v k sharma : affordable housing and housing finance address by mr v k sharma, executive director of the reserve bank of india, at the conference on “ affordable housing and housing finance ”, organised by the national housing bank, in association with the world bank and the international finance corporation, new delhi, 27 january 2010. * * * 1. mr. abdul qadeer fitrat, governor, central bank of afghanistan, mr. arun maira, member, planning commission, mr. r. gopalan, secretary, department of financial services, mrs. kiran dhingra, secretary, ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, mr. kamran shehzad, deputy governor, state bank of pakistan, mr. s. sridhar, chairman and managing director, national housing bank, mr. paolo martelli, director, south asia, international finance corporation, mr. r. v. verma, executive director, national housing bank, distinguished guests and invitees, members of the electronic and print media, ladies and gentlemen. 2. first of all, i would wish to thank national housing bank for giving me this honour and privilege to address this distinguished and august audience. the national housing bank was set up as a wholly owned subsidiary of reserve bank of india under the national housing bank act, 1987, to act as a principal apex national agency to promote housing finance by providing financial and other support to housing finance institutions. 3. i must acknowledge that the theme of the conference is contextually, and topically, most appropriate and relevant, considering that it represents a very key element / component in india ’ s indefatigable pursuit of the national agenda of sustainable and inclusive economic growth and prosperity. i must also acknowledge that the conference agenda is indeed quite comprehensive what with almost everything that there is to “ affordable housing and housing finance ” included, and to be expertly handled by a formidable line up of internationally renowned and distinguished professionals. i would, therefore, not venture to encroach upon their professional expertise and would instead confine my remarks to what to my mind represent key prudential and systemic concerns in affordable housing involving optimally harmonising and balancing the interests of lenders and borrowers in the housing finance market. coming to brass tacks, i would wish to draw attention to a fairly standard and generally prevalent predilection on the part of banks and lenders to extend long - term floatingrate, including, more recently, teaser, housing

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