I love Delhi I was born there and I
believe I had the best of three life the
hum drums of different culture at my
school and learning katuk at five the
South Indian dance I then signed up for
Delhi’s swim team and the most carefree
days of all was cycling down the road to
meet my friends at the park so how many
of you are like me
Delhi lovers city lovers okay a few in
the audience great
then my daughter Nora was born seven
years ago I began to wonder if Delhi
would live up to its promise for her
with 18 million inhabitants
not to mention then famous quality
affair and the safety challenges women
and girls navigate on a daily basis I
became a Delhi skeptic I still have the
privilege to choose Laxmi Singh is a
family driver he moved to Delhi from
rural be her his promise for the city
was the promise to break the cycle of
poverty in rural Bihar Laxmi was engaged
in subsistence agriculture producing
just enough to feed his family of five
when he moved to the city for gainful
employment and a future for his children
so they could go to schools where the
teacher actually showed up but his
choice came out of necessity and at a
price we know living in the city is
expensive the high cost
food they live in cramped living
conditions 12 square meter room sharing
a bathroom with their neighbors india’s
urban population is only 400 million and
no sir cousin their because India is
still living in her villages 70% of our
population is in its villages 30% dream
of the city 70% of every new jobs come
from the city and in 2030 we will have
62 cities of a million population each
Europe today has 45 cities in 3.1 times
the land mass so Indian cities are going
to look very very dense so of course
over time we have let’s say accumulated
a housing shortage then why is Australia
there because the population of
Australia let’s is 25 million this was
the number given in 2008 so that’s
already 10 years from now and what if I
was to tell you that the shortage is 5
times the population of Australia
because that’s what it means in terms of
number of people for every household an
average of 5 people who live there so
there is an urgent series to respond so
we might argue about the numbers and
every government and every subsequent
government might play that up or play
that down but what that number did it
was give us a wake-up call and in that
instant of dealing with the housing
shortage the Government of India
announced a housing for all policy
fantastic if everybody could own a home
that is a noble cause but that might
have been a little too ambitious and I
say that because delivering housing as a
product
as a standardized product might have the
risk of solving one problem and creating
a host of other problems let’s come back
to Milan in the 1970s that might have
recollections of the story rapid
industrialization rapid urban growth
majority of the working poor moved
outside and accommodated outside the
city
over time these periphery neighborhoods
ghetto towns become known for drugs
violence and social exclusion so many
urban mostly sociologists have
documented these troubles and what one
says the professor of sociology at ETH
Zurich Christian Smith he says it was
the young people protesting they were
protesting against the lack of urban
life that cities were constantly
offering and constantly breaking and
wide each of us in our different
continents might have sensed and felt
these struggles Latin America the most
urbanized of them all
Asia Africa here in Europe despite the
difference in the context what Christian
Smith is saying these are struggles and
demands for centrality against
marginalization and against exclusion so
it should be no surprise to us that the
current mayor of Barcelona addict allow
is a housing right activist she came
into power she was elected after
fighting for rights for thousands that
evicted out of their homes after the
financial crisis of 2009 and 2010
housing is emotional each of us
appreciates the sense of security we get
from having a roof over our head but I
am NOT a planner nor a sociologist and
in full disclosure do not want to be the
next mayor of Delhi what got me
passionate to solve problems for cities
as a social entrepreneur
I see these opportunities I see these
opportunities to bring innovation that
make a sustainable impact and in
starting this 10 years ago we came up
with a simple mission which was giving
poor options for housing the first
Innovation Challenge we suck up were for
the homeless these are abled bodied men
they they moved to Delhi in the season
of winter for seasonal work in our eyes
they’re homeless they choose to live on
the streets and as we try to engage and
interact with them in our design
Innovation Challenge we attempted to
understand two things why did they
prefer the streets instead of using the
government provided free shelters on the
streets some of you may know this they
often have to pay half a dollar for the
mattress or the use of a blanket and
here the answer was easier – easier to
guess first location the streets are
where they work
it’s the proximity to work that counts
the mattress owner not only provides
them the mattress he gives services he
