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WordPress.com Bloggers Who Covered the Biggest News Stories of 2011

by Paul Joseph December 5, 2011 Uncategorized

As 2011 comes to end, we thought it’d be interesting to look back at the events that made headlines this year, and a few of the bloggers who were there in person (or closely connected to the events) to document history in the making. Here’s a recap of some of the biggest news stories of the year, as blogged by WordPress.com users. January 25: Tens of thousands of people take to the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities to demand an end to the rule of President Hosni Mubarak. Cairo-based journalist Max Strasser reported on the events from Istanbul. Marilyn Gardner posted updates on the situation after speaking with her daughter, who was living in Egypt for school. flickr.com/photos/sarahcarr March 11: Japan is hit with an 8.9-magnitude earthquake, the strongest in its history. The author of amblerangel.wordpress.com was at a grocery store in Shibuya-ku when it happened. She recounted the experience in We’re Being Shaken and Stirred in Japan . According to Liz Tagami, who was at Narita International Airport when the quake hit, “ It started as a silent rolling wave. “ amblerangel.wordpress.com June 24: New York legalizes same-sex marriage, becoming the largest state in the U.S. to pass the law. It goes into effect thirty days later on July 24, 2011. Talkaboutequality.wordpress.com was on site at the New York City Clerk’s office to chat with the couples who lined up for marriage licenses, as documented in the post Thousands of New Yorkers Put a Ring on It . In August, Jacob Murphy shared photographs of a pop-up chapel ceremony in New York City’s Columbus Circle. talkaboutequality.wordpress.com July 9: South Sudan becomes the world’s newest nation after seceding from Sudan. Uganda-based photographer Will Boase was there to capture the celebration, which he blogged about in Happy Birthday South Sudan . themzungudiaries.wordpress.com July 20: WordPress.com blogger discovers a fake Apple store in Kunming, China. The author of birdabroad.wordpress.com published pictures of the store in a post titled Are You Listening, Steve Jobs? , which quickly caught the attention of major news outlets around the world. birdabroad.wordpress.com September 11: Americans remember 9/11, ten years later. In the post 3,652 Days Later , Dale Roe of Project 2,996 declared, “Take this day, not to remember mass murder, but to remember the 2,996 people who are loved and missed.” The project uses WordPress.com to organize tributes to the victims of 9/11. Amalie Flynn was just blocks away from the Twin Towers on 9/11. She started septembereleventh.wordpress.com on 9/11/2010 and posted every day last year. project2996.wordpress.com October: The Occupy Wall Street movement gains momentum. Terrell Starr visited New York’s Financial District to document the demonstration. Many Occupy movements like Occupy Oakland , Occupy London , Occupy Albany , and Occupy Together use the WordPress open source software or WordPress.com to power their web sites. hiddennewyorkers.com November 18: UC Davis campus police pepper spray nonviolent protestors, sparking outrage. The next day, Nathan Brown, an Assistant Professor at UC Davis, wrote an Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi , demanding that the school’s chancellor resign. bicyclebarricade.wordpress.com Will you be the next blogger to break or cover news live from the field? Download WordPress for your mobile device and you’ll always be prepared to share your perspective with the world! To make your posts easy for others to find, be sure to include relevant tags that indicate the city, venue, or event that you blog about.

Tagged as: city, design, egypt, howto, news, open-source, power, president, victims

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Slump in Real Estate Sales, Brokers Looking for Jobs

