India is going through an unprecedented transformation with a massive fourfold increase in population. Sustainable housing is one of major problems it has to address today. While the government has launched large scale affordable housing programmes under the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and state level schemes, still a lot has to be done to meet the exponentially growing demand.

The DA group has been striving to find ways to bridge the housing gap in rural and urban areas and make affordable habitat available to a vast majority of the poor. We pioneered the innovation and large scale accelerated adoption of widely affordable, sustainable building materials and construction technologies. We are globally recognised as the leader with numerous innovations that raise labour, resource and energy productivity and reduce carbon emissions. These include products such as Compressed Stabilised Earth Blocks, Fly Ash Bricks, Vertical Shaft Eco Kilns, Ferrocement, Micro Concrete Roofing Tiles, and more recently, totally new cement that uses largely waste materials and requires low-temperature firing. All these technologies have strong environmental, social and economic advantages – and wide applicability. They are adopted by small-scale enterprises that require small capital investments with quick turn-over rates making them attractive to new and existing entrepreneurs