gives them a movie night he stores their
documents and the third reliability the
reliability of knowing that every winter
the services will be there very unlike
the government shelters the second
question was but why particularly decide
to sleep in the middle of the dividers
in the middle of the road at the risk of
life and this one would be a tricky one
for each of us to guess that was the
simplest way to get rid of the
mosquitoes every time the car switched
by so we sourced our inspiration from
these ingenious innovations we
co-created and co-designed
dama trees that were used by over 100
every night and a Family Shelter option
you may be wondering are these
improvised incremental solution
gonna make a sustainable impact on
poverty I have to admit these are hard
realities for each of us to accept and
there are no easy answers for our social
startup it was about creating a
portfolio of housing solutions choices
and each person could opt in depending
on their scenarios and once somebody has
been able to get a foot in the door and
in this case a foot in the city
what is options for rentals
unfortunately neighborhoods such as
these this is in Mongolia in the west of
Delhi are considered illegitimate parts
of the city
they provide anywhere between ten to
seventy percent of the stock of
low-income housing
I do appreciate and understand the many
are called slums and might be
inhabitable but that’s not always the
case
we have Laxmi Singh her driver you met
earlier the fruit cart vendor the
milkman our office caretaker they are
living in these neighborhoods and
providing the services which sustain the
city imagine if these neighborhoods
would be sent 40 kilometres out there
are affordable housing choices of
majority of the services being provided
in the city are subsidizing our high
quality of life so I had to investigate
this right so we went to 20 such
settlements where 2.6 million people in
Delhi are living an estimated that a
billion dollars has been invested in
this community over 30 years now here is
the economics training the opportunity
comes up
unfortunately not all this funding was
affordable or efficient most of the
money came from informal sources
anything between 30 to 40 percent of
interest rate in a year this was a debt
they were carrying on in passing down
generation from generation but what were
the choices you would say government
right first
sponsibility for this the government
might have even given these shelters
these how the households our right to
live but incidentally no right to build
keeping them in the gray area in that
scenario number two banks which bank
would be comfortable in lending with
that environment
number three community-based
organizations microfinance as some of
you might know microfinance was growing
and in India is the hub of microfinance
it was growing rapidly it was very
comparative private equity had come in
it was ready to expand but they are
typically giving loans between hundred
to two hundred dollars try convincing a
bank at that stage a microfinance agency
to go ten times and take the risk into
housing it would have been too difficult
after much actual research work we were
able to work with one champion
microfinance agency in designing a pilot
the pilot meant giving funds up to
$2,500 it could be to add a room to rent
out it could be to add a floor to
accommodate family expansion much of the
issues around are around overcrowding
and 25 families in a conservative pilot
for this microfinance institution signed
up they were given the loans at 18%
interest rates and what we have after
eight years is 98 percent of the rolls
have been repaid and I would say most of
these are prepared nobody likes to stay
in debt and what this small pilot was
able to do it had a role in influencing
a larger pilot a slightly larger pilot
this time the government of India
National Housing bank with the
multilateral Finance Agency created a
credit facility of hundred million
dollars 20 housing finance companies on
a commercial basis signed up for this
providing loans at 13 percent average
interest rate to 13,000 household
still just a start
social innovation and Financial
Inclusion
was one opportunity to break an impact
on cities what is next
resilience resilience for low-income
neighborhoods that are finding a way to
develop bottom-up solutions and inching
their way to get centrality in the city
and aren’t we lucky the resilience is
such a buzzword the first is how do we
make housing safer in the event of
natural disaster the second how do we
incentivize and train the youth that are
moving from villages most of them in
housing to build safer the third is can
technology come to rescue and bridge
this divide as you see there is non-stop
opportunity for social innovation and at
heart I am a city person where I draw my
inspiration from an optimism is that
each of us here have a role to play
social innovation goes beyond social
enterprise it is a mindset for us and I
do believe that collectively our actions
have the opportunity to inspire to
empower and disrupt the status quo
making our cities inclusive and
resilient thank you [Applause]
