Affordable housing: in conversation with Ramesh Ramanathan, chairman, Janalakshmi social services and Janaadhar

Abstract

In this conversation with Ramesh Ramanathan, social entrepreneur and founder of Janaadhar, we explore the challenges of providing affordable housing to the “base of the pyramid” – the economically weaker segment, which would address the need of a largely under-served market in India. The challenges include the high cost and the difficulty in acquiring land in urban areas, dealing with anachronistic government regulations, getting bank loans, and acquiring customers from the target segment. The conversation highlights how Janaadhar was able to grapple with these challenges, sometimes by innovating, at other times by learning from its own mistakes and finally by maintaining a dynamic balance between the “head and the heart” that enabled it to reconcile two contradictory objectives of leveraging market principles to achieve a social objective.