Lighthouse Communities Foundation lists on BSE Social Stock Exchange

October 31, 2026 /Posted byPrajwal EW / 0

Lighthouse Communities Foundation (LCF), a non-profit working to improve livelihood opportunities for underserved youth, was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange’s (BSE) Social Stock Exchange (SSE) on October 30, following its public issue of Zero Coupon Zero Principal (ZCZP) instruments.

The listing was marked by a bell-ringing ceremony at BSE in Mumbai, attended by Maharashtra Additional Chief Secretary for Skills, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Manisha Verma, BSE representatives, corporate leaders and LCF’s Board and Advisory Council.

The listing provides LCF with a regulated platform to raise funds from corporate social responsibility (CSR) partners, philanthropic organisations and impact investors. Proceeds from the issue will support the expansion of its programmes in Pune, targeting 500 underserved youth through career awareness, confidence-building and job-readiness initiatives.

LCF’s Lighthouse programme focuses on helping young people identify their aspirations and strengths before selecting vocational training pathways offered through partner organisations. The programme operates 51 centres across six states, with infrastructure support from state and local governments and operational funding from corporate partners.

According to the foundation, women account for nearly 60 per cent of its enrolments, while 77 per cent of placed youth remain employed one year after placement. Since 2015, LCF has positively impacted more than 2.9 lakh young people across six states.

In Maharashtra, LCF works with the state government’s Skills, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Department and the Directorate of Vocational Education and Training under an MoU signed in January 2023. The partnership has provided career counselling to more than 5,500 young people, skilling to over 2,075 and placement support to more than 3,200. Its next phase will extend to additional Model Career Centres and Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), including those in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Amravati.

LCF Co-founder and Chairman Dr Ganesh Natarajan said the listing marked an important milestone in the organisation’s efforts to reach one million young people nationally and help them build careers aligned with their aspirations.

Verma said the listing demonstrated the potential of collaboration between government, civil society and industry in supporting youth livelihoods. BSE Head of Issuer Relations and Corporate Sales Radha Kirthivasan said the listing would help bring CSR and retail contributions onto a regulated platform, enabling social organisations to expand their programmes.

LCF said it would report the utilisation of funds and programme progress through the SSE’s disclosure framework.

Also Read: Somaiya Vidyavihar, Sheffield Hallam universities sign MoU for sports science collaboration

Add comment Cancel reply

Media Bytes

“Most schools never consciously chose their basic unit. They inherited one from the past: the class. With the class as the focus, the things that happen between people get squeezed out: the apprentice learning alongside someone skilled, the child taught where they are rather than where the class is, and the daily practice of getting along with people they did not choose. The most promising new schools are organising themselves around the individual child rather than the class. A better approach is to group children by readiness in each subject and change those groups as they progress. Communication, collaboration and handling disagreement need daily practice. In a school built around individual progress, teachers get time back to observe, diagnose, mentor and step in where they are most needed. Most teachers entered the profession to make a difference to children. Many spend their careers managing classes instead. The best new schools offer them a system that finally lets them do the work they signed up for.”

- Rahul Raghavan, Economic Times, (27/10)

“Government medical college seats are 100% filled, vacancies are confined entirely to the private sector. Colleges and state fee-fixation committees must re-examine these fee structures, because lowering NEET qualifying cut-offs will not resolve an affordability crisis when millions of candidates already qualify. The vacancies are an indicator that qualifying for medical admission does not necessarily mean students could afford a seat. Institutions charge full fees to early applicants and offer discounts to late entrants to fill the vacant seats. It reflects a purely commercial approach that compromises merit while still failing to fill classrooms. High management-quota fees are putting seats beyond the reach of many candidates. Some 24 lakh students write the entrance test for 1.4 lakh seats. While the cream gets government seats, the rest of the students cannot afford a management-quota seat.”

- Divyansh Kumar, The Times of India, (2/11)

Lighthouse Communities Foundation lists on BSE Social Stock Exchange

Add comment Cancel reply

Current Issue

Media Bytes

From The Archives

Heavy Price of Parliament Disruption