Social Infrastructure Needs: Financing Through Digital Platform
Shruti Sharma1, Adya Sharma2
1Shruti Sharma, Faculty of Management, SCRI, Symbiosis International Deemed University, Pune (Maharashtra), India.
2Dr. Adya Sharma, SCMS, Symbiosis International Deemed University, Pune (Maharashtra), India.
Manuscript received on 09 September 2019 | Revised Manuscript received on 18 September 2019 | Manuscript Published on 11 October 2019 | PP: 220-226 | Volume-8 Issue-11S September 2019 | Retrieval Number: K104509811S19/2019©BEIESP | DOI: 10.35940/ijitee.K1045.09811S19
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open-access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: Infrastructure funding needs are demanding like spouse where it’s difficult to match demand with supply. This gap which is way too wide as India needs investment of ₹50 trillion (~US$ 777.73 billion) in infrastructure by 2022to have sustainable development in the country; union budget 2018-19 allocated ₹4.56 lakh crore (~US$ 63.20 billion) for the sector [1]; also, investment into the National Investment & Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), Private equity and venture capital investments and various M&A deal in the infrastructure sector are also witnessed. Nevertheless, this is less than required and by the time funds are raised for new infrastructure, somewhere other existing infrastructure may be in need of upgrade; in essence, need of continuous and sustainable fund flow is need of the hour. However, when infrastructure funding is done,economic infrastructuregets default priority over social infrastructure. We find that plenty of funds which are available with individuals and companies are not utilized just because we don’t have a convenient and efficient channel to route funds to specific projects. We analyse social infrastructure financing and limitations of financing capabilities, how alternative funding methods like crowdfunding can help in narrowing the funding gap. This paper talks about current financing practices and how a digital platform canact as aggregator and can capture community crowdfunding market which is still in nascent stage in India, transaction value in the Crowdfunding segment of India is meagre US$1.7m in 2019 in comparison to China (US$5,572m in 2019)[2]. Also, it can channelize India Inc’s unspent Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) amount which stood at almost 60k crore in duration of FY15-18; mostly due to inability to identify project to spend [3]. This platform can be promising and support in continuous and hassle-free flow of funds to the major/minor projects. Moreover, India is gearing up for smart cities and rapid urbanization and it’s a sane thing to seek solutions before the issues arrive. This paper contributes by conceptualizing first of its kind ‘aggregator model of crowdfunding’ for social infrastructure.
Keywords: Aggregator Model, Crowdfunding, Digital Platform, Donation, Social Infrastructure.
Scope of the Article: Social Sciences