believe I had the best of three life the
hum drums of different culture at my
school and learning katuk at five the
South Indian dance I then signed up for
Delhi’s swim team and the most carefree
days of all was cycling down the road to
meet my friends at the park so how many
of you are like me
Delhi lovers city lovers okay a few in
the audience great
then my daughter Nora was born seven
years ago I began to wonder if Delhi
would live up to its promise for her
with 18 million inhabitants
not to mention then famous quality
affair and the safety challenges women
and girls navigate on a daily basis I
became a Delhi skeptic I still have the
privilege to choose Laxmi Singh is a
family driver he moved to Delhi from
rural be her his promise for the city
was the promise to break the cycle of
poverty in rural Bihar Laxmi was engaged
in subsistence agriculture producing
just enough to feed his family of five
when he moved to the city for gainful
employment and a future for his children
so they could go to schools where the
teacher actually showed up but his
choice came out of necessity and at a
price we know living in the city is
expensive the high cost
food they live in cramped living
conditions 12 square meter room sharing
a bathroom with their neighbors india’s
urban population is only 400 million and
no sir cousin their because India is
still living in her villages 70% of our
population is in its villages 30% dream
of the city 70% of every new jobs come
from the city and in 2030 we will have
62 cities of a million population each
Europe today has 45 cities in 3.1 times
the land mass so Indian cities are going
to look very very dense so of course
over time we have let’s say accumulated
a housing shortage then why is Australia
there because the population of
Australia let’s is 25 million this was
the number given in 2008 so that’s
already 10 years from now and what if I
was to tell you that the shortage is 5
times the population of Australia
because that’s what it means in terms of
number of people for every household an
average of 5 people who live there so
there is an urgent series to respond so
we might argue about the numbers and
every government and every subsequent
government might play that up or play
that down but what that number did it
was give us a wake-up call and in that
instant of dealing with the housing
shortage the Government of India
announced a housing for all policy
fantastic if everybody could own a home
that is a noble cause but that might
have been a little too ambitious and I
say that because delivering housing as a
product
as a standardized product might have the
risk of solving one problem and creating
a host of other problems let’s come back
to Milan in the 1970s that might have
recollections of the story rapid
industrialization rapid urban growth
majority of the working poor moved
outside and accommodated outside the
city
over time these periphery neighborhoods
ghetto towns become known for drugs
violence and social exclusion so many
urban mostly sociologists have
documented these troubles and what one
says the professor of sociology at ETH
Zurich Christian Smith he says it was
the young people protesting they were
protesting against the lack of urban
life that cities were constantly
offering and constantly breaking and
wide each of us in our different
continents might have sensed and felt
these struggles Latin America the most
urbanized of them all
Asia Africa here in Europe despite the
difference in the context what Christian
Smith is saying these are struggles and
demands for centrality against
marginalization and against exclusion so
it should be no surprise to us that the
current mayor of Barcelona addict allow
is a housing right activist she came
into power she was elected after
fighting for rights for thousands that
evicted out of their homes after the
financial crisis of 2009 and 2010
housing is emotional each of us
appreciates the sense of security we get
from having a roof over our head but I
am NOT a planner nor a sociologist and
in full disclosure do not want to be the
next mayor of Delhi what got me
passionate to solve problems for cities
as a social entrepreneur
I see these opportunities I see these
opportunities to bring innovation that
make a sustainable impact and in
starting this 10 years ago we came up
with a simple mission which was giving
poor options for housing the first
Innovation Challenge we suck up were for
the homeless these are abled bodied men
they they moved to Delhi in the season
of winter for seasonal work in our eyes
they’re homeless they choose to live on
the streets and as we try to engage and
interact with them in our design
Innovation Challenge we attempted to
understand two things why did they
prefer the streets instead of using the
government provided free shelters on the
streets some of you may know this they
often have to pay half a dollar for the
mattress or the use of a blanket and
here the answer was easier – easier to
guess first location the streets are
where they work
it’s the proximity to work that counts
the mattress owner not only provides
them the mattress he gives services he
gives them a movie night he stores their
