British International Investment
18 April 2024

Statement in response to the ICAI report on British International Investment’s Indian investment strategy

ICAI recognises our new approach in India and its convincing links to poverty reduction. Backing local entrepreneurs to solve ingrained development challenges is a key part of this.

The investments highlighted by ICAI, tackle digital exclusion and economic barriers to gender equality. ShareChat offers services in 14 regional languages, helping the digital inclusion of millions of non-English speaking Indians.

In common with all social media networks, it has a tiny fraction of its users who may post offensive content. The company employs 150 content moderators (more than Twitter, which has exponentially more users) as well as cutting edge AI techniques to remove offensive content as quickly as possible. The company was invited by the UN’s Internet Governance Forum to participate on a panel in its capacity as a leader in content moderation.

Sugar Cosmetics is a woman-led manufacturing business with women comprising about 70 per cent of its workforce in a country where the average female labour force participation rate is 28 per cent.

BII has investments in over 1,500 companies. When we take investment decisions, we place greater importance on the potential economic, social and environmental upside they can deliver, rather than the potential reputational downside to BII as an organisation.

You can read a related response article from the global affairs think tank, ODI, here.

For media inquiries please contact: Andrew Murray-Watson | [email protected]

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