Within a week of the CBI arresting senior bankers in the housing finance racket, the competition watchdog CCI on Monday said 11 real estate companies are already under its scanner.
India's economy is expected to grow 6.4-6.7 per cent during the current financial year driven by strong domestic demand, even as geopolitical uncertainty poses downside risks, the newly appointed CII president Rajiv Memani said on Thursday.
Industry body CII on Thursday made a case for pushing reforms in sectors like land, labour, and agriculture by the Modi 3.0 government to accelerate economic growth, which is estimated to be around 8 per cent in the current financial year. CII president Sanjiv Puri said a lot of policy interventions in the past have put the economy on "a much stronger wicket". "The growth rate is poised to touch 8 per cent during the current year, marking the fourth consecutive year of above 7 per cent + growth.
The US's recent 50 per cent tariff on Indian exports will have a trickledown effect on India's affordable housing, potentially derailing demand as well as supply in this segment, according to experts. Pointing to worker incomes and jobs in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that typically make up majority of the customer base of affordable housing, would take a hit in the near terms due to the tariff change, further crippling India's affordable housing sector, already reeling from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Colliers reports that GCC leasing has jumped from 4.6 million square feet in 2021 and is expected to hit 10.6 million square feet by 2025 -- a clear sign that multinationals see Bengaluru as a long-term base.
The Indian real estate market is on an upward cycle and residential housing continues to be the star of the sector, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh said on Thursday. He added that unlike many other Western countries, the demand for housing in India is from genuine homebuyers and is not speculative in nature. "The India real estate market is on an upward cycle which bodes well for all of us. "The big star of the real estate sector continues to remain residential housing in India. "I hardly need to reiterate that demand for housing in India continues to remain robust," Parekh said while addressing the CII Real Estate event.
'For me, if I want to buy a house to stay, I don't care about indexation because I don't want to sell that house.' 'The only thing that matters to me as a buyer is that the home price should be within my reach.' 'Any market, when speculators and investors go out, it will benefit the middle class.'
The government on Wednesday said the country needs investment to the tune of Rs 361,000 crore (Rs 3,610 billion) to meet the shortage of nearly 25 million housing units.
Around Rs 1 trillion, or a fifth of the investments made by alternative investment funds (AIFs) are questionable in terms of the intent behind the investments and are under the scanner for circumvention of regulations, said Ananth Narayan, whole-time member of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). AIFs are pooled investment vehicles that invest in a variety of assets including real estate, startups, unlisted companies, and derivative strategies in the listed space.
Ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala on Thursday said real estate developers are afflicted with very low return on capital as compared to bluechip stocks. Jhunjhunwala, who runs RARE Enterprises and is set to be a major shareholder in an upcoming airliner, said only the affordable housing developers can look at listing because of the volumes which they can deliver. It can be noted that very few developers like Macrotech Developers formerly Lodha, and DLF are listed on the bourses. Jhunjhunwala cited the case of DLF, saying the stock price plummeted to Rs 80 from Rs 1,300 per piece to illustrate the risks associated.
Ask rediffGURU and PF and MF expert Janak Patel your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Bharti Enterprises, which has announced join ventures with US giant Wal-Mart for its retail foray, said that the rising real estate prices could hamper the growth of the organised retail industry in the country.
No single real estate company holds even 5 per cent of the total market share.
The other trend is towards the big and bigger, especially in the retail sector. Take The Great India Place in Noida, Unitech's 15 lakh sq ft "shoppertainment" destination which opened earlier this year.
US-based global investment banking major Goldman Sachs on Tuesday said it would invest one billion dollar in India for expanding operations in sectors like real estate and infrastructure.
Pranav Adani has come a long way since 1999, when he first got actively involved with the Adani Group's businesses, run by his uncle, Gautam Adani.
Companies say low-cost skilled resources, low real estate cost and low attrition are the driving factors.