by Paul Joseph June 17, 2011 Uncategorized

NEW DELHI | BANGALORE : Broker in Bangalore bylane has just opened a stationery shop. He has named it ‘Smart Shop’, borrowing the name from the realty brokerage firm that he ran from the same premises until about two months ago. He switched to retail after his property business hit a rough patch following a slump in home sales. About 03-quarters of his revenues came from sale of apartments, the remaining from renting. “With home sales dropping, it doesn’t make business sense anymore,” he says. It’s the same story in other big cities. In Mumbai , a mid-size broker has set up a small fast food joint to make ends meet. In Nagpur , a real estater has quit the real estate business and set up an ice-cream parlour. Their worries are not unfounded. While the large and established players in the property business have managed to stay, even during the slump, thousands of smaller players like brokers and agents are being forced to look for other jobs. It also hit lakhs of people employed with such small outfits – each of which hires 5-15 people.With many brokers closing shops or reducing size, these people are out in the market, looking for jobs in sectors such as retail, banking, insurance and call centres. The real estate industry employs about 10 lakh people across the country, the majority in the unorganised sector. In the first quarter of 2011, home sales dropped 17 per cent in Mumbai, 14 percent in Bangalore and 15 percent in Hyderabad. According to consultant Jones Lang La-Salle, unsold residential units in projects that are complete or are nearing completion in 6-12 months in Mumbai and Delhi-NCR are as high as 25 percent and 16 percent, respectively. In other big cities, including Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata , the numbers range between 12 percent and 19 percent. Sales in tier-II and tier-III cities are steady, though there is some panic due to the increase in interest rates, which have climbed to about 11 percent from 8.25 percent a year ago. “For smaller brokers, the impact of the current market factors is a lot more compared to the larger brokers,” says the president of the National Association of Realtors India . “Even for our members – who are fairly well-off – business is down 40 percent compared to 2009-10. But the smaller guys are in trouble and are setting up businesses that move on a daily basis. Many I know have asked their employees to look out” Ravindra Bramhe, chairman of the Maharashtra Property Brokers’ Association, says. For whatever business is left in the market, there are hundreds of agents in queue. For instance, there are pockets on the Noida Expressway , near large projects, where real estate brokers can be seen sitting inside small tents, under the sweltering sun, waiting for business. Those who can’t afford to set up these tents can be seen on the roadside, running after every car that passes by, with brochures and flyers of projects in hand. Industry refers to them as the broker mandi. “All my friends and colleagues are now looking outside real estate before things get worse,” says Chaudhary. Many have returned to the insurance industry and others have found jobs with small call centres. A few have found employment with retail stores.

Tagged as: bangalore, broker, country, friends, jobs, maharashtra, market, national, numbers, president, property, property news, ravindra-bramhe, real estate, realtors-india

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Property Prices to Remain Stable in Mumbai: MCHI

by Paul Joseph April 16, 2011 Uncategorized

Real estate prices in the metropolis, one of the most expensive realty markets in the country, are expected to remain stable in the near future, a top industry official said today. “The real estate prices may remain stable as the new supply is not going to come in the market and construction costs have gone up substantially,” Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI) President Sunil Mantri told reporters on the sidelines of a property exhibition here.

Tagged as: estate-prices, faridabad, gurgaon, housing, metropolis, mumbai, official-said, president, pune, real estate, remain-stable, the-country, the-sidelines, top-industry

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Govt Opposes Residential Construction near Rashtrapati Bhavan

by Paul Joseph February 23, 2011 Uncategorized

Raising security fears, the union government has stoutly opposed plans by a subsidiary of real estate giant DLF to build residential flats on a plot near Rashtrapati Bhavan. In a comprehensive affidavit filed recently in the Delhi high court, the central government has said any such project raises “security and aesthetic issues” and sought cancellation of permission granted by a single judge to convert a dairy land for residential purposes. Filed through advocate Arjun Harkauli, the affidavit informs the division bench currently hearing the case that any high-rise, that too residential, poses a grave security threat to the Rashtrapati Bhavan close by. To buttress its point, the government adds it reached this conclusion after receiving elaborate inputs from various agencies like the New Delhi Municipal Council ( NDMC), the home ministry and also the President’s secretariat. It added, if required it can place all the annexure raising red flag on the residential project on security grounds, before the judges. The affidavit has placed a copy of the DLF’s website showing Edward Keventer Successors Private Ltd (EKSPL) to be its subsidiary and urged the court not to permit any private builder from using the prime Chanakyapuri land for building private housing. The government affidavit comes in the backdrop of the HC division bench staying the single judge’s clearance to develop a 22-acre prime plot neighbouring the Rashtrapati Bhavan for residential purposes. Stung by the implications inherent in the single judge’s ruling, the union urban development ministry had rushed in appeal and obtained a stay, with the division bench asking the ministry to place its objections before it. Meanwhile on Tuesday, the private firm moved an application in court seeking early hearing into the matter and documents on the basis of which the government had decided to oppose permission. After the central government said it will place all the sensitive documents before the bench for it to read them, the court has posted the matter for April. While granting permission to EKSPL to convert a dairy farm for private residential purpose, the single judge of HC had last year also asked the firm to deposit conversion charges of the land valued at roughly Rs 1200 crore. The ministry in its appeal faulted the single judge for “exceeding his jurisdiction” by “granting a mandatory order in a purely discretionary and contractual matter” and claimed the power to permit land use change rests solely with the government as per the agreement between it and the private firm. On its part the private firm maintained it held the property under a perpetual lease deed since 1942 and had for the first time in 1970 communicated to the UD ministry seeking permission to use the property in question for residential purposes by way of constructing flats. However, the matter remained enmeshed in a dispute between EKSPL and the government over what amount ought to be paid as conversion charges. In 2008 the firm deposited some amount with the ministry that was later refunded by it, prompting EKSPL to seek intervention of HC.

