While markets boom, what’s up at India’s Social Stock Exchange?

India's first SSE listing came in December 2023, when Bengaluru-based SGBS Unnati Foundation raised a little under ₹2 crore from HNIs. That proof-of-concept has since turned into a working segment.

By early 2026 the platform had moved well past that first issue — though it is still early days, with more NPOs registered than have actually raised. The bigger development is structural: since May 2026, companies can route part of their CSR spending through the exchange, putting corporate money alongside the HNI and retail donors who funded the early issues.

Social Stock Exchange (SSE) is a separate segment created by stock exchanges to help social enterprises raise funds from the public. The idea was floated by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget 2019–20 speech.

No. ZCZP instruments are not tradable — they are issued in demat form and stay non-transferable until maturity, because they work as donations rather than securities you can exit.

On tax and CSR, what was only proposed earlier is now in force: the May 2026 MCA notification makes subscribing to ZCZP an eligible CSR activity, capped at 10% of a company's annual CSR spend. One caveat worth flagging — a subscription made purely to discharge a mandatory CSR obligation generally won't also earn a separate 80G deduction, and the 80G route applies only under the old tax regime, so corporates should confirm the treatment for their own case.