The Blended Finance India Narrative

Whilst blended finance (BF) has been gaining traction in India, lack of adequate documentation, research, and transparency has led to limited awareness and standardized understanding around the topic. This has created a critical need for an India-specific perspective on this innovative impact investment approach. Asha Trust partnered with Societe Generale and the Impact Investors Council (IIC) to prepare this report as a first step toward creating data-driven awareness in the Indian ecosystem and increasing the pools of capital aligning with BF. This report is backed by the first-ever open-source database of ~180 BF transactions executed in India in the last decade and considered till the end of the calendar year (CY) 2022. Multiple transactions with similar structures have been combined under a single transaction for analysis under the database; thus the actual number of BF transactions executed in India may be much higher. Each transaction has been confirmed and interpreted with the help of one or more stakeholders via written communication or interview-based discussions or both. These resources aim to initiate many critical discussions on the quality of BF activity in India, efficacy and leverage, appropriateness of instruments, scalability, return potential, etc., and encourage stakeholders to review their plans and strategies effectively.