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India

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The Indian subcontinent is diverse in terms of its people, language and cultural traditions. With 2,973,193 square km and 1.2 billion people, India is the 7th largest country in terms of area and the 2nd largest in terms of population. The country’s population has a median age of 27.6 years.

India had the 3rd highest GDP of USD 8.721 trillion measured in purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2016 and is projected to overtake the United States of America (USA) by 2050 to go into 2nd place. Trade accounts for about half of India’s GDP, and its biggest export partners are The USA, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and China (2016). Foreign direct investment (FDI) in India in 2016 grew by 18% to USD 46.4 billion, at a time when global FDI inflows fell by 13%. The USA was the top source of FDI, and India stood as the 10th most attractive FDI destination in the world.

Services are the major source of economic growth, accounting for nearly 53% of GDP value added in 2015 and employment in urban areas of 58.7% and 16.1% in rural regions in 2011.

The Indian middle class has been hailed for its growth potential and over the 2015-2030 period, the median income per household is projected to increase by 89.8% in real terms to reach USD 10,073.

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India’s 2017 Fact File

World Giving Index Rank

2016

91 106 in 2015

22%giving money
21%volunteering time
43%helping a stranger

Population

2016

1.266 billion

GDP (PPP)

2016

USD 8.66 trillion World Rank 3

Poverty

2012

29.8%

Per capita GDP (PPP)

2016

USD 6,616 World Rank 123

Global Competitiveness Index

2016

39 55 in 2015

Number of Millionaires

2016

185,000 0.01% of population

Source: CIA, Charities Aid Foundation (CAF, 2016), Credit Suisse (2016), OECD (2016), World Economic Forum (WEF, 2016), World Bank (2017)

Economic Context for Investors

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Factors	Index Score/Rank	Description
GDP Growth 2016	Index Score/Rank 7.6%	The economy grew 7.6% in 2016 and 2015. In 2017, forecast of GDP growth is between 7.5 and 8%.
Governance 2015	Index Score/Rank -0.2	India ranked above 49% of all the countries.
Consumer Market 2015	Index Score/Rank USD 4,098 billion	Consumer spending is projected to increase due to the growth of household incomes, emerging cities, and nuclear families.
Labour Force 2016	Index Score/Rank 511 million	The labour-force to population ratio for India is 54% and low in comparison to the rest of the world due to low female labour force participation rate (LFPR, at 31%).
Infrastructure 2016	Index Score/Rank 4.0	India was ranked 81 among 138 countries in terms of infrastructure. The biggest issues are the country’s transportation, education, power and telecommunications infrastructure.
Financial Access 2014	Index Score/Rank 53% of the population	53% of the population above 15 years of age had a bank account in 2014. Financial inclusion of people in poverty, in rural areas and of women are large areas for development.
Digital Access 2015	Index Score/Rank 26% of the population	In 2015, 26% of the population had access to the internet. Mobile-cellular subscriptions stands at 78 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.
Ease of Doing Business 2016	Index Score/Rank 130/190	India’s Ease of Doing Business rank improved slightly from 131 in 2015 to 130 in 2016. Significant challenges remain in terms of enforcing contracts, paying taxes, dealing with construction permits and starting a business.

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SDG Dashboard

India has leveraged the framework of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda 2030 to chart out comprehensive socioeconomic-environmental development plans and targets to achieve the goals.

Goals for education outcomes, skill development, housing, water, power for all, and sanitation, constitute the foundations of India’s social welfare plans. Poverty alleviation is about inclusion and empowerment of the poor through financial access, digital access, direct transfer of benefits, and insurance and pension for the elderly. Drawing on the rapid growth of digital and mobile applications, India seeks to strengthen the sector of individual enterprises, micro-entrepreneurs and micro-finance while increasing agricultural productivity, market linkages, manufacturing and services which will propel the engines of growth and prosperity. Environmental goals focus on a new capacity of 175 GW of renewable energy over the next seven years starting 2016, energy efficiency, a tax on coal, a huge afforestation programme, reforming transportation, and cleaning up cities and rivers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched schemes such as Skill India, Digital India, Make in India, and Startup India on the growth side, with programmes on education, gender sensitivity, sanitation, and financial inclusion on the social welfare front.

Source: sdgindex.org (2016)