documents and the third reliability the
reliability of knowing that every winter
the services will be there very unlike
the government shelters the second
question was but why particularly decide
to sleep in the middle of the dividers
in the middle of the road at the risk of
life and this one would be a tricky one
for each of us to guess that was the
simplest way to get rid of the
mosquitoes every time the car switched
by so we sourced our inspiration from
these ingenious innovations we
co-created and co-designed
dama trees that were used by over 100
every night and a Family Shelter option
you may be wondering are these
improvised incremental solution
gonna make a sustainable impact on
poverty I have to admit these are hard
realities for each of us to accept and
there are no easy answers for our social
startup it was about creating a
portfolio of housing solutions choices
and each person could opt in depending
on their scenarios and once somebody has
been able to get a foot in the door and
in this case a foot in the city
what is options for rentals
unfortunately neighborhoods such as
these this is in Mongolia in the west of
Delhi are considered illegitimate parts
of the city
they provide anywhere between ten to
seventy percent of the stock of
low-income housing
I do appreciate and understand the many
are called slums and might be
inhabitable but that’s not always the
case
we have Laxmi Singh her driver you met
earlier the fruit cart vendor the
milkman our office caretaker they are
living in these neighborhoods and
providing the services which sustain the
city imagine if these neighborhoods
would be sent 40 kilometres out there
are affordable housing choices of
majority of the services being provided
in the city are subsidizing our high
quality of life so I had to investigate
this right so we went to 20 such
settlements where 2.6 million people in
Delhi are living an estimated that a
billion dollars has been invested in
this community over 30 years now here is
the economics training the opportunity
comes up
unfortunately not all this funding was
affordable or efficient most of the
money came from informal sources
anything between 30 to 40 percent of
interest rate in a year this was a debt
they were carrying on in passing down
generation from generation but what were
the choices you would say government
right first
sponsibility for this the government
might have even given these shelters
these how the households our right to
live but incidentally no right to build
keeping them in the gray area in that
scenario number two banks which bank
would be comfortable in lending with
that environment
number three community-based
organizations microfinance as some of
you might know microfinance was growing
and in India is the hub of microfinance
it was growing rapidly it was very
comparative private equity had come in
it was ready to expand but they are
typically giving loans between hundred
to two hundred dollars try convincing a
bank at that stage a microfinance agency
to go ten times and take the risk into
housing it would have been too difficult
after much actual research work we were
able to work with one champion
microfinance agency in designing a pilot
the pilot meant giving funds up to
$2,500 it could be to add a room to rent
out it could be to add a floor to
accommodate family expansion much of the
issues around are around overcrowding
and 25 families in a conservative pilot
for this microfinance institution signed
up they were given the loans at 18%
interest rates and what we have after
eight years is 98 percent of the rolls
have been repaid and I would say most of
these are prepared nobody likes to stay
in debt and what this small pilot was
able to do it had a role in influencing
a larger pilot a slightly larger pilot
this time the government of India
National Housing bank with the
multilateral Finance Agency created a
credit facility of hundred million
dollars 20 housing finance companies on
a commercial basis signed up for this
providing loans at 13 percent average
interest rate to 13,000 household
still just a start
social innovation and Financial
Inclusion
was one opportunity to break an impact
on cities what is next
resilience resilience for low-income
neighborhoods that are finding a way to
develop bottom-up solutions and inching
their way to get centrality in the city
and aren’t we lucky the resilience is
such a buzzword the first is how do we
make housing safer in the event of
natural disaster the second how do we
incentivize and train the youth that are
moving from villages most of them in
housing to build safer the third is can
technology come to rescue and bridge
this divide as you see there is non-stop
opportunity for social innovation and at
heart I am a city person where I draw my
inspiration from an optimism is that
each of us here have a role to play
social innovation goes beyond social
enterprise it is a mindset for us and I
do believe that collectively our actions
have the opportunity to inspire to
empower and disrupt the status quo
making our cities inclusive and
resilient thank you [Applause]
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