Perspective from the Leadership

Perspective from
the Leadership

Dear Feltlow Stakeholders,

It gives me great pleasure to present to you the Sustainability Report for Financial year 2018- 2019. This year marked two milestones for the Bank. On February 18, we inaugurated our 5000th branch in Mumbai, exactly 25 years after we opened our very first branch in the city.

While the landmark branch is in Mumbai, more than half of the Bank’s branches are located in the semi-urban and rural areas. What gives us immense satisfaction is that every branch opened acts as a catalyst for change by taking banking services to the most remote parts of the country.

Our Bank has so far impacted 10 crore lives directly or indirectly. This includes 4.9 crore customers, 5 crore people through its social initiatives and the families of over 1.9 lakh employees, including those of our 2 subsidiaries.

I am happy to state that in the year ended March 31, 2019, our Bank continued to do well in a challenging business environment, in both financial and societal parameters. The Bank posted a 20.5% rise in net Profit to ₹ 21,078.1 crore and a 20.3% rise in Net Interest Income to ₹ 48,243.2 crore.

The Bank works to address various environmental challenges and incorporate technologies and processes that don’t harm, but rather add value to the quality of the environment. To further strengthen its commitment, the Bank has constituted a Board governed Environmental policy that will serve as a framework for its initiatives.

At HDFC Bank we have always believed in creating change that is holistic and sustainable. Our mantra of Parivartan, the umbrella brand for all our social initiatives, is aimed at transformation and progress for the underserved. The best example of this is our Sustainable Livelihood Initiative; an all women programme with perhaps no parallel globally, both in terms of scale and impact. Encompassing, financial literacy, skills training credit counselling, livelihood finance and delivered through Self Help Groups, it covers the length and breadth of the country. It has already made a difference to the lives of 96.7 lakh households or nearly 3.87 crore individuals and help them break the vicious cycle of poverty. Over 10,000 employees of the Bank making up about 10% of the total workforce are running this programme.

The Holistic Rural Development Programme is yet another example of long-term and impactful change. The nation can progress only when Rural India prospers as half of India depends on agriculture. This belief has propelled us into focusing on key issues that affect the rural hinterland: soil, water and natural resource and management and sanitation. Spread over 17 states, the programme covers over 3.6 lakh households across 1,100 villages. Over 26,000 acres of land have been treated to enhance productivity. Such interventions, we hope will stop the large scale migration to cities.

The Teaching the Teacher or 3T initiative is again one of its kind. In a unique model the attempt is to skill the teachers so that they can in turn train the students. Already 15 lakh teachers potentially benefiting 1.6 crore children have been trained through the programme.

None of this would be complete without mentioning our national blood donation drive. In 2013 we were awarded by the Guinness Book of Records for the largest collection of blood on a single day. The drive was initiated in 2007 and till date, we have cumulatively collected over 1 million units of blood.

And finally, this year’s report showcases how our Bank’s social initiatives under Parivartan have dovetailed into the Sustainable Development Goals identified by the United Nations member states in 2015. This as you would probably know is a universal call to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.

Thank you

Aditya Puri,
MD & CEO