Dawood Ibrahim

In a sensational revelation to the media, it has been learned that the person who tops India’s Most Wanted list – Dawood Ibrahim, reportedly possesses properties worth $77 million approximately (500 crore Indian rupees) in Mumbai – India’s financial hub.

According to media reports, Dawood Ibrahim is believed to be living in the United Arab Emirates. India’s Enforcement Directorate revealed that the D-company Chief has heavy investments in the United Arab Emirates followed by Spain, India, United Kingdom, Morocco, Singapore, Thailand, Cyprus and Turkey.

The above disclosures are in the wake of Modi Government’s demand to get properties of Dawood Ibrahim seized in Dubai and other parts of the United Arab Emirates.

Government of Gujarat is expecting new airport in an ancient port of Dholera in the state to take on Dubai as one of the most admiring global hub. It is well known fact that Rs 1,000 crore projects has been actively backed by the Modi government and has been envisaged when Modi was CM of Gujarat, said by General Manager, Dholera International Airport, a state-run company.

Dholera is located in Gujarat and it is more than 100 kilometers from the state capital of Ahmedabad, which is almost similar distance from one of the other key city Vadodara. As a town Dholera covers more than 920 square kilometers area, but its Wikipedia page claims it will be developed into a megacity by 2025, which will be six times more than the size of Shanghai, which is the largest city by population in the world. The city Shanghai is spread on an area of 6.340.5 square meters however Dholera’s Wikipedia page doesn’t clarify how it will reach a several multiples of Shanghai’s proportions.

Chavda stated that the Dholera airport will be an alternate to Ahmedabad which will be saturated in the next five years. Now when it comes that why it will better hub than Dubai, so he stated that a Heathrow-Dholera-Singapore flight will entail a distance than is 322 kilometers lesser than a Heathrow-Dubai-Singapore airport. A total of 1,426 hectares area has been selected for the airport site, which can have at-least two runways and the length for these runway can be 000 meters and 2,900 meters, according to its brochure. The brochure ironically sports a picture of one of the terminals at the Dubai airport, lined on one side with Emirates’ planes, which means it still, aiming to beat Dubai as a hub is ambitious.

According to the news of Gulf Airport, London’s Heathrow is one of the busiest airports in the world as it were handled more than 70.48 million passengers in 2014. Airport has four of the multi-level terminals, one which has been built at a cost of $8 billion or approximately Rs 45,000 crore, and three concourse connections between them. It is handling more than 140 airlines connecting to 270 destinations and able to contribute more than $26.7 billion to Dubai’s economy or 27% of its GDP. Currently, Dubai is planning to build a $32 billion second airport with five runways.

Capital requirements for real estate firms

With its emphasis on attracting Foreign Direct Investors (FDIs) to invest in India’s real estate, Narendra Modi-led government is softening the rules and regulations for foreign direct investment in construction and housing sector in a big way.

The new central government norms are expected to allure the FDI inflow in the country. The relaxed rules pertain to the lowering the minimum built-up area and capital requirements for real estate firms. It is expected that the relaxation in the rules and regulations will attract investments in the sluggish real estate sector. The Union cabinet resolved to lower the minimum built-up area requirement for FDI in construction projects to 20,000 square meters. Earlier, the minimum built-up requirement was 50,000 square meters . Besides, the minimum capital requirement has been reduced from $10 million to $5 million, an official statement after the meeting said. So far, 100 per cent FDI was permitted in realty with stringent terms and conditions, which included a lock-in period of three years, during which the investment could not be repatriated.

It is expected that the lowering of minimum requirement for built-up area and capital may enable the Modi government to fulfill its promise to build 100 smart cities within next six years. The statement issued to the newsmen said that the funds will have to be fetched in six months soon after the beginning of the residential project. “The investor will be permitted to exit on completion of the project, or after three years from the date of final investment, subject to the development of trunk infrastructure,” the statement said.

There are plans by the government to permit repatriation of FDI, or the transfer of stake by one non-resident investor to another even before the completion of the project. The government may authorize the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to consider these proposals on a case-to-case basis.

Reacting to the fallout of the relaxation of rules for FDI, Akash Gupta, executive director of Price Waterhouse Cooper told a newspaper that the new rules would boost the development of smaller projects in urban areas, since the availability of land in metropolitan cities is low. Besides, the smaller projects could be expedited faster. He further said that the relaxed rules would attract increased funds into the real estate sector.

The move is also aimed at inducing investments in unchartered territories and boost development of affordable housing and construction of smart cities across the nation. It will facilitate the realization of government’s vision of housing for all.

Housing Mission named after Sardar Patel

The ambitious urban housing mission to ensure housing for all by 2022 will be soon launched and will be named after Sardar Patel, said Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation M. Venkaiah Naidu. The government is taking many steps to convert the vision of housing for all by 2020 to reality and to boost the affordable housing. The government will give priority status to affordable housing. Since the vision of housing for all by 2022 is to be realized, hence the government will streamline the approval process and also reduces the total cost of ownership for the end user of affordable housing on an urgent basis.

Addressing a press conference to present the vision of the central government for the country, Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation M. Venkaiah Naidu said, “under the Sardar Patel Urban Housing Mission, 30 million houses will be built by 2022, mostly for the economically weaker sections and low income groups, through public-private-partnership, interest subsidy and increased flow of resources to the housing sector,” Naidu said. The minister made this announcement while speaking at the ‘World Habitat Day – Voices from Slums’ programme here

Naidu said an investment of about Rs 50 lakh crore would be required over the next few years for various initiatives such as housing for all (Rs 22.50 lakh crore), urban infrastructure development (Rs 16.50 lakh crore), urban sanitation (Rs 62,000 crore), and building smart cities. “The Government is focusing on ‘in-situ’ development of slums by encouraging vertical construction,” he added. The central government will remove major bottlenecks like land acquisitions and government clearance for the real estate sector, especially affordable housing projects. The Modi government wants everyone in the country to have a roof over head and hence no efforts will be spared to realize the dream of the development of affordable housing for all countrymen, said the minister.