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16serviced residencesandal lands Coming up with a new trend

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Creating higher Value productsa civil engineer by profession and

fdi in retailoverall, it’s not Walmarting, it’s a windfall

indian Cities slip to the bottomof the investment destinations list, according to theuli, pwC report on ‘Emerging trends in real Estate®asia pacific 2013.

58Without any titleMuch has been written about the merits and the greatqualities of Manto’s short stories but very little atten-tion has been paid on his other forms.

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MicromaxMost selling phone of this Month

lifestyle of home decorWhether it be for your own personal enjoyment or todesire...

Embarking on a new Chapterhere we bring in important years, in chronologicalorder, asociated with the man, ratan tata, the billion-naire scion and one who transformed a ' com-momwealth conglomerate into a single entity:

unveiling innovation in real Estatepioneering new materials and methods, blending anew generation of innovative techniques and poolingglobal technology in design and construction have po-sitioned ajnara group as one of the most

unstoppable Modi!love or hate him, the man is to stay here.

Coming up with a solid action plan can become chal-lenging ...

social media key of success

EditorHariom Tyagi

Managing EditorAchyut Nath Jha

Consulting EditorsRakesh Purohit

Manoj Chaturvedi

lEgal EditorMakrand Pratap Singh

CorrEspondEntsRajkumar Chaudhry

Amit Agarwal

sub EditorManish Kashyap

salEs & MarkEtingAjeet Tyagi

Shailender Chaudhry

graphiC dEsignErUmang Goel

VidEo and photographErHariom Sharma

P.D. Shah

adMin.Jagat Kumar

offiCEObserver Dawn Pvt. Ltd.

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Contact-011-42334982

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Letter From the Editor

Hoping for the Better

It's that time of year when we have option to both introspect andmake resolution so that things move on positive note and resultin optimistic outcome. As far as 2012 is concerned, it defiesnaysayers who went overboard, writing obituary for euro zone(which didn't split) and world at large( taking a clue from Mayan

calendar). However, the global economy continued to flounder; Amer-icans re-elected Barak Obama in the White House, who seems knowbattling against the Congress over "Fiscal Cliff". India, and its govern-ment, despite policy paralysis and a slew of scams, survived.

But, unlike the last year, we didn't have luxury to enjoy the dawnof new year as we were facing shocks and protests over the way halfof India's population is treated. The death on 29 December of a gang-rape victim shocked the nation and for the first times, we are forcedto realise that everything about us is wrong. With economic prosperitywhich provided succour to millions of us, we forgot to provide safetyto women, that too in Delhi, the capital city. India Gate and Road lead-ing to Raisina Hills were virtually under the siege, police barricadingbecame the norm of day to contain the simmering discontent amongall who were just chanting, "Enough is Enough" and forcing powers-that-be to come out of slumber. We just hope that the reaction to thecrime and the brave young woman’s death could address many ofthose ills of system which is stacked against girl child and women.There are endless possibilities to do reform in judiciary and adminis-trative measures to make cities and village liveable with crime againstwomen being dealt severely.

For the Indian economy to look rosy, it is incumbent to take policyinitiatives in pragmatic way. During the fag end of the year, govern-ment embarked on policy-making drive like allowing FDI in retail theeffect of which could be realised in a couple of years once global re-tailers open their chains in cities and producers as well as customershave better position to bargain and reap the benefits. on the politicalfront, the outcome of state-level elections, especially the hat-trick byNarendra Modi in Gujarat have shown that people are more worriedabout economic development than they are about caste or religion.Rise and influence of social media further indicates that people will bejudging the efficacy of systems to make them accountable.

Happy Reading !

Hariom Tyagi

Editor, Observer Dawn

@harityagi2003

@harityagi2003

@harityagi2003

@harityagi2003

Connect with Hariom Tyagi

6 8OBSERVER DOWN7 FEBRUARY 2013

For the Indian

economy to look rosy,

it is incumbent to take

policy initiatives in

pragmatic way.

& AnswerQ

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When did you start your company? Does the venture tar-get any specific group or segment?

Action TESA started in February of 2010. The product basket istargeted at the corporate, hospitality, institutions and the do-mestic segments. The products are for interior décor of anydwelling or works spaces. Its economical yet aesthetic.

Tell in brief about the vision and mission of your company.

Action TESA’s mission from its very inception has been to de-velop products and solution that’s aimed at the common manand the middle class/upwardly mobile population. The MOOLMANTRA is Value for Money and Customer satisfaction.

A short background of company’s MD along with a briefabout important dates associated with the organiza-tion.

Mr. Nand Kishore Aggarwal, a mechanical engineer, has beenarchitect of the aggressive market positioning of the Brand Ac-tion TESA, that too in a span of just over a year. With a keen eyefor detail and a sensitive ear to understanding the customerneeds and aspirations has ensured that “Brand Action TESA” is

synonymous with product quality standards in line with the in-ternational standards and with its mantras of “Value for money”& “Customer delight” Action TESA is committed to manufactur-ing value-added product that best meets the application, yetwith key factor of Affordability.

Started commercial production in February 2010. Launched UVCoated Laminate Flooring in 2011 along with Laminate Floor-ing.It’s on course to launch thick MDF range in January 2013.

The early response from customers—modest or over-whelming

Action TESA has been very cautious when launching a product.It’s after rigorous testing and approvals that a product finds itsway to the Indian Market place. The company has completed 2financial years in FY 2010-11 & FY 2011-12 with great successachieving Rs.150Crs in FY 2010-11 and Rs. 275Crs in FY 2011-12a record in the annals of the industry. Action TESA Particle Boardis today the bench mark that industry follows . And, needlessto state that we are the leadres/trend setters. Action TESA haslaunched products like the Embossed HDF, UV Coated Panels &Laminate Flooring that is till today being imported. TESA is ap-proved with all the premier builders of the nation starting fromthe CPWD, MAP, NBCC, IRCON on the one hand & private

builders like DLF, Unitech, Ajanra, Godrej, BPTP, ATS & a host ofothers. In the furniture segment TESA is the lead supplier in fur-niture OEMs B P Ergo, Debono, UNICOS, Featherlite, Godrej, Eu-rocaustic & others.

Even as some companies are facing flak over accounta-bility and transparency, how are you managing it? Alsosome information about company’s work through CSR.

Action TESA have always been a follower of the norms anddoesn’t indulge in the malpractices of business. Short cuts havenever been preferred.

Action Group has it philanthropic side with it hospitals at Hissarand Delhi making quality health care accessible to the commonman. The hospitals are with a charitable view point. Apart fromthis the Group runs Dharmshalas for destitute women/widowsin Vrindavan and Salasar Balaji. The Group have been the pio-neer in the Ekal Vidayala movement. The Group funds andworks tirelessly to spread the movement pan-India.

In term of revenue and employment, where does itstand?

The Action Group is group that believes in self-reliance in re-sources, be it manpower, raw material and revenue and hasworked tirelessly towards this goal. It has achieved the marketrecognition of being a stable employer fostering an environ-ment of mutual growth of an employee.

Is the prevailing business sentiment offering the requi-site support to sustain and make profit?

The Company has posted profits in FY 2010-11 & FY 2011-12.The market is tough and there has a be demand slide with aninfrastructure slow down. But Action TESA has an enviableproduct bouquet and shall maintain status quo despite the cur-rent situation.

What is the USP of your company?

To honestly state the USP – incidentally, the most unique is thefact that the company manufactures products that are India rel-evant and for the Aam Aadami(common man) which is utilitybased and with the key essence of VALUE FOR MONEY. <

INTErvIEw

Mr. Nand Kishore Aggarwal,a mechanical engineer, hasbeen architect of the aggres-sive market positioning ofthe Brand Action TESA, thattoo in a span of just over ayear. In a fac-to-face withObserver Dawn, he talks indetail how company is geared to sustain its pre-eminent position in the market.

Action Group has it philan-thropic side with it hospitalsat Hissar and Delhi makingquality health care accessibleto the common man. The hospitals are with a charitable view point.

Action TESA has been very cautious whenlaunching a product. It’s after rigorous test-ing and approvals that a product finds its wayto the Indian Market place. The company hascompleted 2 financial years in FY 2010-11 & FY2011-12 with great success achievingRs.150Crs in FY 2010-11 and Rs. 275Crs in FY2011-12 a record in the annals of the industry.

Mr. nand kishore aggarwalMD, Action Tesa Group

Mr. ajay aggarwalDirector, Action Tesa Group


rEAl ESTATE

mensely competitive Realty and infra-structure development industry.

The AMR Group is a distinguished con-glomerate with holdings spread acrossa host of verticals comprising Jewellery,Finance, Garments, and Real Estate De-velopment. R.C. Jewellers is one of thesub-brands from the house of AMRwhich is renowned as a top manufac-turer, exporter, and wholesaler of jew-ellery and artifacts. In addition, thegroup’s globally acclaimed export armRoyal Exports is a fully independent ex-porter of jewellery. The group’s projec-tion into import and export business inKMK Fabrics Private Limited commandsa strong presence in both domestic andinternational markets. The group’s sub-sidiary Arise Security System is one ofthe leading distributors of and solutionproviders in electronic security devicesand is widely trusted by several top ho-tels, museums, government bodies,and organisations. All these make it asa channel-oriented organisation withglobal standards.

A Strategist With a promise to create better andhigher value product, Mr. Kapil Aggar-wal, Managing Director of AMR Infra-structures, has differentiated itself bydelivering a venerable combination ofsafety, innovation, and world class con-struction standards. The 39-year-oldcelebrity businessman with an exhaus-tive industry experience, Kapil is one ofthe leading real estate developers inthe country, and the brain behindIndia’s first all in one adventure andtourism destination – The Great Adven-ture Mall based at Tech Zone, GreaterNoida. A civil engineer by professionand with business as a legacy, Kapil hasnot just developed his family businessof textiles further but also diversifiedinto other industry verticals. As of now,besides textiles and real estate, he hasbusiness interests in jewellery, artefacts,education, security systems, hospitality,power projects, entertainment andmedia. Kapil is passionate about pro-viding youngsters with a platform suchthat they can follow their dreams - notjust make but also enhance their ca-reers. NYFA is currently setting up acampus at The Great Adventure Mall,

Greater Noida to offer more than 80different programs like acting, filmmaking, film direction, editing etc., tostudents from India and neighboringcountries. NYFA shall work closely withDFC for practical hand-on training of itsstudents with renowned directors. Thisis a part of Kapil's broader vision tomake Delhi-NCR the second biggestfilm hub besides Mumbai.

YDF under the aegis of Indian Fash-ion Company (IFC) is yet another boldindustry initiative by Kapil. What he hasenvisioned under this is to further thecareers of talented young fashion de-sign graduates by transforming theminto complete professionals with theirown fashion label. To do this YDF shallfirst scout for promising fashion gradu-ates with great potential from reputedfashion schools in the country andabroad. These aspirants trained by YDFshall then be promoted and launchedas professionals through graduationfashion shows.

Well-known for constructing greenand intelligent buildings, Kapil man-ages his business professionally withbest practices and corporate gover-nance in place. Over the years he hasmade AMR Infrastructures a socially re-sponsible and channel-oriented busi-ness organization that delves in all kindof projects - residential, commercial, ITparks and SEZs. Besides Delhi & NCR, hehas expanded his real estate empire totier II cities like Kurukshetra, Kundli, Uj-jain, Jaipur and Raipur as well for he re-alizes the business potential that theseplaces shall have in the time to come.

A Negotiator Mr. Kashif N Usmani, President at AMRInfrastructures Ltd., Is widely known forhis rich industry experience and nego-tiation skills to deliver a win-win situa-tion for his organization and otherbusiness parties. His acumen of devel-oping the correct strategy based onmarket research coupled with his atti-tude towards ensuing delight for inter-nal and external customers have wonhim laurels everywhere.

Usmani has had stints with TDI –Vice President, Ansal Properties & Infra-structure Ltd., as Head, International

Marketing; US Global Inc., as Vice Presi-dent, Marketing; as well - more to gainexposure and experience - before tak-ing on his current role of President atAMR Infrastructures Ltd . at a young ageof 37 years. However, his domain is notjust limited to the real estate business.He has been instrumental in proactivelyassisting and at times, playing a leadingrole in other ventures of the Group likeDelhi Film Council, Young Designer'sForum (under the aegis of Indian Fash-ion Company), New York Film Academyand Adventure Sports. In fact, he hasintroduced adventure and entertain-ment activities which are an eclecticcollection of world's best and a first forIndia like helicopter joyrides, reversebungee jumping, vertical anti-gravitywind tunnel, para motor, wax museum,artificial sea beach, 5D cinema etc.

Equipped with his two-decades ofexpertise and experience across a slewof blue chip companies, Usmani’s entre-preneur strength is propelling thegrowth dynamic of AMR. And theprocess is still continuing much to thedelight of industry which always moveson dedication, devotion and hard workof professionals like Usmani.<

Keeping pace with tremendous growthwhich India realized in the recenttimes on account of its big stride ineconomy and technology, AMR Infra-structures Ltd., a renowned name

with diversified portfolios, is on the way toachieve the next level of success by becomingthe scion of aesthetic aspirations in architectureand building. With a customer-centric approach,the company has endeavored to deliver its prod-uct with excellence. The unique products of thehighest quality at competitive pricing have be-come the USP of the company. AMR’s various ini-tiatives such as the Great Adventure Mall, DelhiFilm Council in association with actor-directorSatish Kaushik, Young Designer’s Forum (YDF)under the aegis of Indian Fashion Company (IFC),the Indian chapter of New York Film Academy(NYFA) , are first-of-its-kind and unparalleled notonly in the country but Asia as well. With inces-sant innovations befitting the brands like AMR,it has maintained a sustainable lead in the im-

Creating Higher

Value Products

Mr. kashif n usmaniPresident, AMR Infrastructures Ltd.

Mr. kapil aggarwalManaging Director, AMR Infrastructures Ltd.

A civil engineer by profession andwith business as a legacy, Kapil hasnot just developed his family business of textiles further but alsodiversified into other industry verticals.

cleared, we may look there.

Q. In Noida and NCR, deliveringhomes at affordable price looks im-possible…A. We couldn’t deliver. We can’t becauseof rising cost of construction and delayin clearances further impact the cost.There is normally a myth that buildersintentionally delay the projects. The factis they are more than eager to deliver intime as it helps in saving time andmoney. Sooner the delivery, it is betterfor them. So, under compulsion, theyhike the rate. Project’s delay results incost escalation and makes even viableprojects unviable.

Q. If we talk about your project-Ike-bana. Where is it and what’s itssize?A. Ikebana is in Sector-143 in Noida Ex-pressway and it is spread in 50,000 sq.marea (about 12.5 acres). There are 1450units of four size — 1340, 1495, 1695and 1995 sq. ft. This is a luxury segmentcatering to middle and upper middleclass and of ultimate luxury. It has excel-lent location advantage with green sur-rounding and seamless connectivity.

Q. What is the basic price and howyou manage to deliver in this pricewhereas builders in the adjacentareas are charging more, some-thing in Rs 6000 range?A. The basic price is Rs.4650 per sq. ft.Relatively lower price doesn’t mean wecompromise on quality. We offered thefinished product comprising all the top-class features and high quality standard.

Q. What about possession and over-all response?A. We started with estimate of deliver-ing to customers within three to threeand a half year although we have toldthem that final delivery will be done infour years. Sticking to our aim to givetimely possession, work is progressingon war footing. 75% of all units of allsizes have been sold out which speaksabout the unprecedented responsefrom buyers and investors.

Q. So, you didn’t see any slowdown?

A. Yes, we haven’t realised any slowdown. We make building as landmarksand present things people always wantto preserve.

Q. How does Gulshan Homz differ-entiate it from other developers?A. We differ from others in term of “ef-fective living planning”, taking care ofminute details like lighting, air flow,landscaping and greenery. We also in-troduced the green building conceptcertified by IGBC.

Q. Something more about Ike-bana…A. Ikebana is a unique project in termsof features it contains. In addition to all

indispensable elements, it offers an aes-thetic sense which is rarely taken intoaccount by others. Making of entrancelounge and welcome lounge is done insuch a way befitting a five-star ambi-ence. Even five-star hotels don’t havesuch spacious and user-friendly fea-tures. Ikebana is a ultimate product, thattoo, in a competitive price, giving ben-efit to investors/end-users. After all, wegrow as they grow.

Q. Few months back, the FinanceMinistry liberalised the rules for in-creasing funds via external com-mercial borrowing (ECBs) by thelocal companies, mainly those en-gaged in the real estate sector. Yourcomment...A. ECB is a welcoming policy for Indianrealty. What is to be seen are policy pro-cedures and implementation whichshould be open and pragmatic. Usually,it takes a lot of time to understand pol-icy’s finer points. Often, there are manyriders with rules and regulations and ahuge amount of time is lost to configurethem and impact of policy goes waste.We have yet to find out ECB is practicaland sync with Indian accounting stan-dards. When things are clear, everybodywill welcome it as it will infuse themuch-needed capital and cost of earn-ing will come down, removing the cap-ital crunch and that’s a very positive step.<


INTErvIEw

In Indian housing landscape, fewdevelopers have been as sensitiveto buyers’ need as Gulshan Homz.Pick any project by the companyand what you find is a sense of

complete satisfaction in living in a com-fortable environment and this couldhave been possible due to assiduous ef-fort by a professionally managed teamcomprising dynamic people likeDeepak Kapoor, who carry on the taskof making the company at the front.