ICICI Bank chief K V Kamath today said interest rates in the country were "moderating" but could put pressure on the economy if they rise further.
India recorded economic growth of 7.8 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2023-24 against 13.1 per cent in the year-ago period, as per the National Statistical Office (NSO) data released on Thursday. India remains the fastest-growing major economy as China's GDP growth in the April-June quarter was 6.3 per cent.
India Inc expects the RBI to cut interest rates by early next year.
The government is open to 'some tinkering' in the varied rates and holding period for computation of capital gains tax on shares, debt and immovable property, in a bid to make it simple, revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj said on Wednesday. Under the Income Tax Act, gains from sale of capital assets, both movable and immovable, are subject to 'capital gains tax'. The Act, however, excludes movable personal assets such as cars, apparels, furniture from this tax.
RBI has taken a balanced approach in the credit policy considering various developments across the globe and their near term impact.
Growth-oriented technology companies have raised Rs 15,000 crore through initial share sales in the last 18 months and IPOs worth around Rs 30,000 crore by such firms are in the pipeline, Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi said on Thursday. "Growing number of unicorns in the startup ecosystem is a testimony of the new age tech companies coming of age in our economy. These companies often follow a unique business model focusing more on rapid growth than immediate profitability," Tyagi said at an event organised by industry body CII. During the last 18 months, growth-oriented technology companies have raised a sum of around Rs 15,000 crore through IPOs (Initial Public Offerings).
'India is showing a reasonable amount of resilience, but we are still living in a world that is quite fragile.' 'That's why we hope that the government will continue to invest significantly in public capex so that we are able to ride through this cycle till the private sector is able to play its part in investing and adding to the capex cycle.'
The captains of Indian industry described Narendra Modi government's maiden budget as one with "the right intent and in the right direction".
India's GDP estimates for 2020-21 show that the economy is expected to perform much better than earlier projections by different agencies, indicating a sustained V-shape post-lockdown recovery, experts said. The first Advance Estimates (AE) by the National Statistics Office (NSO) has projected a contraction of 7.7 per cent in the real GDP during 2020-21. This was better than the projections by certain international agencies like the IMF and World Bank.
India's GDP is estimated to contract by a record 7.7 per cent during 2020-21 as the COVID-19 pandemic severely hit the key manufacturing and services segments, as per government projections released on Thursday. Amid overall decline in economic activities, some respite was provided by the agriculture sector and utility services like power and gas supply, which have been projected to post positive growth during the current fiscal ending March 2021.
The beneficiaries of the second set of announcements are expected to be micro, small, and medium enterprises, farmers, women, poor, migrant workers, and other marginalised sections of the society, reports Arup Roychoudhury.
India moving in right direction on GST, says Panagariya.
Anil Rego, CEO, Right Horizons, answers your personal income tax queries.
'We have set out a timetable to reduce income tax rates for all incomes below Rs 50 lakh, and to progressively eliminate the surcharges on income above Rs 50 lakh, by 2024.' The Budget speech past CII president Naushad Forbes wants to hear.
India must take urgent measures like issuing sovereign guaranteed bonds and exempting FIIs from short term capital gains tax to stem the rupee's slide, India Inc said.
India Inc on Saturday cheered the road map for lowering corporate taxation.
This is mainly due to GST impact on manufacturing and subdued farm output.
The expansion into smaller towns is coming at a time when the online retail space has not only seen consolidation but is actually looking to collaborate with physical stores. Abhineet Kumar reports.
'The babus in Delhi are not able to understand the pain industry is facing.'
Unless we control the coronavirus, we are going to struggle to get our economy and country back on track. The spectre of the virus haunts recovery, warns Naushad Forbes.
'GST will bring in much needed transparency and higher investments in the coming years and we hope that a few percentage points to India's GDP.'
Some initial reactions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes with effect from midnight.
The previous United Progressive Alliance government had permitted up to 51 per cent foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail but the current National Democratic Alliance government is opposed to it.