Bloomberg Philanthropies, UD min sign pact on smart city

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg Monday announced a partnership between Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Urban Development Ministry to advance the government's ambitious smart cities initiative.

Under the partnership, Bloomberg Philanthropies will provide funds and other assistance to Urban Development Ministry to implement the Smart Cities project in select cities.

The announcement was made after Bloomberg's meeting with Modi.

"The Prime Minister described the Smart Cities Initiative as a challenging task, which nevertheless has to be undertaken to improve the quality of life for India's urban citizens with stakeholder's participation," a government release said.

The Smart Cities Initiative is aimed to promote economic growth, improve governance, and deliver more effective and efficient public services to India's urban residents.

"Bloomberg Philanthropies will provide assistance to the Ministry of Urban Development to select cities for Smart Cities Mission funding on a continuous basis," the release said.

It said "This approach is different from the conventional approach, which involved preparation of Detailed Project Reports, and their appraisal and approval by the central government.

"It will ensure that real citizen engagement happens, as people get involved both in design and execution of city development plans. This will actualise the idea of cooperative and competitive federalism."

Earlier, Bloomberg met Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and discussed various urban development issues including the Smart City project. Source: igovernment.in

Buying A House Overseas Easier Now

Buying a house overseas, which used to be the preserve of the super rich, has now become a lot easier for wealthy Indians with the Reserve Bank of India doubling the foreign exchange remittance limit to $250,000 per individual per year. In other words, a family of four can remit $1 million (equivalent of Rs 6.2 crore) every year to purchase assets overseas.

With this move, the rupee has become almost fully convertible for most Indians. The funds remitted overseas can be used for almost any activity barring a few such as speculation in exchanges, funding terror groups or for remittances to Bhutan,Nepal, Mauritius and Pakistan.

According to Bank of India chairperson V R Iyer, the increase in the liberalized remittance scheme to $2.5 lakh reflects the confidence of the regulator in consistency in foreign inflows.

RBI governor Raghuram Rajan said on Tuesday the foreign currency remittance limit was relaxed following a review of the external sector outlook and as a further exercise in macro prudential management.

The central bank also said that it will ask the government to subsume under this limit various remittances that an individual is allowed under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, which include donations, gift remittances and exchange facilities for those seeking employment overseas and for maintenance of close relatives abroad.

Until now, this facility was in addition to remittance limits already available for private travel, business travel, studies, medical treatment, etc as described in Schedule III of Foreign Exchange Management (Current Account Transactions) Rules, 2000.

An improvement in the country’s foreign exchange reserves has emboldened the RBI to increase the limit. Announcing his policy, Rajan said the following the drop in oil prices the current account deficit has been comfortably financed by net capital inflows, mainly in the form of buoyant portfolio flows and supported by foreign direct investment inflows and external commercial borrowings. “Accordingly, there was accretion to India’s foreign exchange reserves to the tune of $6.8 billion in Q3,” said Rajan. Source: Times of India; 04 Feb, 2015

 

IFC, CREDAI Promote Green Buildings in India through EDGE Certification

New Delhi—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI), apex body of private real estate developers, have partnered to promote green buildings in the country through IFC’s EDGE certification.

EDGE stands for ‘Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies’, and is a standard that focuses on energy and water efficiency in buildings. Fast, easy to use, and affordable, EDGE empowers builders and home-owners to choose environment-friendly technical solutions while capturing costs and projected savings. More information is available at www.ifc.org/edge.

CREDAI will encourage its members, including local chapters, to incorporate resource efficiency in their design using EDGE. To qualify for the certification, these efficiencies must result in savings of at least 20 percent in energy, water, and materials over the local standard practices. IFC will train members and share global best practices and knowledge with CREDAI on green building technologies.

“This partnership has the potential to transform the housing market and put India in a leading position to apply a green rating system for homes on a large scale,” said Geetamber Anand, President (Elect), CREDAI, at its “Clean India – Skilled India – Strong India” Conclave. “Only two percent of the buildings are currently resource-efficient, pointing to the huge opportunity.”

By 2050, India will be home to 1.6 billion people and most of this growth will come from cities, where the residential needs will double. This rapid expansion in construction would require buildings that are less resource-intensive yet meets the aspirations of today’s growing middle class.

“Green buildings are a compelling need and IFC will be working in this fast growing Indian market,” said Serge Devieux, IFC’s Regional Director for South Asia. “We aim to help builders introduce cost-effective green features into their designs and work with financial institutions and the government, to support their widespread adoption.”

IFC has invested $600 million in green buildings globally in the last five years. In addition, IFC has ongoing advisory programs in more than 10 countries. In India, IFC’s clients -- VBHC, an affordable housing developer, and SAMHI, a budget business hotel developer -- have benefited from the use of EDGE.

Puravankara Sells 125 Flats in 12 Hours in Google Online Shopping Festival

Bangalore based real estate developer Purvankara Projects Ltd. Said on Wednesday that it sold more than 125 housing units within the first 12 hours through Google’s online shopping festival.

Puravankara said in a press statement that over 125 homes were booked online in less than 12 hours of the offer going live. According to statement, the home buyers took advantage of very lucrative offers from both Puravankara and Provident brands, a subsidiary of Puravankara.

Puravankara Projects and its subsidiary Provident Housing have offered approx. 200 housing units in the three-day Google Shopping Festival. These units are spread over 12-13 projects in Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore and Kochi. The units are in  the range of Rs 40 lakh to Rs 1.25 crore.

Puravankara Projects Ltd has its projects spread over Bengaluru, Kochi, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad and Mysore as well as in Sri Lanka. The developer has approx. 25.52 million sq. ft of projects under development and another 79.83 million sq. ft projected to be developed in the next 7-10 years.