In a conversation with Observer Dawn,Mr. Kapoor talks in detail about issuesrelated to Indian realty.

Q. How is India’s real estate out-look? Is the prospect rosy?It’s rosy if there is no over commitment.Problems start we start too many andso, instead of developing real estate, weget involved in financial jugglery andliquidity crunch and then try to comeout of it. As far as growth factor is con-cerned, end-user growth is phenome-nal; people are still there but situationgoes out of hand due to demand andsupply cycle. If we squeeze supply, ratesgo up. Interestingly, if rates go up, de-mands go down as it goes beyond thepaying capacity of the common man.

However, for basic needs, say in Rs. 30to 50 lakh bracket, the market is vibrant.

Excerpts

Q Area around the Yamuna Ex-pressway is full of real estate activi-ties. Do you have any projectsthere?A. There is great future in Yamuna Ex-pressway. First, let the governmentagencies clear all hurdles so that onemay not face the situation like Noida Ex-tension. Even the Master Plan is notcleared and once these hurdles are

Providing An Ultimate Product

We provide an‘effective livingplanning’ and ul-timate productto our customers.

Mr. deepak kapoorDirector, Gulshan Homz


rEAl ESTATE

The Noida-based Goldmine De-velopers Pvt. Ltd. is a leadingreal estate consultant in Delhi-NCR. The company specializesin services related to the pur-

chase of properties, documentation,renting and leasing, investment advisoryservices, property valuation and assistingclients with home loans. It provides acomplete customer satisfaction throughexpertise, commitment and unbridleddedication. As a financial services com-pany, it has steadily emerged as a one-stop investment solutions provider.

With a customer base of over 200,000,Goldmine Developers Group has an eyefor the intricate financial needs of itsclients and caters to both their short-term and long-term financial needsthrough a comprehensive bouquet of in-vestment services. It has been foundedwith the aim of providing world class in-vesting experience to the investing com-munity. Company operates in Noida,Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon andFaridabad. Within a short period of timeand with a variety of products and hav-ing presence in Delhi-NCR, the companyhas become the most preferred propertyconsulting firm. Goldmine has corporatetie-ups with topnotch companies like LG,CSC, Samsung, Moser Baer, TCS, , NTPC,GAIL, BHEL, Sahara, Tech Mahindra, IBM ,just to name a few. This synergy enablesthe company to offer sales service tobuilders, group housings, corporate andretail clients.

Thanks to its wide spectrum of serv-ices in real estate, the company hasachieved the status of a leading consult-ant, investment agent in the field ofmulti-storey residential, commercial proj-ects, and land acquisition. Customershave the advantage of trading in all themarket segments together in the samewindow, as the group understands theneed of transactions to be executed withhigh speed and minimum time.

Thus, as a customer-focused financialservices organization, it provides a rangeof investment solutions to customers.Company works with clients to meet

their overall investment objectives andachieve their financial goals. Clients havethe opportunity to get personalized serv-ices depending on their investment pro-files. Company’s personalized approachenables clients to achieve their total in-vestment objectives.

The company was founded in 2004by two dynamic entrepreneurs -- Mr.Gaurav Gupta and Mr. Shaleen Singh --who possess expertise in the field of mar-keting and finance. It is a professionallymanaged company led by a team withoutstanding managerial acumen and cu-mulative experience of more than 400men. The company envisages creating aprogressive organization that can boastof global standards in integrity, ethics,corporate

social responsibility(CSR) and busi-ness transparency. It aims to deliver highquality residential and commercial proj-ects that correlate with global develop-ers.

Projects GaloreGoldmine Groups’ leading projects com-prise Ajnara Group (Ajnara Daffodil, Aj-

nara Grand Heritage, Ajnara Homes, Aj-nara Integrity, Ajnara Grace);

Gaursons Group (Gaurcity (Noida Ex-tension), Gaur Grandeur (Sec-119Noida);Mahagun Group (Mywoods(Noida Extension), Moderne (Sec-78Noida);Sikka Group (Sikka Karnam (Sec-143 B Noida);Prateek Group (Prateek Wis-teria (Sec-77 Noida), Prateek Laurel(Sec-120 Noida) and Patel Group (NeoTown (Noida Extension).<

A one-stop realty solution

• Expert Advice on Property• A Hassle-Free Process• Maximum Discounts in the Market• Direct Channel Partnership• Best Rates in the Industry• Properties from all the Big Construc-

tion Houses• Leading to a Wide Variety of Choices

and Varied Quality• Massive Range of Products and Serv-

ices• All Budget Range• Long-term and Trustworthy Corporate

Partners

Incorporated in 2005, Era Land-marks, the real estate arm of EraGroup, is carrying forward its primeobjective of positioning itself as a360 degree provider of infrastruc-

ture solutions. Era Landmarks is an ISO9001:2000 certified company with wideproduct portfolio. Standing by its mottoof “Believe in Difference”, in just fewyears, Era Landmarks has carved a dis-tinct reputation for itself in the real es-tate fraternity. The backbone of EraLandmarks is the construction expertisewhen it comes to delivery and execu-tion gained by the Group companiesengaged in turnkey projects in Infra-structure development – roads/ high-ways, railways, aviation, metro, socialinfra, etc., to name a few.

In residential segment, from inte-grated townships to multi-storied hous-ing and in commercial, from IT Parks toretail (malls & e-multiplexes) projects,Era Landmarks has forayed into everyopportunity that came to its way. Afterdelivering projects and establishing it’sfootholds in Tier II cities, it has launchedsome premium projects in Metros andTier I cities — the company’s focus areasin the future.

Integrated Townships include “GAR-DENIA ESTATE” and “ASPEN GARDEN” atMeerut, “LAUREL GARDEN” at Sirsa, areall delivered and now a habitat of thou-sands of happy residents. “LAUREL GAR-DEN–II” at Sirsa has just been launched.“ERA GREEN WORLD” at Palwal is in theconstruction stage.

Multi-storied housing includes the“REDWOOD RESIDENCY” & “ERA DIVINECOURT” at Faridabad which are almost

ready for possession. In the highly com-petitive markets of Gurgaon, the com-pany has few premium projects whichare in the early stages of conceptualiza-tion.

Additionally, the commercial proj-ects of Era Landmarks include multipur-pose projects – “IT Square” at GreaterNoida is a very premium projects at bestof the locations for corporate and IT Gi-ants. Among retail, the projects include

“CITY CENTRE” & “GALLERIA” at Sirsawith constructions in full swing and the“ERA MALL” at Meerut which is opera-tional with the best of shopping, enter-tainment and eating experiences.

With geographic footprints spreadstrategically across Metros and Tier Icities, it is ideally positioned to make themost of the burgeoning realty potentialacross India.

Era Landmarks’ innovative plans areaimed largely at developing one-stopparadises, where comfort and lifestyleare in close quarters aimed at trans-forming living, working and shoppingexperiences to the next level – all “witha difference” that’s spectacularly surrealso to speak!

Donning the Mantle

Mr. Sumit Bharana, Director, Era Land-marks, is young, talented and dynamicentrepreneur. Sumit Bharana is an archi-tect, strategic thinker and born leader.He combines the wisdom of his lineagewith the new-age mantra of businessleadership. Sumit comes with years ofexperience, deep understanding andvaried exposure in the real estate sector.He has first-hand and hands-on-experi-ence with several real estate projects inGurgaon, national capital region(NCR)and elsewhere in the country.

Mr. Sumit Bharana formally joinedEra Landmarks Ltd. in January 2010after his Bachelor Degree in Architec-ture from Amity University. His experi-ences count right from his school daysunder the able guidance of Mr. H. S.Bharana, CMD of Era Group. The risefrom trainee to the present position is aremarkable journey where he followsthe motivational management andleadership style, empowering profes-sional teams and maximizing their lev-els of productivity. As the Director, he isresponsible for day-to-day operationsand functioning of CMG, PMG and PMCof the company. <

Mr. shaleen singhDirector, Goldmine Developer Pvt. Ltd.

Benefit of Going with Goldmine

A Premium Real Estate Companywith geographic footprints spread strate-gically across Metros and Tier I cities, Era landmarks is ideally posi-tioned to make the most of the burgeoning realty potential across India.

Mr. sumit bharanaDirector, Era Landmarks

17FEBRUARY 8OBSERVER DOWN716 8OBSERVER DOWN7 FEBRUARY 2013

rEAl ESTATE

In the light of robust economy witnessedby India in this decade, it is noticed, therehas been an untamed demand for busi-ness travel across India with more integra-tion towards the global economy. Due to

which growing impetus of business and med-ical tourism in India has witnessed manifoldgrowth over period of time.

Given the fact, hospitality sector hasboomed shortly, formation of huge gap innumber of travelers and hotel accommodationhas become a matter of concern. It is expectedthat there will be a shortage of quality accom-modation in near future, as in, supply of hotelis apprehended thereof.

With increase in corporate travel and spend-ing weeks and months for working from differ-ent location has become frugal these days.Where people are left with no other optionsapart from lodging in hotels which is always acostly affair in own terms. With the advent ofnewer concept; ‘Serviced Apartment or Serv-iced Residence’ offers an alternative solution tothe problem. A ‘serviced residence’ is a mean bywhich one can lead a homely stay while stayingaway from home. It is built in a manner wherea furnished accommodation, comparatively

larger than a hotel room, with smallkitchen (kitchenette) is provided withbasic facilities of a household such as cut-lery, crockery and vessels for cookingalong with a piped gas connection, manyother services are provided such as largesize bedroom with alleviating space withattached bathroom, living area with homeoffice, sleek kitchenette with attached din-ing space, fully loaded refrigerator, Mi-crowave EPABX, Cable/Satellite TV, WiFi/Internet Connectivity, DVD players withmovies on rent, Daily newspaper, iron andIroning Board on request and ElectronicSafe for valuables, sometimes even pro-vided with concierge service. The lodgingrates are generally way cheaper comparedto the hotels which charge exorbitant rateto its customers.

The concept is new and an uncharteddomain, which poses a huge potentialityin terms of market. In India, the market isat its nascent stage and is expected to gainmomentum in short span of time. The sizeof this segment is diminutive in compari-son to the South Asian and Pacific marketswhere it has been acknowledged, popularand accepted already. In the Indian pre-text, the target group is the High NetWorth Individuals, Corporate and LeisureTravellers and foreign tourists, who prefer‘service apartment’ over hotels; belongingfrom a different culture and having spe-cific living standard. Keeping this in mind,the service apartments are basically devel-oped complying to the norms of interna-tional standards with three star hotelfacilities. Proliferation in sectors like BPO,ITES, and Financial Institutions are pullingthe crowd for serviced apartments in India.

The concept which embarked on Mumbaiaround 2003-04, has seeped in cities likeBangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi NCR re-gion. It has propelled 25 – 45 % doubledigit growth in the last five years and is an-ticipated to gain maturity at a steady pacewith due acceptance and popularity.

In view of this concept and in recogni-tion of dormant potential demands thesegment posses. ‘Sandal lands Pvt. Ltd’ (sis-ter concern of Assotech Realty Pvt. Ltd)has taken the initiative to deliver quality‘Serviced Residences’ across 25 cities inIndia, further pioneering themselves inthis field in India. Earlier it has been suc-cessful in delivering 'Serviced Residences’christened as ‘Cabana Serviced Residences’at Indirapuram, Delhi NCR in 2008.

The concept offers a lucrative invest-ment option for its owners as well. The cus-tomer or the investor buys a unit in‘Serviced Residences’ and the companymanages and maintains the property. Therental income earned is divided equallyamong all the investors with a part kept bycompany for meeting the expenses, main-tenance, security, wages, administration,and housekeeping etc. The investor is paida continued rental per month as a returnon his investment and company offers re-turns as high as 21-24% per annum, sub-ject to occupancy and demand pattern. Abrain child of Mr. Neeraj Gulati, ManagingDirector – “Sandal Lands Pvt. Ltd”, an as-tute finance professional, responsible fordrawing the blueprints of the said conceptand materializing it for the companywhich was established in the year, 2003;further he has been able to carve a nichefor the company in positioning them-

selves as leaders in Delhi NCR in the officespace realty segment, and also, has re-puted residential projects under its beltdeveloped across Delhi/NCR.

‘Sandal lands Pvt. Ltd’ has taken longstride in positioning themselves as a suc-cessful player in real estate, now focusingon, to consolidate its foothold in the panIndia market. The company has initiatedacquiring lands for their ‘Business Parks &Serviced Apartments’ outside Delhi andNCR. It plans to launch a spree of ServiceApartments in the name of “Sandal Suites”across the nation, under 3 major segmentsi.e. Leisure, Business and Pilgrimage. Toadd cherries on top, the service residentcomplex are stacked with an array of facil-ities like double height Guest EntranceLobby, state of the art Health Club withSpa, Business Centre, Board/ConferenceRooms, Meeting Rooms, Terrace and PoolSide Multi-cuisine restaurant for guest tosavour to their individual taste, recre-ational area, coffee and pastry shops. Thecharges pertaining to lodging varies fromRs (2,000 – 10,000) per night dependingon the time period, category of room andamenities provided for the stay.

The company also offers lucrative in-vestment options where there is a guaran-teed return on investment on a monthlybasis for the investors. In particular, it ismend for investors who desires a recurringreturn on investment. As these residences,which are strategically located near thecorporate hubs. The, occupancy levels areexpected to remain high throughout theyear. In addition to the investment the in-vestor are given a privilege of free stay fora limited period across India along with aclub membership with the company.

The concept is a unique blend of hos-pitality and real estate creating a new poolof investor and target group of its own. Anattractive returns makes Sandal Suites anideal investment opportunity. ‘Sandallands Pvt Ltd’ has been able to steam rollahead and set up new bench mark with aunique line of innovative concept by amal-gamating two domain. Keeping this inmind the company is heading for an ex-pansion and has Ahmedabad as its newdestination, on its radar. Further it intendsto explore opportunities in Goa, Hyder-abad, Pune, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Bangaloreand etc. and has also roped in Shirdi, Katraand Tirupati for pilgrimage destination. <

ServicedResidence

Sandal Lands Coming up with a New Trend

The concept is new and an uncharted

domain, which poses a huge potentiality

in terms of market. In India, the market

is at its nascent stage and is expected to

gain momentum in short span of time.

In his childhood, he used to play ‘building house’.

When he grew young, he dreamt to buildwonderful edifices.

And now he is constructing the highesttower in India.

Will his passion for building transform him to the zenith of real estateindustry?

Coming Soon...

Will he rule over the

Realty Space and Realtors?

Read the untold story which unfolds trajectory of a Young Turk.


IN FOcuS

Enterprises (MSME) K. H. Muniyappasaid, "FDI complements and supple-ments domestic investment. The smalland medium enterprises (SMEs) wouldbe benefited through FDI, by way of en-hanced access to supplementary capi-tal and stat-of-the-art technologies."But for the proposals involving FDI be-yond 51 per cent, MNC retailers willhave to source 30 per cent of the valueof goods from India, preferably fromMSMEs, village and cottage industries,artisans and craftsmen. Muniyappa’sview was further supported by PrimeMinister, who said, "I am confident thatit will benefit the farmers, and the con-sumers and our country." Speaking as achief guest at Punjab Agricultural Uni-versity's golden jubilee function, thePrime Minister said, "It (FDI) will intro-duce new technology and investmentin marketing agricultural produce. Indiamust take full advantage of moderntechnology and operational and man-agement experience of big supplychains in the food retail business tomake this happen."

Yet, skepticism persists over what itwill achieve and where it will perco-late—to the targeted group. Those whojustify it rely on the premise that farm-ers and consumers would benefit oncemiddlemen or intermediaries are doneaway with in the wake of investmentsby global retailers who will enter withtheir own level of operational effi-ciency.

However, in retail trade, whose pro-ductivity is low, the economy can ben-efit by opening up it to FDI. Modernretail has grown in India, especially inthe last decade, but the sector re-mains largely informal andthis growth has been lim-ited. Moreover, the ad-vantages of FDI inretail will proba-bly unfoldslowly. There aremany hurdles re-tail businesseshave to cross beforeinvestment spendingcan begin.

Economists are free to say thatthe government supports FDI in retailto make a political point, bring in for-

eign capital or send a signal to investorsand stop rupee’s continuous deprecia-tion. But don’t all these reasons takeIndia a step closer to increasing compe-tition and achieving higher productiv-ity in retail? With FDI being allowed inmulti-brand retail, large Indian compa-nies that are either already in the busi-ness or have planned to enter it arelikely beneficiaries. As years pass, theycould emerge as global players in retail-ing and could open their chain in othercountries.

