HDFC School to Open Soon in Gurgaon!

MUMBAI: HDFC, the country’s largest housing finance company, is planning to replicate its housing success in education now. This is planned to be done by launching its first English medium school under the CBSE stream in Gurgaon this week.

Though the HDFC School will start functioning only from next academic year i.e. 2015- 16, it will accept admissions for nursery to standard III from this month onwards. The HDFC School will be located in Sector 57 and will be the 1^st of the many to be launched by the housing finance major’s wholly- owned subsidiary HDFC Education and Development Services. The HDFC School will have classes up to standard 12^th.

The HDFC officials were tight- lipped about the fees but sources have revealed that it will be close to Rs. 8, 000 per month. The housing finance major is eyeing a niche segment for this venture and will position its schools as ‘international schools’ in the metros.

In the recent annual general meeting, Deepak Parekh, the HDFC chairman, had said the first school will come up this year. This push into education is being spearheaded by Renu Karnad, HDFC’s Delhi- based managing director.

HDFC will also be providing school management and other allied services. Apart from setting up its own schools.

HDFC had started out by extending home loans for the middle class in 1977. Today it has diversified into banking, insurance, education, broking and mutual funds. Also, HDFC had earlier entered the education finance sector by acquiring Credila Financial Services, country’s first education loan company.

Apart from this, given the brand loyalty enjoyed by the group, HDFC had also considered getting into real estate development and floated an arm called HDFC Developers. However, this proposal was shot down by the Reserve Bank of India.