshi Memorial Trust Wishes all our dear Zoroastrain Brethren A Very Happy Jamshedi Nawroze,  in health and happiness with your dear ones.  And may DAADAAR keep Covid-19 at safe distance from you and your dear ones.

Dear Brethren, The year 2022 was comparatively a much better year for our Food Scheme Members compared to 2020/21.  In 2022, the trust was able to reach out to 100% members registered with the trust, with daily tiffin services, breakfast, brunch and monthly ration services throughout the year, taking advantage of the relaxations given by the Government from time to time.

We were forced to suspend our services or give partial services for many in 2020/21, as per the Lockdown orders. As no tiffin services were permitted to operate.  Credit goes to the Trust Members, Trust Officials, The Caterers and the Delivery team, who were able to provide services to the poor and infirm without a single day’s break throughout 2022.

We are now once again approaching all Zoroastrian Brethren for donation towards the ‘FOOOD SCHEME’ which we run for old and infirm Members of our Community.

There are many old and infirm members in our community, neglected by the Society, some of them by their own children and family, and who are fighting for their survival. Who need your attention.  Most of them are frail, weak and bed ridden and do not have even strength to go to the roadside food stall to eat and depend on their neighbours to bring some food for their survival.

The Food Scheme is run by Mancherji Edalji Joshi Memorial Trust, to feed such old and poor infirm of our community, which not only supervises the cooking of the food, but also deliver the same to the community members through Dabbawallas.

We are fortunate enough to get good donations past many years, which has helped us run the above Facility for deserving Zoroastrians.

Today the Trust provides 65/70 Old and Infirm with daily tiffin services, to provide two times meal, Doongarwadi Staff with Breakfast, and 28 families are provided with monthly Food Grain Ration, mid-day meals to poor Parsi students.

The Trust also provides meals to Parsi Infirmary, Navsari and Bai Dosiben Kotwal Parsi Boys Orphanage, Navsari on Jamshedi Nawroze.   The Trust also provides special meals on Parsi New Year to Dasturs and Helpers at Rustom Framana Agyari, Dadar on Jamshedi Nawroze.

The annual expenses of running the Food Scheme for above deserving members of the community comes to Rs 37.50 Lakhs.

As on 31st December 2022, the cost of feeding all the members of the Food Scheme for one day comes to Rs 10,500.

Your generous contribution will help us in reaching out to our poor brethren.

Our Trust is a Public Registered Trust, registered with the Charity Commissioner, under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act 1961.

The Trust Accounts are duly audited and filed with the Charity Commissioner and every donor, small or big, is issued a receipt.  We also provide 80G Tax Exemption certificate so that Donors can avail of IT reduction towards the donated amount, while filing their tax returns.

On behalf of the Trust, I appeal for your generous support to our Food Scheme.  Your donations can be made by Cheque in favour of “Mancherji Edalji Joshi Memorial Trust”. 

For further enquiries, you are also welcome to contact us on hndaruwalla@gmail.com and mejmtdadar@gmail.com

Donation can be sent to:

Mrs Mithoo Jesia.                                   Mrs Tina Patel.                                         Mr Homi N Daruwalla.

Jesia Building,                                        623, Marker Mansion.                              2/689 Sethna Building.

797 Jam E Jamshed Rd.                         Lady Jehangir Rd.                                   Dinshaw Master Road.

Parsi Colony, Dadar (E).                         Dadar.  Mumbai 400014.                          Parsi Colony.  Dadar (E).

Mumbai 400014.                                       Ph No. 022 2415 1354.                             Mumbai 400014.

Ph No 022 2414 9571.                                                                                                 Ph No 022 24112330.

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Mob No.  91 98200 94243.

                                                                                                                                       Email. hndaruwalla@gmail.com

Request all to Kindly give widest possible publicity to this appeal, by forwarding the same to your family members and friends, to get maximum support to this noble cause.

 We have now added a new scheme into our Food Scheme.

We have started a facility now, where in, Donors desiring to donate food on a particular day, may be a happy occasion in the family, Birthday, Navjote, or a Lagan, or a remembrance day, can do so by paying Rs 10,500 per day.  We will distribute the Food to the Food Scheme Members, on a particular day from your donation and communicate the members accordingly through flyers in each tiffin.

Hoping to receive favourable response from you to our appeal.

Wishing you all once again Very Happy Jamshedi Nawroze.

Thanking you and With Kind Regards.

Homi N Daruwalla.

Senior Fellow,

Indian Green Building Council. (IGBC).

Consulting Engineer. LEED AP-USGBC.

Mob No + 91 98200 94243

Medical Appeal – Havovi Rohinton Bharucha

REQUEST FOR SUPPORT

The WZO Trust Funds requests donors, friends and well-wishers to extend timely financial support towards medical treatment of Mrs. Roshan Bharucha resident of Dadar, Mumbai who is suffering from a very rare disease called MYELODYPLASTICITY SYNDROME (MDS) which is a rare type of blood cancer for which stem-cell transplant is required.

The applicant is a widow having a young son and daughter aged 27 & 26 years.

The applicant’s husband passed away in 2018 on account of Liver Cancer and Cirrhosis with Hepatitis C which he was suffering from since 2010. During this period the family had spent Rs,3,500,000 for his treatment.

Ever since the applicant was diagnosed with MDS in 2019, she has already spent close to Rs.1,100,000 so far. The Mediclaim amount of Rs.500,000 has also been exhausted.