Some analysts also argue that FDIwill lead to a greater variety of productsfor sale and increased consumer choice.In years to come, these will penetratedeep into the hinterland of Indian eco-nomic activity and do much to improvethe country's infrastructure and logis-tics.

In the short-term, the direct FDI im-pact from retail chains will be modest.

According to the available data by afirm, FDI in 2008 was $35 billion anddeclined in 2009 and 2010. In 2011, itcame in at around $27 billion or so.Now the moot question is: Will MNC re-tailers bring in enough to get back onthe 2008 level, that too, in one and ahalf year to two year time? It is really ahazardous guess.

It is also to be taken into accountthat big retailers just don’t enter intoventure. Their approach is cautious inthe beginning and they start by settingup a pilot project through a partnershipwith local chains. Their strategy is tolearn about the local markets. At thisentry level, which usually takes 18-to-24 months, they bring in some invest-ment to cover their set-up costs. Nowequipped with feedback at the entrylevels, retailers now open more storesand increase both the scale of opera-tions and scope of products. It is at thisjuncture that we see considerable in-vestment in the form of real estate ac-quisition, operational infrastructure,establishing supply chains and increas-ing logistics. Bolstered with their suc-

cess, big retailers are nowexpansion drive which comes

with investment. They lookfor new locations and

bring in investmentthat commiserateswith growth in vol-

umes. Even after policydecision is taken, it will

take a couple of years toexactly assess the invest-

ment and its impact on theeconomy.

The majority of people involvedin retailing agree that foreign retailchains’ arrival could spell positive im-pact on the way retailing is done in

After days of parliamentarylogjam, weeks of cajolingand behind-the-scene con-fabulation, months of lick-ing to two-step forward

and one-step backward and years of re-maining as backbencher when it comesto economic reform, Manmohan Singhgovernment got the mandate to allow51% foreign direct investment (FDI) inmulti-brand retail sector and 100% FDIin single brand. This policy decisionwhich could have passed by the rulingdispensation of the day looked to be-come a scapegoat at the altar of politi-cal convenience that often dictateseconomic benchmark India should pur-sue for larger interests. But then, weoften see powers-that-be resorting toshort-term electoral investment at thecost of overall economic interests. Pol-icy proponents seem to be convincedthat small traders will benefit throughFDI in single-brand retail as they will getaccess to enhanced capital and ad-vanced technology. Then there is expo-sure to global managerial practices,technologies as well as opportunitiesfor integration into global markets.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha,Minister of Micro, Small and Medium

opes &urdles

FDI in retail

Overall, it’s not Walmarting,

it’s a windfall.

achyut nath Jha

Those who justify it rely on the premise

that farmers and consumers would

benefit once middlemen or intermedi-

aries are done away with in the wake of

investments by global retailers who will

enter with their own level of

operational efficiency.


India. Their supply chains and logistical ca-pabilities will spur significant improvementsin the infrastructure needed to source, ship,store and deliver products. Domestic com-petitors will have to invest in infrastructureand logistics, as well as greatly speed up theemergence of product standards. Thus wesee that along with direct impact, it couldbe a force multiplier that spearheads evenmore investment from everywhere.

Impact on local kirana storeThe most vocal critics of FDI are saying timeand again that the policy will decimate ki-rana(mom-and-pop)store and badly impactdomestic retailers in the neighbourhoodmarkets. But a close look into the modusoperandi of local an MNC retailers demystifythis. There are several reasons for this.

Walmart, the most iconic of big-box re-tailers and the one often cited as a threat toIndian stores, applies different models in dif-ferent countries where it ventures. In USA,Walmart is based on "everyday low prices”and competes as a cost leader. Once estab-lished here as an eminent retailer, it startedlocating in rural areas and then moved tosuburban and semi-urban areas. In India,China, Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand and Mex-ico, the vast majority of educated middleand upper classes live in the cities where in-frastructure support system very expensiveand population density is high. Simply put,any MNC retailer will have to fork out a sub-stantial amount in opening the shop and asa result, their price points may be higherthan the local kirana stores. The real compe-tition will be from the domestic multi-brandretailers.

According to a recent study, the size oforganized retail of in 2010 was 6% to 7% ofthe total retail market in India. The studypredicted that the size of retail (putting bothorganized and unorganized together)would grow to $1.25 trillion by 2020. Theshare of the size of organized retail couldgrow to $260 billion or about 20.8% of thetotal market. So, taking this prediction inmind, the logic of small retailers beingwiped out doesn’t hold water.

Yes, MNC retail chains may create a sig-nificant impact on traders who have beendominating the whole gamut of procure-ment process of commodities, both perish-able and non-perishables, including grainsand cereals. The main Opposition party,

S W O TS W O Tanalysis of indian retail sector

IN FOcuSOD view : Some of above mentioned drawbacks are mostly politically created.Most of economists and policy makers agree that with the implementation ofthis policy all stakeholders will benefit whether it is consumer through qualityproducts at low price and farmers through more transparency in trading.

a. A major contributor to GDP: the retail sector in India is hoveringaround 33-35% of GDP as compared to around 20% in USA.

b. High Growth Rate: the retail sector in India enjoys an extremelyhigh growth rate of approximately 46%.

c. High potential: since the organised portion of retail sector is only2-3%, thereby creating lot of potential for future players.

d. Employment Generator: the retail sector employs 7% of work forcein India, which is now limited to unorganised sector only. Post-FDI,this percentage is likely to increase substantially.

a. Lack of Competitors: Accord-ing to the latest study onglobal retailing trends, Indiais least competitive marketof the world.

b. Highly unorganised: The un-organised portion of retailsector is only 97% as com-pared to US, which is only20%.

c. Low Productivity: Mckinseystudy claims retail productiv-ity in India is very low as com-pared to its internationalcounterparts.

d. Shortage of professionals:the retail trade business inIndia is not considered as re-puted profession and ismostly carried out by thefamily members (self-em-ployment and captive busi-ness). Such people are not asprofessionally qualified as itdemands.

e. No-Industry status: the retailsector in India does not enjoyindustry status in India,thereby making difficult forretailers to raise funds.

1Strengths

2Weaknesses

3

4

Opportunities

Threats

a. Organized retail will need more workers. In China, the em-ployment in both retail and wholesale trade increasedsubstantially, post-reforms in retail sector in that country.

b. Healthy competition will be a check on the prices (infla-tion): Retail giants such as Walmart, Carrefour, Tesco, Tar-get and other global retail companies already haveoperations in other countries for over 30 years. Until now,they have not at all become monopolies rather they havemanaged to keep a check on inflation through theirhealthy competitive practices.

c. Create transparency in the system: the intermediaries op-erating as per mandi norms do not have transparency intheir pricing. According to some of the reports, an averageIndian farmer realises only one-third of the price, whichthe final consumer pays.

d. Intermediaries and mandi system will be evicted, hencedirectly benefiting the farmers and producers: the prices of commodities will automatically be checked. For example, Walmart has introduced Direct Farm Project at Haider Nagar in Punjab, where 110 farmers have been connected with Bharti Walmart for sourcing fresh vegetables directly.

e. Quality control and control over leakage and wastage:Presently, 40% of the production does not reach the ultimate consumer. Food often gets rot in farm, in transit and in state-run warehouses. Cost conscious and highly competitive retailers will try to avoid thesewastages and losses and it will be their endeavour tomake quality products available at lowest prices.

f. Flow of capital will help in building up the infrastructurefor the growing population: India is already operating inbudgetary deficit. Neither the government of India nordomestic investors are capable of satisfying the growingneeds (school, hospitals, transport etc.) of the ever grow-ing Indian population. Hence foreign capital inflow willenable us to create a heavy capital base.

g. There will be sustainable development and many othereconomic issues will be focused upon: many Indian smallshop-owners employ workers, who are not under any con-tract and also under-aged workers, giving rise to child-labour.

a. Independent stores will be compelled to close: This will leadto massive job loss as most of the operations in big stores likeWalmart are highly automated requiring less work force.

b. Big players can knock-out competition: they can afford tolower prices in initial stages, become monopoly and thenraise price later.

c. India does not need foreign retailers: our kirana stores cansatisfy the whole domestic demand.

d. Remember East India Company it entered India as trader andthen took over politically.

Bharatiya Janata Party’ (BJP) virulentopposition to FDI is not surprising asthese traders who form its support basecould lose their stranglehold. Hence,the so-called ‘traders interests’ gettingharmed. Inefficient and mismanage-ment in government’s procurementforced farmers and many other ruralproducers at the mercy of large andwell-organized traders. These tradershave pan-India presence and have vir-tual monopoly across all geographicalareas. When global retailers like Car-refours, Walmarts and Tescos set up di-rect procurement mechanisms withsophisticated procurement systems,decade-old system of middlemen dom-inating the scene will evaporate.

In the recent times, several inde-pendent agencies have highlighted thepathetic situations where main produc-ers earns about 30% or even less of thefinal price paid by the consumer. Is thissingle reason is not enough to welcomethe global retailers? Enough of nation-alist posturing in the name of safe-guarding the domestic traders who

appropriate a major chunk of windfallwithout taking account of interests offarmers and producers!

Having said that, we should be hon-est to say that foreign players’ entry will,in no way, benefit everyone as eco-nomic impact doesn’t necessarily comewith a holistic approach. However, themain beneficiaries in this case will be In-dian consumers, job seekers and theproducers of goods.

Challenges AheadNo doubt, foreign firms, such as Wal-mart, the world's biggest retailer, andits British and French rivals, Tesco andCarrefour, impressed with the look ofIndia's economy and its fast-growingmiddle class, and have been knockingat the door. Moreover, retail is a highlycapital-intensive business and invest-ments are typically long-term. Retailerswith global chains will come as theyknow India market is promising. Even ifconditions are tough to comply within


IN FOcuS

the multi-brand retail FDI policy at thispoint, the long-term potential in theIndia market is significant.

Aside this hypothesis, there aresome fundamental issues which lead-ing multinational retailers need to payattention to as they face with growthprospect. One big challenge is from theemergence of new trend and the rise ofa new class of retailing called 'vertically-integrated e-tailing'. It is estimated thatthis new breed of retailers which in-cludes Bonobos, Shoedazzle and Stel-ladot have their revenue already inexcess of $1 billion, and it is rising. They,along with the 'traditional' e-tailerssuch as Amazon, can take some morebusiness away from general retailers,thus putting more pressure on theirrevenue growth potential.

Questions are also being raised ofMNC retailers’ viability of bringing intheir retail formats to countries likeIndia. While retailers such as Carrefourachieved some success in the 1980sand 1990s in making their business

truly global, they could achieve onlymarginal success in 2000s. Aggressiveand resourceful retailers like Walmart,Tesco, Carrefour Marks & Spencer havefound the going really tough in someforeign markets. One couldn’t forgetTesco’s retreat from the US, after incur-ring huge loss.

Then, in recent times, a new phe-nomenon has emerged in supplychains. One major inducement forglobal players has been the low-costsupply of products and manpower incountries such as India. As the trendsindicate that low-cost supply basescould rise leading to a costlier manufac-

turing. Rising cost of energy, shippingand logistics will automatically com-miserate with increasing cost to cus-tomers. Retailers have an uphill task tostrategise to offset the revenue loss.

In the wake of allegation of lobby-ing by Walmart, many large global re-tailers is seriously making attempt tocomply with workers' rights and fair-trade practices. The compliance needsto be done without increasing the over-all cost of sourcing. The recent disasterin Bangladesh factory where more thana hundred workers died when fire en-gulfed the factory is a pointer to thisissue. The factory has been producing

Enough of nationalist posturing in the

name of safeguarding the domestic

traders who appropriate a major chunk of

windfall without taking account of inter-

ests of farmers and producers.

As far as India is concerned, challenges

come from several quarters like restrictive

operational clauses, non-availability rightly-

priced real estate, diversified consumers and

their shopping habits, unorganised domestic

supply chain, different policy regimes that

vary from state to state, and bureaucratic

red tapism which retailers have to face.

sources for some global brands. When somany big brands are coming, it is difficult todifferentiate. In a tough competition, it is in-cumbent upon retailers to maintain cus-tomer engagement and deliver more valuefor their money. Already they are usingmulti-channel through offline and onlinemediums to reach out to the consumer.Massive digitization in media has, of course,offered them technology to expand acrosscustomers of different class and group.

With euro zone crisis still to be staved offand revival in economic conditions a far cry,international retailers are taking cautiousapproach to invest in new markets. Ofcourse, there are a few which have thatcould take risk in massive investment. Formost of them, it will be ‘wait and watch’ phi-losophy.

As far as India is concerned, challengescome from several quarters like restrictiveoperational clauses, non-availability rightly-priced real estate, diversified consumersand their shopping habits, unorganised do-mestic supply chain, different policyregimes that vary from state to state, andbureaucratic red tapism which retailershave to face.

Simply put, it will take at least couple ofyears from now to see the exact volume ofFDI and number of MNC retailers. Both pro-ponents and opponents of MNC retailersbetter wait for the period when much-sought-after billions of dollars strike the In-dian market. Till then, there is no need toworry about Walmarting.<

Walmart : Rise and Rise

of a Retail Behemoth

ton family who own a 48 percent stake.Founded by Sam Walton in 1962, it wasincorporated on October 31, 1969, andpublicly traded on the New York StockExchange in 1972. Walmart is also thelargest grocery retailer in the UnitedStates. In 2009, it generated 51 percentof its US$258 billion sales in the U.S. fromgrocery business. It also owns and oper-ates the Sam's Club retail warehouses inNorth America.

Walmart has 10,000 retail stores in 27countries, under 55 different names. Thecompany operates under the Walmartname in the United States, including the50 states and Puerto Rico. It operates inMexico as Walmex, in the United King-dom as Asda, in Japan as Seiyu, and inIndia as Best Price. It has wholly ownedoperations in Argentina, Brazil, andCanada. Company's operations are or-ganized into three divisions: WalmartStores U.S., Sam's Club, and Walmart In-ternational. It does business in nine dif-ferent retail formats: supercenters, foodand drugs, general merchandise stores,cash and carry stores, membership ware-house clubs, apparel stores, soft discountstores and restaurants.

Walmart has operated in Canadasince its acquisition of 122 stores com-prising the Woolco division of WoolworthCanada, Inc in 1994. In the mid 1990sWalmart tried with a large financial in-vestment to get a foothold in the Ger-man retail market. However, severalreasons led to Walmart's failure in theGerman market. Company's low pricestrategy yielded no competitive advan-tage. Also its corporate culture was notviewed positively among employees andcustomers in Germany. Also Walmart's"Big Box – Low Price" Model, a price strat-egy that works well in the U.S., was notsuccessful in Germany. In July 2006, it an-nounced its withdrawal from Germany

due to sustained losses. The companyannounced a JV with Bharti Enterprisesin November 2006 to open retail stores inIndia. As foreign retailers were not al-lowed to directly enter the retail sector inIndia, Walmart operated through fran-chises. Bharti manages the front end in-volving opening of retail outlets, whileWalmart takes care of the back end, suchas cold chains and logistics. Bharti Wal-mart operates stores in India under thebrand name "Best Price Modern Whole-sale". The first store opened in Amritsar inMay 2012.

Presently, the company is also bat-tling against allegations like bribing(lob-bying) in India and Mexico. There iswidespread concern about the effect of

its stores on local communities, particu-larly small towns with many "mom andpop"(read kirana in Indian context)stores. In one of the studies on the eco-nomic impact of Walmart on small townsand local businesses, jobs, and taxpayers,it was found that some small towns canlose almost half of their retail tradewithin ten years of a Walmart store open-ing. However, in another study, the sameanalyst concluded that shop owners whoadapt to changes in the retail market canthrive after Walmart arrives. But there areboth positive and negative impacts onexisting stores in the area where the newsupercenter locates, a later studyshowed.

website, www.walmart.com says, "for50 years, Walmart (NYSE: WMT) has beenhelping people save money so they canlive better. Our everyday low price modelis making a difference around the world... and we're committed to deliveringgrowth, leverage and returns for ourshareholders". And despite some reser-vations, most of us hope that companysucceeds in its India foray with the samebusiness model. <

George Will, Pulitzer Prize-winner columnist, namedWalmart "the most prodi-gious job-creator in the his-

tory of the private sector in thisgalaxy" and that "by lowering con-sumer prices, Wal-Mart costs about 50retail jobs among competitors forevery 100 jobs Wal-Mart creates".Headquartered in Bentonville,Arkansas, Walmart is an AmericanMNC retailer that runs chains of largediscount department stores andwarehouse stores globally. Accordingto the Fortune Global 500 list in 2012,the company is the world's thirdlargest public corporation. It is thelargest retailer in the world. With overtwo million employees, it is also thebiggest private employer in the worldWalmart remains a family-ownedbusiness and is controlled by the Wal-

IN FOcuS


we remain excited about the opportunity togrow our business in one of the world’s most vibrant economies, expand opportunities forfarmers and help lower the cost of living forfamilies in India. we believe that allowing 51percent foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail is an important first step for theGovernment of India to further open this sec-tor and strengthen the Indian economy,” thewalmart spokesperson said, in response tosome of my queries.

rob Walton Chairman, Walmart

WALMART: AT A GLANCE

Industry RetailingFounded 1962Founder(s) Sam WaltonHeadquarter Bentonville, Arkansas, U.S.Number of locations 8,970 (2011)Area served WorldwideKey people S. Robson Walton (Chairman), Mike Duke

(President & CEO)Products Apparel/footwear specialty, cash & carry/warehouse

club, discount department store, discount store, hypermarket/supercenter/superstore, supermarket

Revenue US$ 446.950 billion (2012)Operating income US$ 26.558 billion (2012)Net income US$ 15.699 billion (2012)Total assets US$ 193.406 billion (2012)Total equity US$ 71.315 billion (2012)Owner(s) Walton familyEmployees 2.2 million (2012)Divisions Walmart CanadaSubsidiaries Asda, Sam's Club, Seiyu Group, Walmex

walmart has 10,000 retail stores in 27

countries, under 55 different names. The

company operates under the walmart

name in the united States, including the

50 states and Puerto rico.

