CSR makes the difference
In an exclusive interview with Ramesh Menon, Director, Certes Realty Ltd., who won the Award in the category of CSR Initiative of the Year for Mera Jaunti from Realty Plus How do you feel after winning this award from Realty Plus? We are happy that Realty Plus decided to recognize the non profitable efforts from an industry member. We are grateful too. Typically, Developers restrict the CSR efforts to their project; vicinity of their area of influence. Largely, CSR efforts are as donations OR support to another organization / NGO. In this case, we wanted our sphere of influence to be larger. When the PM of India announced the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) from the ramparts of the Red Fort, we wanted to contribute. We teamed up with Dr. Udit Raj, Member of Parliament from North West Delhi, and adopted Village Jaunti for holistic development. Has it raised the bar of expectation from you for the future? The success and satisfaction that we have derived thus far, has definitely enthused us to keep up with our contributions. Our desire is to make a success out of this village, and then replicate the programs in many more, in the future. Does a CSR activity really make the difference? It definitely does. In this instance, we are not just focusing on the physical infrastructure development in the village, but also the soft skills. We want that the mindset in our villages changes, for the positive, esp. towards the Girls taking up their deserved place in decision making. We are working on areas like Health, Skills, employment, self sufficiency, growth of GDP by 25% YoY, and intend that this village be the ideal for the entire country, in 2-3 years time. How do you drive and motivate your team? The teams are self motivated. Dispensing social responsibility, be it a corporate, or an individual, the motivation need arise from within. Yes, the leadership team has a role to convince the volunteers on the efficacy of the efforts, and the long term impact of the efforts on the organization value, brand percolation & sustainability of the investment. How do you look up to your clients? Our clients have been very supportive of our CSR initiatives. They appreciate the fact that the Certes team has committed time, effort, money & leadership towards this program initiated by the Prime Minister of India. We in fact keep our clients, patrons & supporters appraised of the efforts through the social media & dedicated website of the village. What is the USP of your company? In the real estate transaction space, most organizations evolve as generalists, i.e, transact all products, accept most assignments, work on a success fee model without specialising in the Policy matters, legal, socio-economic & technical aspects of the product or service. Certes Realty Ltd. With its slogan “Let’s Talk Land” is a specialist Land consulting organization, with the domain expertise on Delhi Master Plan 2021. We have extended our consulting services to the Government agencies, Institutional investors as well as HNIs. In the future, we intend to offer our services to DDA, on the operationalization of Land Pooling; i.e., be the interface between the Land owners & Government, and facilitate end to-end, including measurement, documentation, dispute resolution, valuation & transaction.
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