Brick Eagle Foundation gets grant from Tata Trusts for affordable housing pilot
MUMBAI: The Tata Trusts, a group of charities that together own two-thirds of Tata Sons, has offered the Brick Eagle Foundation a grant for designing an affordable housing project in a commuter town near Mumbai, demonstrating its funding commitment toward socially relevant businesses.
The grant for the Karjat project is for extensive research on customer needs, industry best practices and, scalable and sustainable construction technologies in affordable housing. The designs for the project, to be completed in two years, are expected to be aesthetic, locally relevant, scalable, and commercially viable. The value of the grant has not been disclosed.
“We are pleased to initiate this pilot project with Brick Eagle Foundation, which will serve as a blueprint for designing affordable homes. This project will provide a critical perspective to understand the housing needs of the economically weaker sections (EWS), and Lower Income Group (LIG) population,“ said Shikha Srivastava, Lead, Urban Poverty Alleviation and Livelihoods portfolio, Tata Trusts.
India faces an estimated shortage of 20 million homes in the LIG EWS segment. Yet, there has been limited private sector investment in the affordable housing sector, particularly in the sub-10 lakh category, because of the perceived risks and low margins.
“Our association with Tata Trusts began about a year ago. Tata Trusts' focus on habitat is a welcome move as it supports the government's `Housing for All' objective and will go a long way in alleviating housing poverty in India,“ said Kirti Timmanagoudar, founder, Brick Eagle Foundation.
Brick Eagle Foundation will be led by Shivani Manaktala, director, who has two decades of experience in the social sector and in building commercially sustainable business models.
While Brick Eagle Group serves the LIG customer group through its commercial ventures, the Foundation is its non-profit division that works closely with the EWS segment.
Brick Eagle Foundation plans to use the findings and experience of this pilot project to create scalable solutions for the EWS segment. The next step would be partnering with the private sector, the government, academia, NGOs, and social impact funds to bridge the massive housing gap for the socially and economically challenged.
The grant for the Karjat project is for extensive research on customer needs, industry best practices and, scalable and sustainable construction technologies in affordable housing. The designs for the project, to be completed in two years, are expected to be aesthetic, locally relevant, scalable, and commercially viable. The value of the grant has not been disclosed.
“We are pleased to initiate this pilot project with Brick Eagle Foundation, which will serve as a blueprint for designing affordable homes. This project will provide a critical perspective to understand the housing needs of the economically weaker sections (EWS), and Lower Income Group (LIG) population,“ said Shikha Srivastava, Lead, Urban Poverty Alleviation and Livelihoods portfolio, Tata Trusts.
India faces an estimated shortage of 20 million homes in the LIG EWS segment. Yet, there has been limited private sector investment in the affordable housing sector, particularly in the sub-10 lakh category, because of the perceived risks and low margins.
“Our association with Tata Trusts began about a year ago. Tata Trusts' focus on habitat is a welcome move as it supports the government's `Housing for All' objective and will go a long way in alleviating housing poverty in India,“ said Kirti Timmanagoudar, founder, Brick Eagle Foundation.
Brick Eagle Foundation will be led by Shivani Manaktala, director, who has two decades of experience in the social sector and in building commercially sustainable business models.
While Brick Eagle Group serves the LIG customer group through its commercial ventures, the Foundation is its non-profit division that works closely with the EWS segment.
Brick Eagle Foundation plans to use the findings and experience of this pilot project to create scalable solutions for the EWS segment. The next step would be partnering with the private sector, the government, academia, NGOs, and social impact funds to bridge the massive housing gap for the socially and economically challenged.