The estimated cost of treatment to be undertaken at Nanavati Hospital, which will be spread over a few months is as follows:

 

  1. If the Donor Is a family Member:

 

Treatment Cycles Cost Total
7 days Immunotherapy, followed by 23 days of oral medication and monitoring. 3 800,000 2,400,000
Stem Cell Transplant     2,000,000
Total     4,400,000

 

  1. If the Donor is NOT a family Member:

 

Treatment Cycles Cost Total
7 days Immunotherapy, followed by 23 days of oral medication and monitoring. 3 800,000 2,400,000
Stem Cell Transplant     5,000,000
Total     7,400,000

 

 

Upon request of the family, WZO Trust Funds have undertaken to collect donations on their behalf towards the medical treatment.

 

It is requested that cheques may be sent in the name of:

 

THE WZO TRUST FUNDS

and sent to Trust Office at:

C-1, Hermes House, 3rd Floor,

Mama Parmanand Marg,

Opera House,

Mumbai 400 004.

 

Donations can also be sent directly into the bank account of The WZO Trust Funds through NEFT / RTGS as under:

 

Name of Bank DEUTSCHE BANK
Branch Address DB House,

Hazarimal Somani Marg, Fort,

Mumbai 400 001

Account Title THE WZO TRUST FUNDS
Account No. 400004256780019
Account Type: Savings
IFSC Code DEUT0784PBC

 

It may be noted that:

 

1) IFSC Code (DEUT0784PBC) is common for all Branches of Deutsche Bank in India. For example, if Khar Branch or any other Branch gets displayed while keying inputting this IFSC Code, please go ahead and complete the online transfer

 

2) After doing online remittance please inform us by e-mail on admin@wzotrust.com, and quoting your PAN details.

 

Donations to The WZO Trust Funds are eligible for exemptions under Income Tax Sec. 80G(5)

 

We look forward to receiving support from community members for this very urgent and deserving medical case.

 

 

Very Sincerely,

 

Dinshaw K. Tamboly

Chairman.

Senior Citizens Centre, Navsari – Celebrates 25 Anniversary

We are pleased to share a short video (12 minutes) that was released yesterday (04 Jan) at a function held at Navsari to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of The WZO Trust Funds – Bai Maneckbai P. B. Jeejeebhoy Senior Citizens Centre, Navsari.
 
Thanks to the support received, financial as well as by way of good wishes, and cooperation extended by all, the first 25 years have not only gone by in a flash, but have also established our Centre as a role model of a vibrant institution where residents live as an extended family with self respect and dignity.
 
We are looking forward to your support and cooperation to reach further milestones in the future.
 
Best Wishes,
Team WZO Trust Funds.
_____________________________________
 The WZO Trust Funds,
The WZO Trust for Women & Children,
The World Zoroastrian Organisation Trust,
C – 1 Hermes House, 3rd Floor,
Mama Parmanand Marg,
Opera House,
Mumbai 400 004
Tel. Nos: 91 – 22 – 23684451 / 52 / 53
 

Noshir Dadrawala Invited On Governing Council Of India’s First Social Stock Exchange

Parsi Times is delighted to announce that Noshir H. Dadrawala – one of the community’s most dynamic personalities, Zoroastrian Scholar, a globally renowned consultant on Charity Laws, a prolific writer, and our very own, much sought-after PT columnist – has been invited as a member of the Governing Council of the Bombay Stock Exchange’s (BSE) ‘Social Stock Exchange’.

BSE’s ‘Social Stock Exchange’ (SSE) is the first of its kind in India and will soon have nationwide trading terminals permitted to register Social Enterprises and / or list the securities issued by Social Enterprises. The SSE will list only securities that raise money for ‘non-profit’ or ‘for-profit’ ‘social enterprises.’

Speaking to Parsi Times on the occasion of this prestigious appointment, as member of the Governing Council of the BSE’s ‘Social Stock Exchange’, Noshir Dadrawala said, “It is both, an honour and privilege to have been invited to serve on this Committee along with other eminent professionals. The Social Stock Exchange is not a new idea from a global perspective. However, it is India’s first SSE and designed very differently. I personally see a lot of opportunity for genuine charitable organisations, both, in terms of enhancing their credibility as also to fund-raise. To be listed on the SSE will require organisations to meet very high and stringent standards of Capacity, Compliance and Capability. It’s a great journey to look forward to in 2023!”

A Social Enterprise means either a ‘Not-for-Profit Organization’ or a ‘For Profit Social Enterprise’ that meets the eligibility criteria specified by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). ‘Not-for-profit Social Enterprise’ includes charitable trusts, charitable societies, companies licensed under section 8 of the Indian Companies Act 2013 and any other entity as may be specified by the Board.

A ‘for-profit’ or ‘not-for-profit’ entity must first be identified as a ‘Social Enterprise’ by establishing primacy of its social intent. Corporate foundations, political or religious organizations or activities, professional or trade associations, infrastructure and housing companies, except affordable housing, will not be eligible to be identified as a Social Enterprise.

Getting listed on the SSE would entail going through a vigorous due-diligence processes. Once listed, it would be an important recognition and enhance credibility of the social enterprise. Social enterprises listed on the SSE will also be subject to regular audits to measure social impact and reports shall be disclosed to stakeholders just like for-profit, listed companies, on regular stock exchanges.

Noshir Dadrawala Invited On Governing Council Of India’s First Social Stock Exchange

The plight of Zoroastrian Trusts

The Iranian Zoroastrian Anjuman owns 986 Acres of vacant land at Palghar.
That’s 4.3 Crore Sq Feet!
If every Zoroastrian in India applies for land, every single one will get a minimum 1,000 Sq Feet of land.
And this is just one Zoroastrian Trust.
So much land.
But no funds to develop it, or even look after it!
The plight of every Zoroastrian Trust
– Zoru Bhathena
« Older Entries