Simply put, it will

take at least couple

of years from now to

see the exact volume

of FDI and number

of MNc retailers.

Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhihave slipped sharply to the19th, 20th and 21st positionsrespectively in the list of 22investment destinations cov-

ered by the Emerging Trends in Real Es-tate® Asia Pacific 2013, published by theUrban Land Institute (ULI) and Pricewa-terhouseCoopers (PwC). In the previousreport of 2012, these cities were placedat 10th, 15th and 12th rank respectively.

While Bangalore is perceived to be amature market and has demonstratedfairly stable pricing and reasonable ab-sorption trends, Bangalore’s over-re-

liance on the sluggish global IT industrytranslates into low growth potential inthe medium term. Mumbai is plaguedwith over supply across asset classes, re-sulting in record levels of vacancy andstagnant yields. The report, however,casts a positive light on Delhi and thesurrounding NCR in view of the ex-pected master development plans forDelhi, Gurgaon and Noida, perhaps in-dicating a flight of capital from Westernand Southern India to the North in themedium term, the report pointed out.

The widely anticipated forecast pro-vides an overview of Asia Pacific real es-

tate investment and developmenttrends, real estate finance and capitalmarkets, and trends by property sectorand metropolitan area. It is being re-leased today at a program in Mumbai.

Gautam Mehra, Executive Director atPwC India, said: “While Indian real estatemay currently be grappling with certainsocio-political and economic issues,particularly rising inflation; uncertaintyon fiscal policies; and subdued interestfrom opportunistic investors, there ap-pears to be light on the horizon.

India’s favourable demographics and in-herent, latent demand continue to be


outlook

redeeming factors. Several micro-mar-kets continue to provide suitable invest-ment opportunities for investors andend-users alike.

The need of the hour is to deliver fo-cused political and economic reforms.The recent decision to permit foreign in-vestment in multi-brand retail, for in-stance, should lend a spark to thedormant retail real estate space. The au-thorities have also shown intent toadopt clear, singular stands on con-tentious tax and regulatory matters,thereby soothing the frayed nerves offoreign investors.

From a regulatory stand-point, the in-troduction of the Alternative Invest-ment Fund (AIF) regime has sought tostreamline and regulate myriad invest-ment schemes, in a bid to boost in-vestor confidence. One area that is yetto be developed is Real Estate Invest-ment Trust (REIT) regulation, whichcould provide an additional exit routefor investors and enable retail money tobe channelized into the sector througha regulated network,” Mehra added.

The report stated that for Asia Pacific asa whole, steady economic growth, ris-ing incomes, and stable or increasing

property values are all contributing toan overall sense of optimism. However,the outlook is tempered by growingconcerns among investors that primeassets in key real estate markets are be-coming overpriced. For instance, capi-talization rates across Asia remain morecompressed than in many western mar-kets, and yields for core office stock incities such as Beijing, Hong Kong andSingapore are returning as little as twopercent. “With high rents, high capitalvalues, low yields, and an abundance oflocal capital, many international in-vestors are struggling to see attractiveinvestment opportunities in Asia Pa-

iC iTiendian

The Bottomslip2

of the investment destinations list, ac-cording to the ULI, PwC report on

‘Emerging Trends in Real Estate® AsiaPacific 2013.


Shanghai’s office market and retail market have proved mainstays for for-eign funds looking to invest in Chinese real estate. Both sectors remain

popular, given the city’s relatively user-friendly business environment, growingvolume of institutional grade properties and historic market performance.However, in spite of Shanghai’s strong ranking, the city is not as appealing toforeign investors as it was a few years ago. Prices are considered to be relativelyhigh, the market has become saturated, and Chinese regulators have becomeless open to foreign investment, as they have increasing confidence in the abil-ity of local real estate practitioners to finance and develop properties. WhileShanghai will remain firmly on the radar of foreign funds with a mandate toinvest in China, activity in the city will remain muted for the short term.

2. Shanghai

Singapore retains its popularity among real estate investors whosee the market as a safe haven offering solid, but not spectacular,

returns that are underpinned by the city’s position as a global financialhub. The city’s office market has recently run out of steam with sig-nificant amounts of new Grade A office space drawing tenants awayfrom existing buildings, a problem which is compounded by a shrink-ing head count in the local financial sector. Rising vacancies andfalling rents are causing problems for some international funds look-ing to exit the market.

3. Singapore

cific’s prime real estate markets,” com-mented ULI Trustee and ULI North AsiaVice Chairman Richard Price, Chief Exec-utive, Asia Pacific for CBRE Global In-vestors. “As a result, investors areexpanding their horizons as they seekcompelling investment opportunities.

Some are looking at frontier markets suchas Indonesia, while others are revisitingoften overlooked capitals such as KualaLumpur and Bangkok, which explains thestrong showing for these locations in thisyear’s report.

Secondary markets such as Kowloon inHong Kong and second-tier Chinesecities are also experiencing increased in-terest from international buyers. At thesame time, core investment markets inmany mature, western markets are seeinga surge in demand from newly formedAsian Institutional Investors seeking tocapitalize on the post-global financial cri-sis corrections there.”

In addition to Shanghai, other cities inChina – including several second-tiercities as well as Beijing – were placed inthe top ten listing for both investmentand development prospects.

Despite concerns related to rapid growthand surging prices, the report points outthat it is not unusual for emerging mar-kets to witness unexpected price move-ments, and that such shifts must beviewed within the context of local marketconditions. Japan, notes EmergingTrends, continues to recover from theearthquake and tsunami of March 2011;however, a number of investors are see-ing potential in the logistics sector as thecountry rebuilds its distribution infra-structure.

While Tokyo is ranked 13th for investmentprospects and 18th for developmentprospects, many investors feel the city’soutlook is improving. It is seen as a mag-net for foreign investment, with corefunds looking at the office sector, andmore opportunistic investors heading forthe residential sector. <

Topping the rankings for both investment and development for the first time,Jakarta is described as a “surprising” choice given the city’s lack of investment

grade stock and its economy, which while growing, lacks the enterprise, scale andinfrastructure of its more developed neighbors. However, Jakarta is seen by manyreal estate professionals as the most favorable emerging market in the region,with business transactions generally easier and more transparent than in otherfrontier markets such as Vietnam. The country’s interest rates and inflation arestable; the gross domestic product is growing steadily; and foreign direct invest-ment grew by 39 percent in the first half of 2012. Demand for property is strong,resulting in year-to-year office rents leaping by 29 percent. Despite some chal-lenges, such as difficulties securing bank debt and locating reliable local partners,Jakarta holds significant promise.

1. Jakarta

outlook


outlook

Sydney has seen a limited amount of newsupply of commercial space in recent

years, although a significant amount of of-fice and retail space is in the pipeline for2015. A shortage of institutional grade prop-erty has continued to suppress sales vol-umes and kept prices buoyant, driving uptotal returns for office assets. Australia hasabsorbed more international real estate in-vestment over the past year than any othercountry in the Asia Pacific region. Office as-sets remain a popular target for these fundsand some analysts believe that foreign in-vestors account for 30 percent of the trans-actions in the sector.

4. Sydney

Kuala Lumpur is beginning to enter the real estate limelight, offering a sta-ble market with good opportunities for opportunistic returns. While prop-

erty sales slowed noticeably in most Asian markets during the third quarterof 2012, Kuala Lumpur was the exception. The long-term prospects for thecommercial property market are deemed by many to be strong, due to thesuccess of the government’s Economic Transformation Programme in drawingforeign investment.

5. Kuala Lumpur

UnveilingInnovationReal Estate

in

Pioneering new materials and methods, blending a new generationof innovative techniques and pooling global technology in designand construction have positionedAjnara Group as one of the most reliable real estate company.


Cover Story

Pramod Gupta, JMD, Ajnara India Ltd.Receiving IRA trophy from Cabinet Minister Harish Rawat.

established in 1991, Ajnara is today known for the quality of

its products. It is one of the first developers to have been

certified ISo 9001:2000 in North India and offers the most di-

versified product mix comprising residential,

commercial/It parks, retail, hotels. the well-recognized

brand, Ajnara has collaborated and synergised with interna-

tionally acclaimed architects and design consultants for var-

ious projects. recently, the company has ventured into the

infrastructure business by launching It Park, thus leverag-

ing its decades of experience and expertise in real estate. Aj-

nara India ltd. is surging ahead with a pan-India footprint.

W hile talking about innovation one oftendefines the term too narrowly andloosely. But the fact is, innovation can –and does occur in every industry of oureconomy, from consumer electronics to

health care to realty products. With millions of Indians lookingfor property as an asset and place to live in, once considerssleepy industry, is smartly innovating and benefiting from newmarkets and technology. Construction in buildings also is anarea where innovation is gaining steam. By measuring a build-ing’s usage, businesses that specialize in this technology beginspromoting new designs to attract home-seekers and tenants. Atthe same time, companies have started investing in smarterusage practices. Of course, this requires a clever mix of techsavvy and financial resources. Today, a separation of the designand construction disciplines, plus the lack of an overall systemsapproach, means that the majority of new efficient buildings areeffectively prototype projects. This situation can only be reme-died by addressing the overall process.

Customised Project with Sustainable QualityFor the first time, among the renowned realtors with pan-Indiapresence, Ajnara envisages buildings designed specifically forcustomisation, using agile production of pre-manufacturedproducts and components that are easy to assemble and readilyadaptable to customers’ wishes. Radical innovation in all phasesof the creation and use of buildings is required to meet futurechallenges of sustainability, energy conservation and industrialcompetitiveness. In almost all projects launched by Ajnara suchas Grand Ajnara Heritage, Ajnara Daffodil, Ajnara Elements orthe mega township at Crossings Republik, just to name a few,innovation is a significant driver.

Today, real estate industry has become full-fledged and com-petitive. But, to be a game changer, innovation is important. Thatis what Mr. Ashok Gupta and Mr. Pramod Gupta with supportfrom professionally managed team comprising board of direc-tors, are targeting, and it is consistent with their DNA as entre-preneurs who never compromise on quality and standard ofprojects, both residential and commercial. In more than twodecades since its inception, the company is embracing changes,adopting new facets of real estate business and collaboratingwith innovative techniques and the result is for everybody tosee.

Professionally-Managed Core Team46-year-old Ashok Gupta, a Banaras University alumnus, is at thehelm of affairs, guiding and carrying forward his mission to takeAjnara Group into pinnacle of achievement with unprecedentedgrowth at par with global standards. As a commerce graduatefrom a prestigious university, he is well versed in nitty-gritty ofpolicy initiatives required to manage a branded company in realestate. So, when, the central government announced FDI inmulti-brand realty, a few months back, he welcomed it, saying,“It is seen as a very important reform to revive the economy andit will ease supply side pressure and mitigate inflation and ben-

efit, especially, the small and medium enterprises by way ofgreater market access and higher profit margins.”

The RBI has cut the policy repo rate by 25 basis points (bps)to 7.75 percent. It unexpectedly also reduced the cash reserveratio (CRR), the share of deposits that banks must keep with thecentral bank, by 25 bps to 4.00 percent, which will infuse anextra 180 billion rupees into the banking system. RBI's latest eas-ing will contain inflation and revive the growth. On the RBI ini-tiative, Ashok Gupta said that step will spur demand in housingsegment as the cut in policy rates will result in lower EMIs, en-couraging home buyers. The move will also infuse extra cashand reduce the liquidity crunch, thus bolstering the real estate.

There are a few who know that Ashok Gupta left his well es-


Cover Story

G.P. Gupta, Founder, Ajnara India Ltd.

vinod Gupta’s effort helped

the company immensely to

widen the project financial

resources which subsequently

created the requisite capital

for the company’s growth and

expansion.

Vinod Gupta, Director, Ajnara India Ltd.


Cover Story

buyers and investors. It is committed to provide projects withluxurious lifestyle amenities like power backup, round-the-clockwater supply, clubhouse and swimming pools. This is anotherreason that despite the spiraling price of property, buyers withhigher disposable incomes flock to these high-end projects.

Vineet Sharma, Vice-President (Marketing), has bolstered thecompany’s growth with conceptualizing and marketing strate-gies. A professional to the core, Sharma is a man of details andhas created a vibrant vendor network and a active customer careteam which works round-the-corner with prospective clients.

In all the ventures so far completed, Ajnara has proved itsdedication towards quality, design and construction. At Ajnara,great emphasis is laid on the aesthetics and utmost care is takento ensure that all the undertakings are architecturally soothingto the senses. Appeal and affordability are the characteristics ofAjnara, and the company is focused to its commitment to thetime schedule and timely possession.

Established in 1991, Ajnara is today known for the quality ofits products, it is one of the first developer to have been certifiedISO 9001:2000 in North India and offers the most diversifiedproduct mix comprising residential, commercial/IT parks, retail,hotels. The well-recognized brand, Ajnara has collaborated andsynergised with internationally acclaimed architects and designconsultants for various projects. Recently, the company has ven-tured into the infrastructure business by launching IT Park, thusleveraging its decades of experience and expertise in real estate.Ajnara India Ltd. is surging ahead with a pan-India footprint.

Ajnara Ambrosia, London Square, Grand Ajnara Heritage, Integrity, Ajnara Daffodil, Vice Royale, Panorama, Ajnara Gen-X, Ajnara Grace, Ajnara Homes, Ajnara Le Garden, Aj-nara Homes121, Ajnara Landmark, Ajnara Pride and Ajnara Fra-grance are the residential projects by the company and theseare scattered through Noida, Noida Extension, Greater Noida

and Ghaziabad. In commercial segment, there are Arcade andOrbit Plaza at Crossing Republik on NH-24, Ghaziabad: Orchidand Multiplex in Raj Nagar Extension and IT Park in GreaterNoida. Quality construction and employee contentment aretwo important things which help Ajnara position it as a top-notch brand. By developing premium projects, it wants to sat-isfy every customer’s need for a better experience. With awell-managed architectural and engineering team that hasclosely partnered and worked with internationally acclaimedarchitects and many others, Ajnara achieves both aesthetic andefficient designs. Despite tremendous growth potential, useand application of innovation in India’s real estate is at the initialstage and developers like Ajnara does not want to lag behindin configuring out the benefit of technological upgradation.Taking a clue from its impact on international arena, the com-pany has started deploying strategic technology and innova-tive techniques in its residential and commercial projects whichinclude the mega township project. We express our sinceregratitude to all our channel partners for their unflinching sup-port to make all our projects a great success. n

tablished family business in Guwahati and came to Delhi toenter in to construction business. However, there are many whonarrate the story about his devotion and perseverance which fi-nally resulted in achieving a distinguished place for himself andthe company, known with reverence as Ajnara.

A civil engineer from Sumaya College of Engineering,Pramod Gupta is the brain behind incorporating engineeringmarvel in company’s project. An acclaimed strategist, heshowed his leadership qualities during the transition phasewhen Ajnara was planning its forays into high-rise buildingblocks and apartment. Whenever company goes for workingon new projects, he makes it sure to have an in-depth analysisof everything. After all, he has to adhere to principle: “Offeringhigh quality construction is the fundamental philosophy of mycompany.”

Company’s finance department is headed by Vinod Gupta,another director. When it comes to mobilizing financial re-sources, he makes planning and required strategy with AshokGupta and Pramod Gupta. According to company sources,Vinod Gupta’s effort helped the company immensely to widenthe project procurement which subsequently managed to cre-ate the requisite capital for the company’s growth and expansion.

Ajnara Group’s management team also comprises young di-rectors like Vineet Gupta who is responsible for planning, coor-dination, procurement of equipment for plant and machineryas well as raw material. A management graduate with expertisein the field of procurement and coordination, he is an absolutebeliever of quality materials. He is often credited to bring in far-reaching changes to maintain a very high level of quality con-trol. Putting things in perspective, he says, “Construction hasalways been the highlight of Ajnara India Ltd’s working. We be-

lieve that by providing our customers the best of quality con-struction only, we can create the trust amongst them. Hence wealways stress on the technology and quality of material usedand every other process used in the construction is well analyzed.”

