Press Release – GRUH’s Silver Jubilee Coffee Table Book

HDFC Group Chairman Deepak Parekh releases the GRUH Silver Jubilee Coffee table book on the Mortgage Housing Finance experience in rural and small town India

It was one man’s vision and today it has become a very successful and trial blazing initiative.

Mr H. T. Parekh who set up HDFC also envisioned an ‘appropriate institutional structure for rural housing in villages and small towns backed by an autonomous specialized and professionally managed financial viable agency at a regional level’ Today, with the active support and guidance of its illustrious parent (HDFC), GRUH has ensured that the dream of owning a home is no longer a dream. Some 800,000 people in rural and small town India now share in the pride of owning a home of their own, thanks to GRUH. This landmark coffee table book written by Mr. Neville Gomes, Managing Director Multimedia Aquarius, has taken over a year to conceptualize and complete. As the introductory message puts it: ‘The book is about passion and beliefs’. It is about the birth of an idea and the convictions of a thought leader called H.T. Parekh. He believed that the leavening of mortgage finance could be used to raise aspirations and make a difference to the lives of common people-the ‘aam aadmi’. The book is elegantly designed in lavish color and captures the saga of rural home ownership with ‘live’ testimonials from a cross-section of the borrowers in the GRUH family. By using simple language and an informal style, the book dwells on the challenge of providing a strategic business model of mortgage housing finance to India’s huge underserved and informal sector. The book demonstrates how GRUH put people before numbers and, like its illustrious parent HDFC, carried forward the mandate of opening up new market spaces.

Inspiration to all Players

There are quite a few corporate houses which have entered the field of mortgage housing finance and ‘affordable housing’. India has a low mortgage to GDP ratio and this points to the considerable potential in the country. The GRUH commemorative volume entitled “Moments of Joy” is therefore a timely inspiration to all players in this market. It adds to the fund of insights which HDFC and its subsidiary GRUH have garnered with regard to the challenges of rural housing and mortgage finance. The book was formally released during the Board meeting of GRUH Finance Ltd on 12/01/2012 at the HDFC Board room, Mumbai.