Government Focus on Development Gaps

Focus Area	SDG Goals	Gap	Government Focus
Education	SDG Goals	Gap By implementing the Right to Education Act, India has achieved universal access to education and as of 2014 the gross enrolment ratio was at 107.92%. However, in 2016, only 47.8% of children in rural government and private schools in grade 5 could read at the level of grade 2.	Government Focus By 2030, The Ministry of Human Resource Development through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan wants to ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes.
Energy access	SDG Goals	Gap India’s Total Energy Consumption in 2014 was 805kWh per capita. In 2014, 79.2% of the people had access to electricity.	Government Focus The Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, the National Solar Mission of providing continuous power supply to rural India and the India Energy Policy together seek to provide reliable and affordable energy access to all by 2030.
Gender equality	SDG Goals	Gap India ranked 131 among 146 countries in the Gender Inequality Index in 2015.	Government Focus Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, operational since 2015, is a government scheme to address the issue of an almost stagnant child sex ratio, and equity in education.
Healthcare, water and sanitation	SDG Goals	Gap In 2013, the infant mortality rate (IMR) was 40 per 1000 births, which is much higher than the global average of 31.7. In 2014, 41.92% of the population had access to sanitation.	Government Focus Through the National Health Mission, by 2030, maternal mortality rate is targeted to be reduced to less than 70 per 100,000 live births and the goal is to end preventable deaths of new-borns. Through the Swachh Bharat mission, the new government has improved access to sanitation from 41.92% in 2014 to 63.96% in 2016.
Poverty alleviation - Agriculture	SDG Goals	Gap In 2011-12 the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data on consumption expenditure survey revealed that more than 1/5th of rural households in agriculture were living below poverty line.30 The employment to population ratio was 52% in 2015, however the GDP contribution by agriculture was only 17.45%.	Government Focus Through a combination of productivity improvement, irrigation coverage, and diversification into high value crops, the government plans to grow the sector by 14.86% per year in order to double farmer incomes by 2022.
Poverty alleviation - Skill development	SDG Goals	Gap 75.8% of the labour force did not have any skill training during 2011-12 while the proportion of workforce with formal training was only 3.05%.	Government Focus The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana is a skill development initiative that has a target to train 10 million Indian youth from 2016 to 2020. The government targets to skill 400 million people in India by 2022.
Social security	SDG Goals	Gap 8% of India’s labour force in the informal sector has social security coverage. Over 91% of workers, close to 395 millionworkers, are in the informal sector.	Government Focus Since its inception in 2006, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) has enrolled over 50 million beneficiary households. The Rashtriya Swasth Bhima Yojana, the national health insurance scheme, has over 4.1 million active cardholders.

Social Economy

The social economy in India is one of the most advanced in Asia, supported by investors and enablers.

There are 3.3 million NGOs and 2 million SEs in India.

Category	Factor	Description
SPOs	Factor Legislative environment	Currently no legislation in India explicitly mentions, defines or promotes social enterprises. However, there are multiple legislations in effect, that have led to creation of social enterprises. For example, MSME Development Act 2006, Societies Registration Act 1860, Section-8 in the Companies Act, 1956, revised in 2013.
SPOs	Factor Government support for SEs	To support SEs, the government has promoted subsidies, credit linkages, capital subsidies in health, education, agriculture, irrigation, affordable housing and clean energy. The government has amended the CSR law to bring funding to SEs through corporates.
SPOs	Factor SEs across sectors	Diverse industry with 50% concentration in microfinance institutions followed by agribusiness and clean energy.
SPOs	Factor Presence, size, and maturity of SEs	Estimates place the number of SEs in India at around 2 million. Multiple investments have been made at early, venture and growth stage of SEs, signifying the size and maturity of SEs.
Investors	Factor Philanthropic contributions	HNWIs contribution increased six-fold from 2011 to 2016, to reach USD 5.6 billion. Philanthropists are among the most engaged and mature of funders. Philanthropic foundations implement innovative approaches in India. Total funds for the development sector have grown at a rate of approximately 9% over the past five years (2011-2016), increasing from USD 23.3 billion to approximately USD 34.25 billion approximately.
Investors	Factor Presence of social investors	There are over 50 impact funds and investors operating in India. They are mainly located in four cities – Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Chennai. Investors have invested in seed-stage, early, venture and growth-stage startups.
Investors	Factor Corporate sector	India’s top-tier 100 companies spent over USD 1098 million in FY16. There is evidence of strategic CSR, venture philanthropy and support for social enterprises.
Enablers	Factor Incubators, accelerators, and capacity-builders	India is home to almost 200 social incubators. Dasra Social Impact and CIIE for instance conduct capacity building programs for entrepreneurs. Other noteworthy organisations are Villgro, Intellecap, Deshpande Foundation, Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI) and Nadathur S raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSCREL), IIM-Bangalore and N/Core. Global players such as UnLtd India also provide capacity building.
Enablers	Factor Networks and platforms	AVPN India, Dasra Philanthropy Week, The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE), Ashoka India and Desphande Foundation run networks and platforms bringing SEs together with the rest of the ecosystem. India also has a range of fellowships in the social impact sector such as Gandhi Fellowship, Jagriti Yatra, Young India Fellowship, LAMP fellowship, to name a few. A high number of events and competitions are held to raise awareness of SEs. Academic institutions such as the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) are taking a lead role in growing public awareness of SE through competitions. UnLtd India, Sankalp Awards, Tata Enterprise Challenge, ISB iDiya are other notable competitions for SEs.
Enablers	Factor Knowledge and research	Universities such as Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indian School of Business (ISB), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Xavier School of Management (XLRI) and several other business schools conduct research around the social economy. Research is also carried out by industry bodies such as Confederation of Indian Industries and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), and consulting companies such as KPMG, PwC, and advisory firms such as Sattva, Dasra and Samhita.
Enablers	Factor Partnerships	Cross-sectoral partnerships are found across investor classes: multiple examples of CSR and Corporate Foundations with the government and civil society, giving circles such as Dasra, angel networks such as the Indian Angel Network, and between businesses and civil society.
Enablers	Factor Impact Measurement	International foundations such as Rockefeller Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF) are creating advanced and customised approaches to impact measurement. Third party assessments are common among corporates who have been running CSR and sustainability programmes for 5-10 years and above. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) of Pratham is another example of assessment of learning outcome gapes at a national level. TISS Hub, Sattva, Samhita, Sambodhi are organisations offering independent third-party assessments.