Moreover, when it comes to providing a constant supportto the top management in term of his various capacities in thefield of construction and planning, Jaikishen Gupta’s namecomes to fore. He has been instrumental in bringing many rad-ical changes in the field of construction.

Ashlesh Gupta’s contribution is in various capacities ofhuman resources, administration and legal affairs. A firm be-liever in talent pooling and fair administration, his expertise isin the field of H.R & Administration which has helped companyto attract and retain talented resources from different streams.Credit for much of Ajnara’s position as one of the best employ-ers, needless to say, goes to Ashless Gupta.

Advantage AjnaraEquipped with strong and skilled manpower and successfullyled by a board of director, Ajnara has been able to leverage itsexpertise. Addressing people’s need across all verticals, Ajnara’sproject, residential as well as commercial, is first choice amongVineet Gupta, Director, Ajnara India Ltd.

Ajnara offers all projects to cater to middle andupper class to invest their hard and earnedmoney in NCR. We are great full to Ajnara Groupfor providing us many wonderful projects.

–Sunil Kumar, Director, Goldmine Developers.

Good location, connectivity and ambiencemake Ajnara a good choice for buyers andinvestors in Delhi-NCR. Ajnara today en-joys very good reputation with all saleschannel partners.

–Vipul Gupta, Director, Neo brix

In both residential and commercial segments in Delhi-NCR, buyers and investors have shown great interest inprojects developed by Ajnara Group mainly because withhandsome return they get what they want—property atcompetitive price without any compromise in quality anddesign.

–Honey Katiyal, CEO, Investors Clinic

Jai Kishen Gupta, Director, Ajnara India Ltd.

Ashlesh Gupta, Director, Ajnara India Ltd.

Vineet Sharma, VP, Marketing, Ajnara India Ltd.

Offering high quality construction along with timely deliv-ery has been the backdrop of Ajnara Group. How is thecompany managing to remain as an eminent developerwithout compromising on the above fundamental philos-ophy?

See, the company has already put in place a well docu-mented ‘Project-Management-Policy’ under which the entireproject schedule and its completion is worked out immedi-ately after the official launch of the Project. Offering highquality construction is the fundamental philosophy of mycompany.

How has been Ajnara India's journey been so far?

Excellent! In fact when I look back in the year 1991, I feelproud of the fact that the achievements of the company areeven beyond my expectations.I feel that the GOD has been very kind to my endeavors.

Tell in brief about the ambition and mission of your com-pany/group

I have always divided my ambition into two parts, one for mystaff and the other for the society. By providing shelter to allsections of society gives me an immense satisfaction and atthe same time the prosperity of my staff members gives mesolace and happiness.

Could you share with us in a brief about your importantdates and milestones .

(i) Year 1987 –B.E (Civil) from M.S. Ramaiya Institute of Tech-nology- Bangalore (Karnataka)

(ii) Year 11-11-1991 Incorporation of my company.(iii) Year 2005, the Launch of my first ever township atCrossings Republik GZB.(iv) Year 11-03-2010 Shifting to my new corporate officeat Sec-63 Noida.

What has been the overall response from buyers andinvestors? How did the company perform in 2012?

Every time I plan a new Project, the first thing whichcomes to my mind is the list of our satisfied customers

and my ever dependable investors. They provides the ini-tial impetus of booking for new projects. However the

year 2012 has been a mix bag in terms of sales particularly inGNIDA Projects.

Even as some companies are facing flak over accountabil-ity and transparency, how are you managing it? Tell ussome information about company’s work through CSR.

We have a professional senior management /HODs and man-agerial staff working with us for the last so many years. Thetrust and capabilities of my senior staff enables me to achievethe desired goals. However all matter relating tomarketing/operation/finance/accounts/procurement/con-struction are under direct supervision of the management.As regards CRS the company is already involved in variousactivities and look forward to other areas.

In term of revenue and employment, where does it stand?What's Ajnara's outlook in 2013?

The Revenue of the company has increased manifolds from1991 to 2012. However I am hopefully looking forward tobest year in 2013 as far as sales are concerned.The company has also formulated a separate plan to shiftfocus to 2-3 tier cities and also to other infrastructural projects.

Is the prevailing business sentiment offering the requisitesupport to sustain and make profit?

The Prevailing trends in the market do not felicitate impetusto sales. I feel the real impetus will depend on the policiesthat the central & state Govt adopt by providing land at rea-sonable rates which will sustain both builders and the buy-ers.

What is your Mantra of success? Are there some new proj-ects in the pipeline?

My mantra of success is to work hard for the company andfeel good about my staff members and leave rest to theAlmighty GOD. I am sure by putting in hard work, goodthings are bound to fall in line. As regards new projects weare planning some new areas of operation and will spring afew surprises in the year 2013. We make it sure that Ajnaraalways adheres to global standard and quality construction. n

Ajnara India limitedPramod Gupta, JMD , Ajnara Group

I have always divided myambition into two parts,one for my staff and theother for the society. Byproviding shelter to allsections of society givesme immense satisfactionand at the same time theprosperity of my staffmembers gives me solace and happiness.


Cover Story

–Pramod Gupta, JMD, Ajnara Group

Ajnara India limitedShri Ashok Gupta, MD


Cover Story

Date of Birth : : 3rd Feb.

Schooling and Higher education : H.S.C & B.com from University of Banaras.

what is the Turning point in your life : When I left my well established family business in Guwahati and came to Delhi to enter in to the construction business.

Year of Marriage and the : 1991, when i garlanded my wife and vowed for amost memorable moment happy married life.

When not working on projectshow do you manage your leisure time : Watching news channels and Movies.

when in distress, whom do you look to : My Parents, My family and The Almighty.

Who is your role model andinspirational figure? : Shri K.P. Singh Chairman DLF.

Zodiac sign : Aquarius

Hobby/ Sports : Badminton

Your vision as a successful entrepreneur : Continue to progress despite hardships and hurdles.

Pen that you use : Mount blank

Your favorite gadgets : Black berry

Your favorite apparel brand : Armani

CAR of your choice : AUDI Q7

Any secret you want to share : Sorry, Let secrets be secret

Ashok Gupta, a Banaras university alumnus, is at the helmof affairs, guiding and carryingforward his mission to take Ajnara Group into pinnacle ofachievement with unprecedentedgrowth at par with global standards.


Sumit Bharana, Director, Era Landmarks receiving IRA trophy & certificate for excellence Award

Deepak Kapoor, Director, Nidhi Lal, Director & Sanjay Visht, Marketing Head from Gulshan Homzholding IRA trophy for excellence Award

Mohit Arora, Director, Supertech receiving IRA trophy for excellence Award

India continued to feature in the listof World’s most expensive officemarkets, with New Delhi (Con-naught Place – CBD) moving upfrom 9th position to 5th position

(with an overall occupancy cost of US$183.30)according to CBRE Global Re-search and Consulting’s semi-annualPrime Office Occupancy Costs survey.Mumbai, on the other hand, continuesto drop further. The current report liststhe city’s CBD – Nariman Point at 25thposition. In July Mumbai was at 20thposition. The latest survey provides dataon office rents and occupancy costs asof September 30, 2012.

Anshuman Magazine, CMD, CBRESouth Asia Pvt. Limited, said, “In prime

CBD locations, the supply of space is ex-tremely limited with almost no newsupply expected in the near future. Thisis especially true for quality office spacewhich has led to occupancy cost re-maining high.

The dominance of Asia-Pacific in thetop 10 most expensive business loca-tions worldwide continued, led by HongKong-Central – the world’s most expen-sive market - and five other Asian mar-kets. However, it was a U.S. market, SanFrancisco (Downtown), that had thestrongest year-over-year increase inprime office occupancy costs with a36.4% rise driven by that market’s hottechnology sector.

Hong Kong Central led the “most expen-sive” list with overall occupancy costs ofUS$246.30 per sq. ft. per year. Thistopped London’s West End, which hadtotal occupancy costs of US$219.81.Tokyo (Marunouchi Otemachi) was thethird most expensive market for officespace, followed by Beijing’s CBD andNew Delhi’s CBD. Other Asia-Pacific mar-kets in the top ten include Beijing-Fi-nance Street (6th) and Hong Kong-WestKowloon (7th).

Despite economic headwinds, occu-pancy costs increased by an average of2.1% worldwide over the past year, ledby the Americas with a 5.2% annual in-crease and Asia Pacific with a 2.6% in-crease. EMEA continued to be hinderedby economic recession in much of Eu-rope and recorded a 0.4% decrease inprime occupancy costs. Prime office oc-cupancy costs increased in 74 markets,decreased in 37 office markets and hadno change in 22 markets.

CBRE tracks occupancy costs for primeoffice space in 133 markets around theglobe. Of the top 50 “most expensive”markets, 19 are in EMEA, 18 are in Asia-Pacific and 13 in the Americas.

While comparisons in dollars are af-fected by currency exchange rates, an-nual percent change calculations arebased upon occupancy costs in localcurrency and not influenced by cur-rency changes. n


mArket

How do I get foreign cur-rency for my next trip?That’s the question peoplealways ask while on travel-ing. Part of the challenge

of saving money on a holiday is ex-changing money. Banks and othermoney changers have lots of fees thatcan empty your wallet quickly. Here arethe details they prefer you ignore.

In most places, it's cheaper to get localmoney from an ATM in the country afteryou arrive. Airports almost always haveATMs where you can do this - especiallyhandy if you need local money for ataxi. If you have transport from the air-port booked with your hotel already,you can just as easily wait until check-ing into your hotel; then walk aroundand get your bearings and use an ATMclose to your hotel.

Another reason to use an ATM to getlocal currency is safety. You can pull outenough for a few days at a time and notworry about losing lots of cash due totheft or misplacement. This is the rea-son travelers' checks used to be popu-lar, but nowadays they're antiquateddevices, difficult and time consuming toexchange.

All cards are not created equal. Stickwith Visa or Mastercard - the others arenot widely accepted. Every card issuercharges different rates for cash ad-vances in a different country than yourown. In general, using a debit cardlinked to a checking or savings accountwill be the cheapest because they usu-ally don't charge cash advance fees.You're withdrawing money you alreadyhave, not charging money and payingfor it later. You will still have to pay yourbank's fees for using other banks' ATMs,if applicable. In addition, you will becharged a foreign transaction fee, usu-ally about 2-3%. Using a credit card ver-

sus a debit card incurs the foreign trans-action fee, but also a cash advance feewhich varies greatly. Often it's 3-5%,but can be a flat rate of $10-15 (homecurrency, USD in this example).

You'll find your bank's debit card ATMfee of $2-3 (home currency, USD in thisexample) is a lot less than the cash ad-vance fee. In other words, it's cheaperto pay a $2 ATM fee and 3% foreign feethan a 3% cash advance fee plus 3% for-eign fee. Every card is different. Theyonly way to know is to call every card is-suer and ask for these 3 rates: ATM fee,cash advance fee, foreign transactionfee.

In some places the rate to change cashare better than the rate yourbank/credit card company provides. Itreally varies on the city, not just thecountry. In Bali for example, moneychangers were offering 8,500 Rupiahper US dollar (the actual exchange ratenewspapers/Internet show), but otherplaces in Indonesia were offering lessthan 8,000 or even 7,000 in some re-mote areas. In comparison, the effec-

tive credit card rate was about 8,250-8,325, depending on the card and thedate.

If you do take cash, make sure to takecrisp bills with no tears or damage.Money changers will offer less or not ac-cept worn bills. Also, $100 bills have thebest cash exchange rate; $20 bills andsmaller are changed at a lower rate. Be-ware of whom you change money with.If the Internet says the rate is 8,500 andyou see signs on the street offering arate of 9,000, just laugh to yourself andkeep walking. These places are notori-ous for folding bills over, quickly swap-ping stacks of bills, and other con-artisttricks. They obviously can't afford togive a rate better than the real rate sothey lure people in with "great" ratesand cheat them to come out ahead.Usually the fancy money changers inthe airport with multiple digital displayscharge very high transaction feesand/or offer lower exchange rates. Ex-changing money at your local bank be-fore leaving is not recommended dueto poor rates and/or high fees and therisk of carrying large sums of cash. n

Exchange Foreign CURRENCY AT THE BEST RATES

In most places, it's cheaper to

get local money from an Atm in

the country after you arrive.

the dominance of Asia-Pacific in the

top 10 most expensive business loca-

tions worldwide continued led.

THE MOST EXPENSIVEMARKETS

New Delhi Among

UnstoppableModi!

Love or hate him, the man is to stay here.

Love or Hate Him!


PolItICS

We have some of rags-to-riches stories re-volving around someindividuals who didexceptionally well in

important phase of their lives despitesevere odds they faced in their child-hood days and years following. We allrecognize their contribution in our so-ciety and nation building. However, inpolitics, especially, in this part of world,the same narrative is rarely found on ac-count of significant importance beinggiven to legacy which one carries. Andif you are on the other side of politicaldynasty which has been running thenation since independence, virtuallyuninterrupted, chance of remainingmarginalized is maximum. NarendraModi, Gujarat chief minister, who hasjust made a hat-trick after trouncing theCongress again at the recently con-cluded assembly elections in the state,is one among this rare breed.

Modi swept back to power in Gujaratfor the third successive term. The rulingBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 115seats — two less than its previous tally(117). The Grand Old Party (GOP) wasrouted yet again, managing just 61seats out of 182, while the Gujarat Pari-

vartan Party (GPP,) launched almost onthe eve of polls by BJP rebel and formerchief minister Keshubhai Patel, couldget only two of its candidates elected.As for the Congress, since MadhavsinhSolanki’s 148-seat victory in 1985, theparty has not been able to test power inGujarat. At a public meeting after results weredeclared, the Chief Minister savouredhis victory and in his inimitable style,spoke in campaign mode in Hindi andthanked the people of Gujarat for “vot-ing for development in the State andcountry.” Some of his supporters keptchanting “PM, PM” but the 62-year-oldmedia savvy, and shrewd politician tookcare to reiterate his desire to work forthe State for the “next five years.” Thanksto continuous debate over Modi’schoice for the Prime Minister if BJP-ledNational Democratic Alliance(NDA)scores better than Congress-led UnitedProgressive Alliance(UPA) in the nextLok Sabha elections, public discoursegets directed to a bipartisan discussioncentered around proponents and op-ponents of Modi as a suitable candidatefor the covetous post. "No need of look-ing behind ...FORWARD!...We want infi-nite energy, infinite courage, infinite

patience..." Modi said on the microblog-ging site Twitter in the wake of trendsthat he was set to create a hat-trick. Itwas interpreted in some circles as a sub-tle comment indicating his intention tobe in the prime ministerial race.While Modi’s supporters are taking hislatest feat as a clarion call for a march toDelhi, a section within the BJP and NDAare not comfortable with Modi’s rise toCentre. Modi is clearly a front runner forthe PM’s post, much to the chagrin ofother aspirants in the party. It is but forModi, the discussion has already movedon to his future plans as his third con-secutive win has boosted his chances ofbeing projected as BJP’s next primeministerial candidate. There are linger-ing doubts within the BJP’s top eche-lons about Modi’s ability to lead thecountry because of his style of function-ing. Then there remain immense uncer-tainties, most importantly about thequestion of Modi’s dominance in theBJP. In the coalition era of ruling, primeminister needs to hold together sup-porting allies and make compromises.Modi is not good at both and this couldbe one reason why factions within theBJP are profoundly reluctant about him.BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s

Achyut Nath Jha

49FEBRUARY 2013 8OBSERVER DOWN7

continuance also looks uncertain; hemay be forced to step down later thismonth because of corruption allega-tions. Gadkari is close to the RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS) whichdoesn’t approve Modi’s independence.Sources confided that senior RSSpracharaks worked for Keshubhai Patel’sGPP during the campaign and refusedto work for Modi. Thus, political analystsguess that Gadkari’s fall will increaseModi’s influence substantially. Manyparty leaders such as Yashwant Sinha,Ram Jethmalani and Shatrughan Sinhahad openly revolted against Gadkari.Jethmalani was given suspension orderon his defiance of party line on theissue. It’s quite a different thing thatGadkari's supporters say that Modi's winis not a threat to him. In fact, Modi hascreated history by emerging as the firstBJP chief minister to have third succes-sive win at a time when the party is indire need of a strong leader to get backto power at the Centre.How significant is the victory of Modican be gauged from the presence ofwho’s who of BJP and some of the po-tential allies along with corporate big-wig during the swearing-in ceremony atAhmedabad’s Sardar Patel stadium.Presence of the BJP’s entire top brass re-inforced the fact that Modi’s big win haselevated his stature in the party andgiven a fillip to his prime ministerial am-bition.Among the allies present was PunjabCM and Shiromani Akali Dal leaderParkash Singh Badal. Both UddhavThackeray of the Shiv Sena and RajThackeray of the Maharash-tra Navnirman Sena at-tended the event.Ramdas Athavaleof the Republi-can Party ofIndia and OmPrakash Chau-tala of the In-d i a nNational LokDal alsomarked theirpresence on theo c c a s i o n . T a m i lNadu chief minister J. Jay-alalithaa, who shares a good rap-port with the Gujarat strongman,

was also there. The BJP has assiduouslywooed her for months now as her party,the AIADMK, is expected to do well inTamil Nadu in the next Lok Sabha elec-tion.As expected Bihar chief minister NitishKumar, whose party JD(U) is in alliancewith the BJP, gave Modi’s coronation amiss. An image of being anti-Muslimand question about his acceptability toa cross-section of people beyond Gu-jarat are still some irritants in Modi’sway. Even Sushil Modi, Bihar’s deputyCM who belongs to the BJP, skipped it.Earlier, its Gujarat state leader VashistNarayan Singh declared that though thevictory would strengthen the BJP as aparty at the national level, the JD(U) wasclear that the candidate forPrime Minister should havea secular image. State BJPchief C. P. Thakur was, how-ever, present. Also significantwas the absence of any RSS rep-resentative. Also, Modi’s attempt torope in two major political parties inAndhra Pradesh — Telugu Desam Party