Tagged as: delhi, faridabad, government, ministry, president, property prices, real estate

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World Bank Projects 17% Growth in FDI Inflows into Developing Countries

by Paul Joseph December 14, 2010 Uncategorized

The foreign direct investment flows (FDI) into developing countries including India, is expected to recover over the next couple of years and is projected to increase by 17 per cent in 2010, a World Bank report said. The report — World Investment and Political Risk — which was launched by the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) said the net FDI inflows into the developing countries is projected to touch $416 billion in 2010, up from its 2009 level of $354 billion. Overall, FDI inflows to the developing world continues to be “overwhelmingly” concentrated in middle-income countries, with Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, and China (BRIC) alone absorbing about half, the report said. Net private flows (which include FDI and portfolio equity flows, as well as debt from private creditors) are projected to rebound in 2010 and 2011, but to remain substantially lower than their $1.2 trillion peak in 2007. FDI prospects appear brighter for developing countries in 2010 and beyond: their economic performance is expected to outpace that of high-income economies as their domestic demand is buoyant, the report said. “This upsurge in FDI into developing countries is welcome news, especially considering last year’s drop,” MIGA Executive Vice President Izumi Kobayashi said. FDI into developing countries declined by 40 per cent last year. Kobayashi noted that “FDI flows directed to productive assets can spur economic growth and reduce poverty.” FDI can help generate and sustain economic growth and development by providing much-needed financial resources, technology transfer, managerial expertise, and connections to the global economy, the report said. “Economic growth is critical for all of us around the globe but it is even more so for underserved markets — those economies that have been struggling under the very heavy burden of conflict and instability,” Kobayashi added. The MIGA report said executives from multinational companies across the world believe that despite the various problems being faced by the developing world, such as lack of finance and quality of infrastructure, the biggest worry is “political risk”. The top worry of multinational executives when operating in developing countries over the next three years is political risk, and a fifth of the investors surveyed use political risk insurance to mitigate this risk. The report, which also focuses on FDI into conflict affected and fragile economies, said investors there are mainly concerned about adverse government intervention rather than overt political violence as adverse changes are often responsible for losses in these destinations.

Tagged as: brazil, delhi, gurgaon, hyderabad, president, pune

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Real Estate Sector can Face Maximum PE Exits in Coming 12 Months

by Paul Joseph December 11, 2010 Uncategorized

Bad news keeps mounting for the real estate sector as analysts feel the sector will witness the maximum number of private equity (PE) exits in the next twelve months. According to a Grant Thornton survey carried out amongst executives from 100 corporate houses, 16 per cent of the respondents feel the real estate sector will see most exits from PE funds, followed by the IT and manufacturing sectors. The survey also mentions that PE exits have increased because of the revival of the primary market. But despite the revival, only 38 per cent feel PE exits would yield better returns while 47 per cent do not expect better returns The power sector will capture the interest of the PE investor. A majority of the respondents (21 per cent) said the sector would attract maximum PE investments. In addition, new sectors such as automotive, textile and apparels are expected to see investment activity over the short term. “Capital formation strategy is critical for power generation companies to enable sustainable growth. In India unfortunately there is very little risk capital available at early stage growth, as there are no platforms which provide access to capital from good long term shareholders without financial protection, until the company achieves the critical size to be eligible for the capital markets,” said Mr Mahesh Kohli, Founder, President and Joint Managing Director, Greenko Group. More than 90 per cent of the Grant Thornton survey respondents said the climate in India for PE investments had improved. Mr Siddhartha Nigam, M&A Partner, Grant Thornton India, said, “Capital is no longer a constraint for growth and Indian entrepreneurs are realising the benefits of accessing risk capital from external investors. Additionally, PE is emerging as a logical step before accessing capital markets, not only to invest for scale but also to get the ‘house in order’, making listing a lot easier.” “We are seeing a significant rise in deal activity with companies wanting to raise capital to fund growth and acquisitions, as well as, in many cases, to fund new business lines in international markets or entry into newer markets or sectors,” added Mr K.P. Balaraj, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India. However, despite the improving environment for PE investments, investment levels in 2010 are much lower than the 2007 peak levels. From January to November 2010, PE deals amounted to $5.3 billion, which is more than in 2009 but much lower than in 2007 when PE deals amounted close to $18 billion.