(TDP) and the Telangana RashtraSamithi (TRS) — into the NDA

fold appears to have born noresult. None from these re-gional parties was pres-

ent there. Orissa chief minister NaveenPatnaik also remained absent.Needless to say, stigma associated withthe man who is accused of presidingover administration when state wasburning in communal riots, still makeshim “untouchable” for some regionalparties whose support base comes fromminority. In fact, he is the most targetedleader in the current times with his op-ponents ready to go to any extent tohurl invectives on him. The Gujaratstrong man is accused of polarising thestate on communal lines. His critics( andthere are several) say that Modi will al-ways have to carry the taint of 2002 Gu-jarat riots for which he has consciouslyavoided expressing regret or offering

any apology. In one interview toShahid Siddiqui, the MP and editorof the Urdu newspaper Nai Duniya,Modi had said that he should be

hanged if he was found guilty oforchestrating the 2002 Gujarat

riots. The remarks wereperceived to be tailor

made for the Muslimreadership. Even

after a decade ofGujarat riots, a

m a j o rchunk of


PolItICS

Muslims shy away from openly support-ing Modi, who, however, consciouslytried to build bridges with the minori-ties by holding Sadbhavana fasts allover the state. At the same time, he didnot give ticket to a single Muslim in abid not to ruffle the feathers in the coresupporter. Modi also tried to reach outto his core constituency by organisingstate-wide yatra by projecting SwamyVivekananda as his ideal.Even those who openly disapproveModi and his brand of governanceagree that he is a leader with a differ-ence; a personality one may love or hatebut cannot ignore. He is no ordinarypolitician and has made a name for de-velopment in a state that has alwaysnurtured mercantile skills. There isstrong belief that Gujarat’s growth andprosperity has trickle-down effect andbenefitted people across the segments,cutting across the barrier from casteand community. Modi's admirers, onthe other hand, hail him as "Hindu Hri-day Samrat". Modi baiters often say thatthe situation is so polarised in Gujaratthat Congress president Sonia Gandhi'sremarks accusing Modi of being a "mer-chant of death" had cost the Congressin the 2007 polls. So during the elec-tioneering for 2012 polls, the partyshied away from raking up the issue ofriots. Political analysts say that Gujarat’sgrowth has been heavily tilted towardsmiddle and upper class. But then Modialso received huge support from tribaland Dalits. One shouldn’t forget that he,too, didn’t belong to a legacy of a privi-leged caste which mostly determinesand shapes out career in Indian politics.The third of six children born toDamodardas Mulchand Modi and Heer-aben, during his schooling days, in themornings, Modi used to help his fatherwho had a teashop at the Vadnagar rail-way station. Primary education in smallschool, his father’s meager earningwhich was not just enough to sustain abig family marked his growth. Hewanted to do something big and so, atthe age of 17, he left his parents and sib-lings for good. However, he has been intouch with his mother, Mira Ben and de-spite emerging as the most-talked afterleader, he never misses the opportunityto pay obeisance to his nonagenarian

mother who is very proud of his son.After Modi’s third time victory, Hira Bensaid,” My son has won Gujarat, he willnow win India.”No doubt, his mother isnow his biggest admirer. His journeyfrom there to where he is now speaksabout his perseverance, dedication anddevotion. Of course, the RSS providedhim the requisite platform to carry for-ward his zeal and enthusiasm to finallytransform him as a strong political fig-

ure in Gujarat. Modi’s victory set him oncourse to a role in national politics.Being a skillful organisation man, hewould like to be in charge of the organ-isational network of the party. A man ofdetails, Modi cultivated his personalitywhich made him accessible to his sup-porters and electorate. Despite criti-cism, he used to his advantage bothconventional and non-conventional(technological like NaMo, with 3D pres-entation, till now unused and unheardin India’s electioneering). In 2005, hewas denied visa by USA for his inactionand complicity in 2002 riots. But gradu-ally, he is getting feelers from Westerncountries with Britain even sending itsemissary to meet Modi. It’s his organis-

ing capability which corporate housespraise and support for. For his business-friendly image, corporate honchoscould be lobbying to see the man at thetop. For Modi and his Gujarat, January2013 will see the seventh edition of "Vi-brant Gujarat"-- a massive gathering ofinvestors from India and abroad and ashow piece to encourage developmentin the state. As per the record, the pre-vious meet in January 2011 attracted

more than 10,000 businessmen from100 countries. At that time, investorshad promised investments in excess of$450 billion, the largest-ever sum for asingle event in an emerging economy.Armed with the latest mandate fromwhat Modi often calls,” six crore of Gu-jaratis”, Modi succeede again to makethe biennial show a grand successmuch to the chagrin of his detractorswhose survival, ironically, depends onhow scathing and vitriolic their invec-tives are against him. As things standtoday, several observers feel that a di-vided BJP has no option but rally be-hind him as it’s only Modi who could beparty’s trump card and face to take on abeleaguered Congress. <

after a decade of Gujarat riots, a major

chunk of muslims shy away from openly

supporting modi, who, however, con-

sciously tried to build bridges with the

minorities by holding Sadbhavana fasts all

over the state

Casting aside all expectations and projec-

tions, investment mous to the tune of rs

12 lakh crore or $241 billion were signed

at the end of the vibrant Gujarat Global

Investors Summit-2013. the amount is

more than double the investments drawn

by the three earlier editions of vibrant

Gujarat. the mous promise creation of

job opportunities for 25 lakh persons.

Investors from India as well as from

abroad signed over 8,500 mous during

the summit.

Coming up with a solid action plan can becomechallenging when you have to evaluate whatworks, what doesn't, and what to maximize tobring the best results. Creating a powerful,consistent brand presence allows you to step

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In today’s cluttered real estate marketing environment,consumers are trained to tune out messages that don’tseem to address their real and unfulfilled wants andneeds. In other words, if your message doesn’t clearly de-liver a solution to exactly what your prospect is lookingfor – if it doesn’t slot into an open position in yourprospect’s mind – then your efforts and money and timewill go down the marketing drain. Real estate companieshave realized that the best positioning strategy to com-municate to break the cluttered real estate market is totouch down on the selling propositions your projects pos-sess keeping in mind the overall brand image.

At SVP, our supreme focus is to develop a communicationplan that develops & reinstalls trust & faith of the con-sumer in our brand. “…positioning is not what you do toa product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of theprospect. That is, you position the product in the mind ofthe prospect.” Keeping this thought in mind, it is very im-portant to understand how exactly you want your brandor your brand to be positioned. Depending upon theneed, all companies should have a strong corporate posi-tioning strategy in order besides various product position-ing strategies.

In my experience, 85% of your marketing strategy is setduring the listing presentation when you and the selleragree on the right price and therefore the right market po-sition for their home.The best brand positioning is alwayssimple and clear. The greatest product or organization inthe world won’t be successful if people can’t or don’tbother to comprehend why they should care about it.Your story must be able to break through the clutter. Get-ting people to understand the brand is the first step, butno less important is ensuring they value the brand. Thebest brands stand for things people care about or desire.

Research reinforces the value of PR is more than a com-mon belief...it's a proven reality. Public relations are a vitalcomponent for building brand value, maintaining brandvitality, and establishing brand credibility. Most of thecompanies establish a strong bond with their customersthrough branding. Each company creates a brand identitythat has connected it with its target market through ashared ideology or system of beliefs. The brands have stay-ing power because the companies consistently deliver onthe promises made through the brand. But you don’tneed to be a corporate giant to benefit from branding. All


strategy

companies need a brand strategy –whether you are a small business man-ufacturing product for a local market ora start-up firm with the long-term goalof going global. Moreover, one has tounderstand the value of establishing acohesive, consistent and unique com-pany identity that accurately portrayswhat the company has to offer its cus-tomers.

Whether you are competing on a localor global scale, having a great productis no longer enough. Today, we see slewof real estate projects being launched.And because there are so many optionsto choose from, the customer’s expec-tations are higher. Furthermore, we areconstantly bombarded with promo-tional messages, so it’s much harder tocapture the customer’s attention. Youcan no longer sit back and wait for thecustomers to come to you. One has toestablish a distinctive identity – like athumbprint – in the minds of your cus-tomers. Find what is unique and differ-ent about what you have to offer –something your customers will relate to– and then use it to set yourself apartfrom the competition.

Targeted public relations is an impor-tant component of brand-building andhas proven to be a very effective meansof generating excitement about thebrand. It helps a company achieve‘transparency,’ which is what customersdemand in today’s economy. Workingto generate positive media coverage isa big part of public relations. Stories inthe media are like third-party testimo-nials, and people are more likely to be-lieve what they read in a news storythan in an advertisement. In SVP, wehave used PR tools & techniques effec-

tively. Public relations and marketingwork together to devise innovative pro-motional materials and a cutting-edgeWeb site that will catch and keep yourtarget market’s interest and enablethem to interact with the brand. Withadvertising and marketing, you control100 percent of the message 100 percentof the time. With PR, you relinquish con-trol over exactly what will be said.

Selecting the right marketing commu-nications vehicle depends on the realestate marketing message you aresending and who you are sending it to.Marketing messages have two primarypurpose to provide the reader with in-formation about you and your servicesand to persuade the reader to take spe-cific action.

There seems to be no limit to Internetand online real estate advertising ideas.These include advertising on otherwebsites, using banners, box ads andtext links, classified advertising, email,google's adsense and similar pay-per-click advertising, your own website. Aswith all advertising, before spendingany money or money on Internet andonline promotion, ensure that whateverapproach one choose can effectivelyconvey the message to target market.

In addition, social media marketing hasbecome a powerful tool and with all thesocial media available, it has became alot easier to advertise your brand. Usingsocial media for business-to-businessmarketing can be integral to promotingthe brand and forging industry con-tacts. If there's a Twitter chat going on,join the chat before trying to promoteyour agenda or brand. Anyone can posta link to Twitter and one effective wayof searching for topics and active con-

versations on Twitter is to click on orsearch for certain hashtags relevant toyour industry.

Another great way is to join groups onLinkedIn and start relevant conversa-tions. LinkedIn also has a Q&A sectionwhere employees of different compa-nies seek advice on different topics. Pro-viding helpful answers to thesequestions can help cement your role asa leader and reliable source of informa-tion in your field. The company or brandcan create a company profile onLinkedIn. This way, whenever an em-ployee of company posts a link in theirstatus, it becomes aggregated withinthe company profile.

Traditional divisions between market-ing, advertising, and branding are nomore. The widespread use of socialmedia necessitates a fully integratedapproach to communicating the valueof a brand by integrating social mediamarketing into all phases of your mar-keting plan. Using social media as aplatform for content marketing (that is,for establishing a narrative aroundproducts or services, and engaging thecustomer as part of the dialogue), re-sults in greater respect and acceptanceof the brand. Companies can triumph inthis brave new world, if social media isused wisely. <S

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SJayanta Barua

Head Corp. Comm. at SVP Group

In my experience, 85% of your marketing

strategy is set during the listing presenta-

tion when you and the seller agree on the

right price and therefore the right market

position for their home.the best brand

positioning is always simple and clear.

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Creaky wheels coffee table

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Wherever possible, HomeHero usesreclaimed materials. The commonlyused materials are wood and iron. It's apractice that doesn't just help the envi-ronment; it produces wonderful de-signs with unexpected color andorganic textures.All products are madefrom scratch – thus size and dimensionsof all furniture are made to suit specificrequirements. The outdoor furniturerange offered by HomeHero.in isequally stylish and weather resistant.The range includes comfortable chairs

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54 8OBSERVER DOWN7 FEBRUARY 2013 55FEBRUARY 2013 8OBSERVER DOWN7

home decor

Micromax: Most SellingPhone of This Month

DesignThe Micromax A 110, famous as Canvas 2 is among the best do-mestic manufacturer Dual Sim and Dual camera phone today.It’s fast, slim and solid and assures better performance. It has amassive 5 inch screen size with IPS LCD capacitive touchscreendisplay type. Micromax A 110 sizes 147 mm x 76.5 mm x 9.7 mmdimensions in height, width and depth. This design is simply su-perb with dual sim functionality. It weights 168 gm. and the allplastic body is well fitted in the device. Below the screen is aphysical home key along with back and menu touch keys. Andon the bottom of the phone has a USB/charging connector witha mouthpiece alongside it. On the top of the device is a 3.5 mmearjack whereas, the left side gives you volume controls and lan-yard eyelet. The right side holds the lock/power key but lackswith the dedicated camera key on the phone. Above the screenis a front facing camera with light sensors and earpiece. On theback of the phone is a great 8 megapixels camera with dual LEDflash and speaker grill on the bottom. The overall constructionof the Canvas 2 is great and it’s handy too.

Interface/OSMicromax A 110 primarily runs on Google Android 4.0 ICE (ice creamsandwich) operating system, which has done full justice with thedevice and to its buyers. The phone is power packed with Dual Core1 GHz MediaTek MT 6577 processor. When tested, the browsing onthis interface with power packed processor and RAM was a betterexperience. The speed was good when on 3G and multitasking toswapping applications was smoother.

BatteryFor everlasting experience, the Canvas 2 A 110 comeswith a standard Li-Ion 2000 mAh battery which goes wellwith the device. When tested, battery performed excel-lent results on 2G and above average on 3G. The stand bytime delivered was up to 180 hours on 2G and up to 145hours when on 3G whereas, the talk time was up to 5hours on 2G and up to 4 hours on 3G. So, we can say thatMicromax A 110 ensures average battery results.

CameraCanvas 2 A 110 comes with tremendous 8 megapix-els main camera with auto focus and dual LED flashand it also has a VGA front facing camera. The cam-era quality of Micromax A 110 is great. When tested,the outdoor images captured were rich and clearerin colours and the camera worked quickly andhardly took a second to be ready for next image. TheCanvas 2 camera supports JPEG, PNG, GIF, WBMP,BMP and AGIF image type. The indoor shoots wereeven good. The A 110 camera has a 3264 x 2448image resolution. The images from front camerawere average.

MemoryThe Micromax Canvas 2 A 110 comes with in builtmemory of 4 GB, from which 2 GB is user availablememory. The memory can further be extended to 32GB using a micro SD card. The phone supports 512MB RAM space.

Audio/VideoThe Micromax A 110 has not compromised with itsvoice/sound quality. The sound quality when testedwas good with headphones and even when onspeaker mode. T Micromax Canvas 2 A 110 supportsMP3, AAC, AAC+, e AAC+, AMR, WB-AMR, MIDI, OggVorbis and PCM audio formats. Like other smart-phones, Canvas 2 also has a Stereo FM radio. The videoquality of this phone is wonderful. It features 1080 pix-els full HD recording and playback at 30 frames persecond. The video call quality from its VGA front facingcamera is good but the sound quality drops down ifyou hold it at a hand’s distance. It supports MPEG4,H.264, H.263 video formats. When tested, the videocaptured from the camera was in superior quality andgave 480 x 854 pixels resolution.

FeaturesDual SIM service of this phone allows you to receivecalls while you are connected to the internet or even ifyou are already talking on the phone on the other SIMcard. The Micromax Canvas 2 A 110 is pre loaded withSNS integration. It includes all major social sites like,Facebook, twitter, You Tube, Linked In and many more.It also offers Google Search, Maps, Gmail, Calendar, andGoogle Talk like options to the buyers. Wi-Fi direct,Voice Calling and All Share are also featured in thispower packed phone.

Model: A110

Price : Rs.10,000


technology


reason behind it. But if I say that thisnovelette doesn’t pass the merit of agreat book, there are some reasons be-hind it.

Very lately I had been to the birthplaceof Manto and I was quite exhilaratedand excited to think about that. I hadalso got the opportunity to visit the fa-mous Wagha Border where the line ofcontrol of the two great countries, Indiaand Pakistan exists. When I saw thesignboard while travelling towards theborder, on which it was written thatworld’s famous city Lahore is situatedjust some thirty miles away from thiscity, Amritsar, I felt an agonizing stab ofpain to think that if this artificial divid-ing line between these two nations hadnot been existed, I would have also gotthe opportunity to visit that great cityof the world. And it is a great loss, nodoubt, not only for me but all of us.Manto had seen, watched, observedand above all, lived the pain of the Par-tition. He had felt that anguish andshame which this great human tragedyof our times had ever produced. And itwas natural to come through his viewsand experiences while writing his shortstories. But when I went through hisnovel, there was nothing much writtenor discussed about this great humantragedy of the twentieth century. Itshows that this novel came into beingmuch before the days of the partitionand killing of millions of innocent peo-ple. But it depicts here and there somevague scenes of communal riots and itseffect on the mind of the dwellers of thecity, Amritsar. He writes on page no. 23of this book: “The city had already beenwitnessed many devastating communalriots. But on that street where Saied’s

house was perched, its poisonous ef-fects had not reached. If he had taken adecision to extend his love to Pushpa,Vimla or Rajkumari, then it was evidentthat all pigs and cows of the worldwould have been gathered here in thatvery street. And Saied strongly ab-horred these regular occurrences ofHindu-Muslim communal conflicts. Itwas not so only because they used tocrack the heads of each other’s andsprinkle the drops of blood but becauseon these occasions, the beheadedheads would get strewn with muchcontempt and ugliness.”

It is mainly a novel of love and a subtlefeeling of human minds and hearts.Manto himself seems that he lived thispain in his early years of life. The protag-onists are mainly those boys who are intheir early twenties. Saied, Aslam, Rajuand many others are also of the same

age. And we can’t expect that a charac-ter of that immature age could think ofa great thing instead of love and pas-sion. The whole journey of the leadcharacter, Saied seems to revolvingaround in pursuit of love and passion.He was badly in need of a beloved towhom he could express his passionatelove with much interest and zeal. Butsad to say that he could not get one tillthe fag end of his life which he lived inthe pages of this book. It was not so thatthere was a dearth of such fair ladies buthe simply could not generate strengthand grit to do so. This English proverb,faint heart never won fair lady, rightygoes to him. He was a man of feeblemind and weak personality. Every timehe seems in the grip of some unknownfear. He was brought up in a tightly ob-served conservative environment. Hislate father was a strict disciplinarian.And he wanted to see him free from allbad vibes and worldly sin. But he paidlittle attention that his son was growingup and he needed company of any girlor woman as it would be the case withanyone to satiate his carnal desires. Butwhen his father died, he found thatfreedom for which he lamented andwished. But when he found that free-dom, still it was hard for him to comefrom that hard shell of fear to be in closewith any girl or wench. He simply sighsand grieves and does nothing to getone. He sees his other friends are doingthe same thing with much pleasure andexcitement but he lacks that charismaand the whole story goes almostaround his this feeling and fear thatwhat he should do or not to do. It canbe rightly said that he only craves to getone but has no strength to pick one.

Without any Title

Mohammad Aleemis a prolific writer.Known for oustand-ing novels andplays, he is the winner of variousnational levelawards like SanskritiAward in Literatureand Urdu AcademyDelhi Award. Present novelette,translated in Eng-lish, is , for the firsttime, being published in anymagazine.

much has been written about the merits and the great qualities of manto’sshort stories but very little attention has been paid on his other forms.

Sadat Hasan Manto

book revIew

I felt an agonizing stab of pain to think that if this artificial dividing

line between these two nations had not been existed, I would have

also got the opportunity to visit that great city of the world. and it is

a great loss, no doubt, not only for me but all of us.

This is the title of the novelette ofone of the greatest short storywriters of India, Sadat HasanManto. The edition which I haveat present with me goes back to

many decades earlier during the Partitiondays. It was published by Ashoka Publish-ers, Jalandhar, Punjab. It was priced at threeIndian rupees. The pages are quite yellow-ish and in decrepit condition.

The writer has broadly divided it into sixsmall chapters and it runs into 149 pages.Nothing more is written about it here.

I was very happy to think that I could getthe chance to read it. I went straight to theSahitya Academy Library to find it. Luckily,after some search in the piles of books instacks, I could find this old one. But I waspretty disappointed to see the state of it.When I saw on its history page where usu-ally issue dates are written, I was pretty sur-prised to see that after 1 October 1984, Iwas only the second one who could cometo issue this book. Such is the state of thereadership of our books kept in our li-braries. It shows how scantly we pay atten-tion to our literary works and very few of ushave time to do so.

My second greatest disappointment duringthe search was that much of books couldbe found on the literary merits of his shortstories rather than his other genres of writ-ings. But my interest lies primarily in novels,so I picked this one eagerly. I have tried mylevel best to go through it.

But I am quite sorry to say that as a readerand also as a simple practitioner of thesame genre, this book was a big disap-pointment for me in terms of its art andcraft. The question here arises, what makesa book a great book, that too, a novel? I hadan impression that I am going to read oneof the great books of a great writer of ourtimes. But it was not so. The novel seemedvery loosely constructed in terms of plot

and characterization. And we do aptlyknow that Manto is known for its style ofwriting and constructing an impeccablequality of plots. But it was the case with hisshort stories not with his novels. I wouldmainly talk about his this novel, BagairUnwan Ke, which I have loosely translated,“Without any title”. So a question naturallycame into my mind: why such a writer ofworld reputes could produce such a badbook in his life? Was there any compulsionor helplessness behind it? Had he writtenthis book just to get some money at the be-hest of some publishers as it was the casemost of the time with him? We do knowwell that he was famous for his professionalapproach even in his literary writings. Mostof the time, it is being said that it was themoney or need of some material gains thathad forced him to write. But these dayswhere writing a good novel also brings abig fortune in term of money and fame, itcan’t be termed a weakness from the partof any writer. And we also can’t say thatManto had done something wrong whiledoing so. Though, I have often read theselines that he was the writer who wrote onlyfor money. But contrary to all that, it wasthe same compulsion and circumstanceswhich had made him a fertile ground forproducing some of the world class shortstories. And it's quite intriguing to me toknow how a writer of great merits couldproduce both types of works, standard orsubstandard?

Much has been written about the meritsand the great qualities of his short storiesbut very little attention has been paid onhis other forms of writings. And it showshow his other works perhaps could notgenerate much interest among the readersas well as critics. We rightly know that anybook of great merits could not be put intooblivion for a long time. It would get its duesooner o later. If everybody praises hisshort stories, there must be some truth and

By Mohammad Aleem


book revIew

“Saied was in a great dilemma to thinkthat how love could be generated in theweathered and dry heart of anyone. Hehimself could live in that agony andpain of love and could make happy. Buthe could not do love for which he wasso desperate.”

He, at one point of time prepares a longlist of girls whom he could offer his love.But it fails to garner any result. Amongthem, there is one girl whose name isRaju and she works with a merchantand lives in his house to do his house-hold works. He has four brothers and allof them think that they have every rightto sleep with her. And the girl simplybears that pain just to avoid hardshipand penury in her life. Later on, whenthe situation gets worse, she leavesthem and joins the household of Saiedto eke out her living. Saied knows allabout that. Even in his colony, every-body knows about her licentious life butvery few have the guts and strength tocome and say that what she was doingwas not worth living. She would visitevery house. They would get their worksdone by her but did not come to helpher in any way. Saied wants to extendhis love to her but he fears to think thata girl of such bad character could be hisbeloved. When she comes to work in hishouse as a maid, he goes through thesame dilemma, should I extend my loveto her or not. It also shows how he usedto take the things through his own nar-row views. It was his conservative up-bringing which was preventing himfrom doing so, though he wanted to doso.

In between during these struggles with

passion and lust, he falls ill. He is admit-ted to a hospital. And there he meetsone Anglo-Indian nurse, Fariya. Hequickly feels drawn towards her andalso succeeds in drawing her attentionby his wit and manners. She wants tosay that I love you and expect the samefrom you. But again, Saied doesn’t findstrength to do so. After coming outfrom the hospital though he sends hera beautiful sari to pay the favour shehad extended in the hospital. But whenthat girl sees that he was a timid lover,she starts seeing another man wholures her into physical relation by sayingthat he would marry her soon. And as anaïve girl, she believes him and comeswith him to live and marry in Lahore.They stay at a hotel for some days butone day he deserts her and leaves her

alone to fend off with herself. When shefinds out that she has been cheated byhim, she feels heartbroken. Saied, in be-tween, comes to this city to convales-cence and stays coincidentally at thesame hotel. In the end, he gets an op-portunity to meet her and comes toknow about the sad part of her story.But instead of reproving her or showinghis repugnance towards her, he offershis sympathy and compassion to her. Hetakes a room on rent in the city and Fi-raya also comes to live with him. Saiedis reluctant to share the room with hersince he fears that his relatives and ac-quaintances would come to knowabout that and it would not send agood signal about him in the society,but he doesn’t gather courage to tell herno. They soon leave every fear behindand start living like a compassionatelover.

How Saied, who was so timid and con-servative in his ideas and approach tillthe very time, could come to that deci-sion to adopt a life of licentious and las-civious behaviour? It jolts the reader fora moment. But the very second mo-ment, it comes to mind that it was theopportunity for which he ultimatelycraved all his earlier days. And when hegot it, he could simply not say no to it.

Manto perhaps himself had lived andtransformed his life like this. It very aptlyshows that how from a conservativebackground he could bring himself upin an open society and how long yearstook to get him transformed.

“His life was like a story that could nevercome out in the pages. As a writer getsconfused in the labyrinth of plot and

after coming out from the hospital though he sends her a beautiful

sari to pay the favour she had extended in the hospital. but when

that girl sees that he was a timid lover, she starts seeing another

man who lures her into physical

relation by saying that he would marry her soon.

ideas and incidents of different nature, hislife was also like the same with so manyunripe ideas and which was stacked inutter uproar and confusion. He was goingon a long road whose end was not knownto him. He was fast in his pace and whathe had left behind; he never paid heed toit. What was going to come in future, hewas equally unaware about it. He was os-cillating between the boundary of pastand future and playing with his present.

And this play of fate was beyond his com-prehension even if he tried to do so.”

I would like to conclude with this last ex-tract from the book:

“Saied sat on the bed. He brought out acigarette from one of his pockets andlooked towards Fariya who has just sepa-rated from his warm company of love. Hewas also very upset to think that he hadleft this whole session unfulfilled quite

abruptly and bluntly. He said to Fariya,“You would not understand my entan-gled thoughts. Your life is straight butmine is quite different. I have nothing ex-cept confusion. I had said once earlieralso that I am not capable of you. And Iagain reiterate that. I am not capable ofyou.”

She asked in utter desperation, “why?”

“I say about that,” he said. But instead ofhearing his reply, she said in a very frankway, “Would you marry me?”

Saied lighted the cigarette and said aftera deep brooding, “I have thought over itseveral times but every time I got thesame reply from my heart that you arenot such a brave person who can do that.I don’t think I am capable of doing that.”

Finally, Fariya replied, “Can we not live to-gether without getting married?” 4

The novel ends with this happy turn. Fi-nally, Saied, even though, he is in the gripof uncertainties about his own life, ac-cepts her as she was. <

manto perhaps himself had lived and

transformed his life like this. It very

aptly shows that how from a conserva-

tive background he could bring himself

up in an open society and how long

years took to get him transformed.

63FEBRUARY 2013 8OBSERVER62 8OBSERVER DOWN7 FEBRUARY 2013

home decor

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ing to town for dinner next week (whichis enjoyable) we find the invitation intoyour home and life as designers to bejust as important as a large scale pro-duction or red carpet affair.

We feel that the homestead is an oppor-tunity to create an environment whereyou wake up well rested and inspired totake on the challenges of day to day liv-ing by having an environment that isjoyful, makes you smile, and is filledwith meaningful details and decor thatreflects your current taste and stan-dards. Believe us when we say that pay-ing attention to these things has a great

impact on our experience and matters.If you would like to wake up to fresh flo-ral arrangements from week to week,have been feeling the need to re-con-ceptualize certain elements of yourhome, or need help preparing for an in-timate event on the horizon we are herefor you and look forward to the oppor-tunity to facilitate and accommodateyour living experience. <

Lifestyle ofHome Decor

home decor


2006Tata Sky satellite television service launched across thecountry Infiniti Retail launches Croma, India's first nationalchain of multi brand outlets for consumer electronics anddurable products Tata Tea buys Eight o Clock Coffee US

2007Tata Steel acquires the Anglo-Dutch company Corus (nowknown as Tata Steel Europe), making it the world's fifth-largest steel producer Develops Eka, one of the fastestsupercomputers in the world The Taj group acquiresCampton Place Hotel in San Francisco (now known as TajCampton Place) Tata Power wins 4000 MW ultra-megapower project at Mundra, Gujarat.

2008Tata Motors unveils Tata Nano, world’s cheapest car TataMotors acquires the Jaguar and Land Rover brands fromthe Ford Motor Company Mamata Banerjee forced TataMotors to relocate Nano Plant from Singur.

2009Tata Teleservices announces pan-India GSM service withNTT DOCOMO Tata Chemicals launches Tata Swach —the world’s most cost-effective water purifier

2010New plant for Tata Nano at Sanand inaugurated Tata Teaannounces joint venture with Pepsico for health drinksTata Tea rebrands itself as Tata Global Beverages, head-quartered in London Tata Chemicals launches i-Shaktidals, enters in food and agri-segment

Tata BP Solar becomes wholly-owned Tata company(now known as Tata Power Solar Systems)

2012Tata Global Beverages and Starbucks form joint ventureto open Starbucks cafés across India. Tata Communica-tions completes world’s first wholly-owned cable net-work ring around the world India’s first iodine plus ironfortified salt launched by Tata Chemicals Ratan Tata stepsdown as chairman of Tata Sons on 28 December.

2011

1997Ratan Tata becomes chairman of all key Group compa-nies

1998Tata Indica, touted as India's first indigenously-devel-oped passenger car, launched Tata Safari launched Voltasdemerges its white goods and domestic refrigerator intoa JV controlled by Electrolux.

1999Tata group sells 7.2% of its stake in ACC to Ambuja Ce-ment Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of Gujarat Ambuja Ce-ments Ltd. (GACL)

2000Sells their remaining stake in ACC to the GACL groupand exits cement business Tata Group and Aditya Birlamerge their mobile telephony business and rebrandedas Idea Cellular Tata Tea acquires Tetley Group, UK for$450 million, the biggest overseas acquisition by any In-dian company till then.

2001Tata AIG — a JV with American International Group Inc(AIG) to enter insurance sector

Tata Sons acquires a controlling stake in VSNL (nowknown as Tata Communications), India's leading inter-national telecommunications service provider

2003

2004

2005

Tata Teleservices launches Tata Indicom mobile serviceunder CDMA platform

2002

New Chapter

Embarkingon a

Tata motors acquires commercial vehicles unit of Dae-woo Motors, South Korea TCS goes public in one of thelargest initial public offering (IPO) in the Indian market,raising nearly $1.2 billlion for Tata SonsIndian Hotels unveils IndiOne, a first-of-its-kind chainof no-frills budget business hotels

Tata Steel acquires Singapore-based NatSteel. Tata ex-ited Idea Cellular to focus on CDMA based mobile te-lephony business Tata Tea acquired Good Earth coffeebrand in USA Indian Hotels (Taj group) takes over man-agement of The Pierre, NY Trent acquired strategic in-terest in Landmark chain of bookstores

“You can live in a house, drive a car, make a phone call,season your food, insure yourself, wear a watch, walk inshoes, cool yourself with air-conditioning, and stay in ahotel all courtesy of Tata firms,” said an article in TheEconomist, which briefly puts the omnipresent pres-ence of Tata brand. 44-year-old Cyrus Mistry, only thesecond non-Tata is at Tata helm now.


newsmaker

here we bring in important

years, in chronological order,

asociated with the man, ratan

tata, the billionnaire scion and

one who transformed a '

commomwealth conglomerate

into a single entity:

BOLLYWOOD

In India, cinema is the only meansof entertainment for the masses.Every Friday, cine-goers wait fornew releases to see theirfavourite heroes entertain,amuse and provide relieffrom mundane chores, dif-ficulties and monotony.Fans of particular actormake it sure to take aglimpse of larger-than-life image oftheir heroes in silver screen.The 2012 alsooffered a slewof movies bring-ing in new waysto entertainmovie goers.

Actors PeopleAdmire Most


entertainment

The famous golfers of the countrycame together in an action at thesame field in the ShubhkamnaChampionship which held at theNoida Golf Course. The champi-

onship was one-of-itsnew kind of compe-tition which was hosted by ace golfer JeevMilkha Singh recently and it delineatedtop-notch 30 stars of the golf world.

As Jeev Said, while announcing the tour-nament “ This tournament aims to show-case the best talent in Indian golf from allover the world. The Shubhkamna Champi-ons will mark a milestone in Indian Golfwhen all the best Indian pro Golfers willplay together in a grand finale to the year.I hope Indian fans and media will appreci-

ate the staggering talent that is comingtogether in December at Noida Golf

Club. I’m grateful to my old friendsArjun Atwal & Daniel Chopra to

make it all the way from Floridato make a rare appearanceand thank all the other top In-dian pro’s who will make thisoccasion special – like acoming together of a largefamily. I’d like to thankPiyush Tiwari & DiwakarSharma ofShubhkamnaAdvert and Rishi Narain,

himself a former AsianGames gold medallist, for

making this event possible. Iwelcome all fans and media to

watch the tournament and you canbe sure we, the players, will put on agreat show for you.”