Tagged as: delhi, india, mumbai, president, pune, real estate, real estate india, sector

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Housing Finance Racket a Case of Bribery; Not Scam: CREDAI Appeals

by Paul Joseph November 30, 2010 Uncategorized

Realty body CREDAI on Sunday termed the recent housing finance racket as a case of “bribe and kick-backs for loans” and said the case cannot be called as a housing scam. Recently, the CBI busted the housing finance racket and arrested eight top officials of banks and financial firms on charges of taking bribe to grant corporate loans. “…this is a straightforward case of ‘graft’ and illegal actions by some. The guilty need to be brought to book at the earliest but this cannot be termed as a ‘housing scam’ or a systemic failure,” CREDAI said in a statement here. “In fact it may be termed as a case of bribes, graft and kick-backs for loans,” it said. It said that the current faith of investors in the Indian economy has been exhibiting a positive trickle down effect in the real estate market which, regrettably, is thwarted with certain malpractices carried out by some individuals to obtain loans. “The systems of funding are very much in place and all project fundings are meticulously scanned and secured and often backed by the personal and/or bank guarantees. Thorough due diligence is done,” it added. The real estate funding plays a pivotal role in generating revenue for the banks as the interest is higher than any other businesses. “Such episodes, if not presented in the correct perspective cause a negative market sentiment that in turn unnecessarily impedes the pace of development resulting in shortages. This is turn would hurt home buyers as shortages lead to rising prices,” CREDAI President Santosh Rungta said. Rungta asked the government to develop a transparent online mechanism to grant loans for real estate development projects in the absence of which discretionary sanctioning may lead to breeding grounds for graft.

Tagged as: bangalore, businesses, chennai, housing, indian, mumbai, personal, president, property prices, pune, real estate, real estate developers

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It’s Morning in India

by Paul Joseph November 2, 2010 Uncategorized

What is most striking to me being in India this week, though, is how many Indians, young and old, expressed their concerns that America also seems at times to be running away from the world it invented and that India is adopting. With President Obama scheduled to come here next week, at a time when more than a few U.S. politicians are loudly denouncing immigration reforms, free

Tagged as: america, india, india property, president, real estate india, world

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Ahmedabad Realtors Invite Developers from Across the Country to Explore Opportunities

by Paul Joseph October 4, 2010 Uncategorized

Real estate consultants from Gujarat have invited their colleagues from all over the country to Ahmedabad ahead of Vibrant Gujarat. Ahmedabad Realtors Association and Vadodara Realtors Association have convened National Realtors Association India’s meeting in the city on October 28, 2010. “We have invited around 7,000 to 8,000 real estate consultants across India to come to Ahmedabad and know about the market and government’s real estate policy in the state, so that they can bring in their big clients to the city,” said Sachin Shroff, the president of Vadodara Realtors Association. He said that they want to project Ahmedabad as a realty destination. The realtors’ meet is also aimed at providing education to the real estate brokers to take them on the path of professionalism. Moreover, NAR-India has also organised five road shows in various cities including Ahmedabad, Rajkot, and Surat. Pravin Bavadiya, the president of Ahmedabad Realtors Association, said that the aim of such shows is to create awareness among realtors about activities carried out by NAR-India. The meet will provide a platform to local realtors to have interaction and network with the fraternity in the other cities. “We need to unit the entire realty consultant fraternity to combat multi-national companies entering into this business,” said Bavadiya. Moreover, the association has also invited NAR-USA’s trainer, Marcus Walley, who will conduct a workshop on sales and marketing of property. NAR-India is also mulling to get accreditation from real estate developers body such as Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) for their members.

Tagged as: ahmedabad, business, confederation, india, president, real estate, real estate developers, real estate india, real estate trends

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I-T Dept Raids Delhi/NCR Based Real Estate Developers- Rs 27 Crore Seized

by Paul Joseph September 15, 2010 Uncategorized

The Income Tax department has seized more than Rs 27 crore in nation-wide searches conducted on over 70 premises of major national capital region-based real estate developers and their associates over alleged tax evasion. The department has seized the amount after it allegedly found discrepancies in the account books of various real estate firms and their associates, reliable sources said. “The seized cash could not be accounted for by the firms during the search operations. Notices under the Income Tax Act will be issued to these firms (asking them) to explain (about) this money,” a senior I-T official said. The searches, which are still on since yesterday, were conducted at Delhi, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Goa, Meerut, Haridwar, Mussoorie, Lucknow and Kanpur. The major groups against whom the I-T raids were carried out are Paras Buildtech and Amrapali builders. “Nothing has been seized during tax raids on Paras group,” a spokesperson for Paras Buildtech said. A public relations executive for Amrapali declined to comment. “It is a routine exercise and is being done with all real estate companies in Noida. There is nothing abnormal and we are fully co-operating with them (I-T department). We are a law abiding company,” Paras Buildtech Vice President (Sales and Marketing) Harmit Chawla said yesterday. The I-T sleuths had also conducted raids at the premises of a firm in Ghaziabad involved in import of computer peripherals from Hong Kong.

Tagged as: faridabad, ghaziabad, marketing, president, property prices, real estate, real estate india

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