Piyush Tiwari, Director, ShubhkamnaAdvert, the title sponsors of the tourna-

ment said “ We have signed a three yearcontract with Jeev Milkha Singh at the startof 2012 and have also sponsored theShubhkamna Noida team at the LouisPhilippe Cup Pro Team event. Our mainaim is to create huge excitement about thissport in which Indians have been so suc-cessful all over the world. Indian playerschaperone by Jeev, Atwal and Randhawawhich have been winning international ti-tles consistently for the past two decades.However the players like Atwal, Chopraand Gangjee are busy in the US, Jeev alsohas been busy in Europe and Japan – so wewanted to bring them all together in oneplatform, what we hope will become an al-manac season ending finale which allthese players will look forward to. Thischampionship format of 54 holes is anunique and ideal and hope the fans willenjoy seeing all our stars together – a veryrare hapenning occurrence and we think itis the energetic gathering of Indian golfprofessionals ever seen in history. A greatopportunity for the young stars like RashidKhan to play alongside these Indian greatsfor the first time.”

The star line up of players was be led bytournament host Jeev Milkha Singh, India’smost successful and famous golfer of alltime who has come off a great year with abig victory at the Scottish Open. Floridabased Arjun Atwal is the only Indian to winon the USPGA Tour, Daniel Chopra of In-dian origin, now a Swedish citizen, whogrew up in Delhi and is also based inFlorida with two USPGA titles to his name,Rahil Gangjee who played the 2012Buy.com tour in the US; European Tour reg-ular who is currently also ranked 7th on theAsian Tour – enjoying a boost in late sea-son form - Shiv Kapur; Two time EuropeanTour winner SSP Chowrasia of Kolkota, For-mer European Tour member and AsianTour champion Jyoti Randhawa, Banga-lore’s Anirban Lahiri with two Asian Tour ti-tles, and Gaganjeet Bhullar, who’s on hissuperb form after two wins on the AsianTour recently. <

GOLF POOH-BAH AT

SHUBHKAMNA GOLF

TOURNAMENT


Lavasa, India’s first plannedHill City plans to tap newermarkets across India to raiseawareness and boost sales.The promoter company

Lavasa Corporation plans to setup‘Lavasa Experience Zone’ at leadingmalls in key metros across India to ed-ucate home buyers and prospectivebusiness partners about the new citybeing developed near Pune. The first ‘Lavasa Experience Zone’ isscheduled to come up at the SelectCity Walk Mall in Saket, New Delhi.Customers will get the feel of Lavasabeginning Friday, November 30 up toSunday, December 2, 2012. At the‘Lavasa Experience Zone’ customerswill be able to get a comprehensiveoverview of Lavasa city. The MasterPlan for Lavasa city has been devel-oped by internationally renownedplanning and design consultant,HOK, USA. Based on the principles ofNew Urbanism the Master Plan bringstogether all the components essen-tial to daily life in a more organizedmanner thus creating spaces withinwalking distance from each other. It

has won accolades from Congress ofNew Urbanism (USA) – CharterAwards for Best Master Plan; Ameri-can Society of Landscape Architects –Award of Excellence and AmericanSociety of Landscape Architects -Honor Award. Lavasa when completewill comprise 5 towns - Dasve, Mu-

gaon, hamanohol, Sakhari-Wadavaliand CBD (Central Business District).Commenting on the new marketinginitiative, Ms. Anuradha Paraskar, Sr.VP, Marketing & Sales, Lavasa Corpo-ration Limited, said, “With all urbanadvantages in a natural setting”. <

Lavasa ups the marketing ante

Legend Siroya Realtors getsSpain to Maharashtra withtheir luxury township proj-ect ‘Marbella’ in the famedholiday destination of Lon-

avala. Modeled on the lines of Span-ish architecture and culture, Marbellais inspired by the town of the samename in southern Spain. Exquisitescenic beauty, beautiful beaches, an-cient architecture with the uniquecombination of advanced technologycharacterizes this Spanish town. Marbella is a 38-villa luxury project,conveniently located on the Mumbai-Pune express highway, at New Tun-garli, about 100 meters from the fa-mous Fariyas Resort. One of the primelocales of Lonavala, the area is oftentermed as the ‘Altamont Road of Lon-

avala’. The project promises to deliveramenities and features that areunique and never heard of in a singleproject. A Roman-style ‘bathhouse’,private surf simulator, amphitheatre,and outdoor cinema have been de-signed to enable the residents to ex-

perience pure luxury.Each villa toohas been designed with special atten-tion-to-detail, complete with individ-ual swimming pools and deck. The larger villas have lobby-height of40 feet; more than double the usualheight. <

Spanish touch to Maharashtra

M3M India Limited, an-nounced the launchof M3M Woodshire, apremium residentialproject comprising of

18 mid-rise towers spread acrossmore than 19 acres in sector 107 ofGurgaon along Dwarka Expressway.With a total of 984 units encompass-ing 2-3-4 BHK apartments and Pent-houses, M3M India is looking torealize a total sales value of Rs 850crore from this project. In an attempt to address individualand collective needs of the society inpremium community living, M3MWoodshire has been strategicallypriced in the range of Rs 1 crore to Rs2 crore. Located along the nationalcapital boundary, M3M Woodshireperfectly fulfills the requirement ofthose who aspire to live life away fromthe crowd yet in the heart of the city. Woodshire is a product of intelligentand contemporary design – sustain-able in architecture as well as smart inlooks. The towers are planned in anintelligent cluster that enables thebuildings to shade each other. The

project framework has been intri-cately designed so that it generatesabundance of open spaces in theform of walkways in which neigh-bours connect, tree-lined gardens;where the elderly gather to absorbthe peace and feel the freshness ofthe grass under their feet, sports

courts; where people rejuvenate, andplay zones for children. On the occa-sion of launch, Pankaj Bansal, Direc-tor, M3M India said, “I am extremelydelighted to announce the launch ofM3M Woodshire, a classy premiumproject that will be known for its qual-ity and aesthetics. <

M3M Launches Woodshire

In a unique housing scheme inthe city of Gurgaon, SARE Homesis offering an opportunity to ownapartment by making 60 percent of payment on possession

in Petioles. The project unveiled theconcept of luxury private sky deck inGurgaon, Sector 92. The possession-linked concept has been announcedby the SARE Homes to facilitate homebuyers to own their dream home in ahassle-free manner by making 60%payment on possession, with a com-mitment of on-time delivery. Developed on a sprawling 48-acre in-tegrated township, Petioles consistsof 4 BHK and 4 BHK + Servant roomapartments with the area of eachapartment in the range of 2,040 –2,226 sq. ft. Each floor would have just

3 apartments designed with a view tooffer maximum privacy. The apart-ment buyers will enjoy Gurgaon’s firstluxury private ‘Sky Deck’ consisting ofa viewing deck, yoga and meditationzone, viewing deck, water wall andputting green. Strategically locatedon the main 60 meter sector road, theproject enjoys excellent connectivityvia NH-8, Dwarka Expressway andMetro line. “Petioles’ is just 40 minutes

drive from the IGI AirportCommenting on the SARE Homes lat-est customer initiative, Mr DavidWalker, Executive Director, SAREHomes said, “It is always our endeav-our to come up with unique schemesfor our esteemed customers. Paying60% on possession with the SAREpromise of on time delivery is the lat-est one among them.” <

SARE Petioles in Gurgaon


desk news

India’s largest mixed develop-ment project in a single phase -The Mega Mall - will be thelargest mall in South India onceconstructed. Planned with in

depth research and benchmarkedwith the best in the world, the Mallwill bring a completely new experi-ence for the people of twin cities. Un-like most of the other malls in thecountry that are skewed towards onlyone format, the Lanco Hills Mega Mallwill be a destination mall which willserve to all demographics and tasteswith widest range of options in everysphere like shopping, movies, gam-ing, entertainment, and dining. Theconcept of the mall is in line with thepromise of Lanco Hills to offer every-thing under one roof from luxuryhomes to office spaces to shoppingand entertainment zones.Commenting on the occasion, Mr.Pochendar Shenigarapu, CEO LancoHills said, “The Mega Mall is one of themain highlights of Lanco Hills, a worldclass project designed with utmost

detailing to enhance the experienceof Urban Living for the customers. Ithas always been our endeavor atLanco Hills to bring fresh and ener-getic luxury offerings for the peopleand this Mall which will redefine andrevolutionize the luxury retail experi-ence for the people of Hyderabad isthe next in line after Domina.”The 12 screen multiplex will present aCinema experience like never before

to the people of South India. The mul-tiplex will consist of Gold Class the-atres, which will offer a luxuriousmovie experience and an Imax Audi-torium. Major anchors and over 130stores to begin with and ultimatelymore than 250 retail brands willlaunch their flagship stores in theshopping arena. The Mega Mall willalso be a culinary paradise with a 25acre lakeside view. <

Godrej Comes with Locks

Godrej Locking Solutionsand Systems (GodrejLOCKSS), the leader andinnovator in the lockscategory has announced

the launch of Knock N’ Lock - a uniqueinvisible lock that is designed to pro-vide the highest degree of securityavailable for outdoor and indoor facil-ities. This revolutionary locking unit isbased on patented Knock Code tech-nology that enables a concealed lockwith no visible access point, thus pre-venting break-ins. First of its kind inIndia, this unconventional product isdesigned with sophistication, embed-ded with smart technology, forged forsuperior security and programmedfor greater convenience. Commenting on the launch of KnockN’ Lock, Mr. Shyam Motwani, Execu-

tive Vice President and Business Head,Godrej Locks, said, “Knock N’ Lock isan innovative product which by far isthe most advanced invention in thehistory of locking solutions. Thisunique concept of a virtually invisiblelock with sophisticated access controland key management system willprovide a complete solution to ourcustomers and meet their safety

needs. Knock N’ Lock is the epitome oftechnology and will set a benchmarkin the locks industry.’’ Knock CodeTechnology is a patented approach tolocking that resembles no conven-tional system in the market. The locksare virtually invisible – they have nokeyhole or external interface that canbe tampered with. Unlike a conven-tional key, the KnocKey transmits a se-quence of mechanical pulses to openthe lock. The user simply holds theKnocKey against the locking unit oran adjacent hard surface and entersthe code, which passes straightthrough to the lock – even throughsolid metal, wood or glass. The systemis extremely secure and robust, be-cause it never uses the same codetwice. So it’s impossible to imitate thekey — even by recording the code. <

Somany Ceramics inaugu-rates its 3rd Somany Exclu-sive showroom in Delhi, theperfect destination for pre-mier tiles. Somany Ceram-

ics Ltd. is one of the leading playersin the Indian ceramic industry inau-gurated its third ‘Somany ExclusiveShowroom’ at Ceramic India, F-175-176, Jagatpuri, Delhi. The showroomwas inaugurated by Mr. Tapan Jena,Joint President-Sales & Marketing, So-many Ceramics Ltd.Speaking on the occasion, Mr. TapanJena, Joint President-Sales & Market-ing, Somany Ceramics Ltd. said, “Weare very proud to announce theopening of our third Somany Exclu-sive showroom in Delhi. The capitalhas been a very strong market for usbecause of the fast growing real es-tate & construction sectors”. He fur-ther added - “With the industryadapting the latest technology, So-many is committed to provide thebest in class products to its cus-

tomers. Our latest offerings in digitaland large format tiles have been verywell accepted by our patrons and we

will keep offering more such innova-tive products, going forward. “ <

Somany’s new showroom

In a first-of-its kind venture, Leg-end Siroya bring to Mumbai itspremium residency projectWorldin, with a swimming pool,bar and barbeque area available

in each apartment of the 40-storeyproject, ranging from 2.5 BHKs to theGrande 8-bedroom duplex Condos.For those who prefer to live life king-size, the 4, 6, 8 bhk residences includethe additional amenities of a granddouble-door entrance, a separate al-fresco party area and also a sprawlingspare space that can be convertedinto a private cinema hall, gameroom, library, art room, gym, studioor just about anything else that canbe imagined. Worldin promises aclustered and crowded life of Mum-bai as you return to our spacious and

elaborate apartment each day. Thesmallest flat in the project will beabout 1,700 quare feet, a rare featurein residencies of the city. Along withswimming pools, each apartmentwill also boast of its own attachedterraces, walk-in wardrobes and aservice space that can be used as alaundry room or abode for the do-mestic help, sanitary fittings by UK-based luxury brand Villeroy and Bochamong other amenities. According toMr. Rishabh Siroya, Director, LegendSiroya, “The project is an attempt toprovide the customers with a ‘flatthat comprises the entire world’. In ametro like Mumbai, spacious housesare a rare luxury. We believe in givingthis luxury to our customers. <

Legend Siroya’s Worldin


desk news

Lanco Hills Brings in Mega Mall

Gulshan Homz, a major re-alty player based inDelhi/NCR region, re-cently organized a paint-ing competition for

children and Free Health check up forwomen at their Project site of GulshanVivante in sector-137, Noida. Theevent was organized on the eve of26th January, the Indian Republic Dayand was aimed at encouraging chil-dren towards education and educat-ing women on how to look after theirhealth which due to the lack of moneythey often neglect. Gulshan Homz, a major player in thereal estate sector with projects likeGrand (Indirapuram), Centrum (Indira-puram), Homes 121 (sector-121,Noida), Gulshan Ikebana (sector-143,Noida) and Gulshan Vivante (sector-137, Noida) has been making its markin the realty sector for over a decadenow. But this time they chose a differ-ent platform. The company in last fewyears have been associated with twodifferent NGOs working in two sepa-

rate dimensions. Turning life founda-tion, one of the NGOs working in tie-up with Gulshan Homz, works forEducation for underprivileged chil-dren which is the key in addition towhich the NGO also addresses issueslike healthcare, poverty, population

control, unemployment or humanrights issues. Gulshan Homz in tie-upwith the NGO has also established asmall school at Gulshan Vivante (sec-tor-137) for the children of the labourforce working at its site. <

Ashiana Housing Limited (Listed BSE NSE) one of thefastest growing real estatedevelopers, unveiled itsnew brand logo making

the most encompassing transforma-tion of its corporate identity in theCompany's history. The new logo isdesigned to reflect Ashiana Housingas an institution built on the strongfoundation of honestly and trans-parency.The need for a new identity arose asAshiana reached an inflection pointalong three axes: it was growing pan-Indian, it was getting into JVs and itneeded to prepare for a real estatemarket that will be dominated byglobal names. The new logo was un-veiled by Mr. Vishal Gupta, Managing

Director along with Mr Ankur Gupta,Joint Managing Director AshianaHousing Ltd at a press conferenceheld in the city. Commenting on thenew face of Ashiana, Vishal Gupta said,

“We hope our new identity will rein-force our commitment as a safe andtransparent real estate company. Thatis our differentiator, today and tomor-row.” <

Unity Infraprojects Ltd.,one of India’s major civilcontracting firms, hassecured Mantralaya ren-ovation project order

worth Rs.138Cr . The order is forMantralaya renovation project atSouth Mumbai by Government ofMaharashtra and the said project is tobe completed within a period of 8months under Public DevelopmentPlan (PWD), Government of Maha-rashtra. The project value is Rs. 138 Cr.

With the addition of this project, theorder book of the company stands atRs.4232.17Cr. Commenting on the oc-casion Mr. Kishor K. Avarsekar, Chair-man and Managing Director, UnityInfraprojects Ltd., said “We are ex-tremely grateful for partnering withthe Government of Maharashtra forMantralaya makeover project. Unde-niably, this is a great opportunity toexhibit our high-level performance inoperations and quality supportedwith planning and highly skilled

workforce. We are sure of executingthis fast track project in the given

time to bring greater effulgence inthe future.” <


desk news

Gulshan Homz’s Social Initiative Unity Bags Mantralaya order

Jain Group Forays in South Bengal Ashiana Unveils its New Logo

Jain Group announced theirambitious foray in South Ben-gal with Dream Eco City, aunique residential project de-veloped with Biophilic Design.

“For Jain Group, real estate is notabout building houses, it is about cre-ating value for our customers and up-grading lifestyles of the people whochoose to trust us. Dream Eco City isa project that is in perfect harmonywith the eco system. We decided toincorporate biophilic design as an in-tegral part of this project. We did ex-tensive research to come up withvarious design changes, variousprocesses that would make the proj-ect more sustainable and less taxingto the eco system. Water, Energy,wastage all would be efficiently man-

aged within this township project”,said Mr Shrayans Jain, Vice Chairman,Jain Group. Situated at a prime loca-tion in Muchipara on NH2, next toNSHM Knowledge Campus, DreamEco City offers easy connectivity toDurgapur Railway Station. Sur-rounded by scenic natural beauty, it

provides the best of indoor living andthe natural world imbued with high-est quality standards. Spread over 8acres and over 1 million sq. ft. ofhealthy living, Dream Eco City willhouse 800 families who subscribe tothe healthy way of life. <

Kishore K AvarsekarChairman and Managing Director

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