Surgical Strike on Currency & Real Estate Future!

“Money is the worst currency that ever grew among mankind. This sacks cities, this drives men from their homes, and this teaches and corrupts the worthiest minds to turn base deeds”… Sophocles

Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides & was a great economist also! I think 8^th Nov 16 is a day which will be long remembered in minds of most Indians for the so called historic demonetization (I hope I spelled it right) or in simple words banning on Rs 500 & Ra 1000 currency notes by our Hon PM! Long back when I was a kid, a film named Sholay got released & it created a history too! Such was the popularity of Sholay that its said there are only two categories of Indians, one who has seen Sholay & other who hasn’t! Same way at present there are only two types of Indians, one who are less affected by demonetization of notes & other who has more affected & there will be very less in later category, like those who hasn’t seen Sholay! Some way or other everyone is affected by currency ban i.e. either because of having banned notes in excess or not having anything, both categories has suffered! Going a step ahead, I am sure here after there will be same terminology like “before AD after AD”, getting replaced by the term “before Demonetization & after Demonetization”! At the same time this must be the most talked incidence of post independence as last fifteen days right from social media to print or electronic media, demonetization & it’s after effects is the only topic! My whats-app hasn’t stop buzzing about the jokes which features both sides of the currency ban! Opposition Political parties also taking this issue like threat to entire Indian economy & firing from ruling as well opposition parties is on ever since!

Well is the decision of Hon PM right or wrong, that time will decide as nobody is arguing about the intentions but the way it’s being executed along with success of pulling black money out, is being doubted for sure! But then this is Indian Democracy at its best as here everyone has his or her say on everything & this is something where right from the street beggar to a billionaire, all are affected for their own reasons! Though the target of demonetization was, one to eradicate fake currency which was in mainly in the form of  1000/- & 500/- rupee notes & second is give some air to billions of dead stock of above notes in form of what is popularly known as black money! As now the only way to get rid of these notes is to make them to banks that too nationalized banks only! I repeat I am no financial wizard, not even self proclaimed money expert but as a businessman & engineer by myself felt like sharing my views regarding impact of this on real estate, which is my field! And since last days many wrong messages are being circulated regarding real estate which made me pen down my logic!

Ever since the announcement of banning currency the social media is full of all sorts of messages many claiming that right from gold to petrol to homes i.e. real estate prices will fall drastically! I don’t know about gold or petrol but let’s see what effect real estate will have due to banning of present currency notes! For that first of all lets understand the role of these notes in real estate as unless we analyze that part we won’t be able to understand the effect too! Let me make a bold statement here, of late there was no role left that of  the so called high value notes in finish product of real estate which is a flat may it be 3/2 or 1 bhk in common language! Many won’t agree but as a developer in Pune who has seen the spectrum for last 25 years I am making this statement with full responsibility. And not just finish product i.e. homes but the cash transactions are out of real estate industry right from material purchasing to labor payments, nobody wants to touch the cash is fact. At the same time this is buyers market & buyers are mostly salaried class who don’t have access to cash, here cash means black money is what I meant! Rather more & more people are buying their homes with help of home loans so they can’t afford to pay the cash & devalue their home as it means less loan amount! May be a decade back scene was different as that time loan amount was less than sixty percent of flat value so  people used to pay they part in terms of cash & even developers were also happy in accepting cash but no more it works today! This means black money is out from real estate already when its making or selling the finished product, so where is cash in real estate?

Answer is simple, it’s in land! One look at ready reckoner values of lands around & actual market rate of the same will reveal the facts. And you can’t blame builders for cash in land deals as it’s the landlords who control land prices & mode of payment! Let’s remember a builder is responsible for flat prices & its mode of payment but he has no role in land purchase & in our country everyone has right to decide how he or she has to sale their own land, no govt can force them to sale at some fixed rate! The landlord’s reasons may be many, right from mode of acquiring the said land to avoid the heavy property gain tax to family distribution of payment type issues; many aspects are involved for existence of cash in land deals. Now the only way left for the builder is either fulfill this demand of landlord & pay him cash or leave the land deal. Because even you agree to pay the cash part how to generate is one issue & then the profit figures sour up due to this hidden land cost as income is in full check! Outcome is many sane builders are opting out of such land deals where cash is demanded by the landlords than entering in rat race of acquiring land at any cost. So where this cash comes in land is what one will ask; answer even a school going kid in this country knows, this is black money outlet & the cash holders too are known, surely not the professional developers!

Another aspect where cash or black money is involved in not only real estate but any business in our country is corruption, as you can’t ask money in check for sanctioning a file or giving some noc! And real estate has got hundreds of such opportunities for the system, so here is where cash enters in real estate but this again I will dare to say is just small part in comparison to entire turnover of real estate! And again most of this kind of money generated comes back in land only, so in a way real estate has always helped to recycle the cash, funny it may sound but a fact!

Now after knowing the role of cash or say black money in real estate logically tell me how banning of few notes is going to reduce home prices? As you haven’t reduced gain tax; neither the sanctioning procedure has been made transparent nor the number of noc’s have been reduced, so from where the cost of all these will be curtailed which in turn will reduce land prices which is raw material for the real estate? One sure thing everyone is agreeing is banning of notes is not going to reduce the corruption then how we are going to assure no entry of cash in real estate, is what I will like to ask. Rather I suspect more cash whatever will be generated in all over the country will flow in to real estate in land buying as with currency notes has no surety & expected restrictions on gold buying, land remains the only open & safe field for all the black money & this will rather increase rates of land whatsoever available!

After reading this one might think what else can be expected by a developer, always speculative about their product; but if we really want to have homes to be available at reduced rates, just banning some currency can’t be the way, let’s accept it! All those who are still thinking I am speaking like a builder & still feel that property prices will come down by currency banning, answer my simple question; why no one is saying that rates of steel or cement or tiles will be reduced by this move of the govt? Or even why nobody is claiming lap-tops or cell phones will become cheaper by banning these notes? Simple because people feel that so called black money or cash isn’t involved in making of above products & that’s why nobody makes claims about effect of prices of these items! But at the same time nobody can’t assure about stoppage on generation of black money in future & entry of this cash in land deals, so the only way to make homes cheaper is make more raw material available at cheaper rate to the real estate! And you need not to be a great finance master for that as in any industry its making raw material available at cheaper rate along with infrastructure & finance to that industry is the way to make its end product cheaper; and real estate too isn’t exception to this logic!  Means we need to make more & more land available for housing & that too land with proper infrastructure like roads, water, drainage etc which will make people’s life easy by living in the homes build on those lands! At present every essential ingredients required for making a home is available in ample thought there too is high need for controlling rates of basic material like cement & steel & most importantly the land. At the same time streamlining the procedures involved in clearing the land proposals & having a uniform & consistent policy for real estate is must. Because the interest burden created due to time lag in making a home is also a major aspect which the end user only has to carry making homes costly! 

We can use the huge fund flow which is now available to the banks to finance the housing projects at lower interest rate, at the same time make entire sanction process involved in real estate online i.e. without any human interference, that’s the key to reduction of home prices! Or else like the famous mythological story of demon Bhasmasur, this move may make homes go further beyond the reach of real needy ones as let’s not forget that we need a piece of land to build any home & there won’t be left any such piece of land while we just demonetize some currency & keeping ways of black money generation open!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1415&v=blgni8HSfDU

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/06/agreement-ho-gaya-rabba-rabba-permanent.html


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below)

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Goa, Heritage Yet Happening!

“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.”… Alan Keightle

 

It’s on streets of Goa I recalled this quote by Alan who is author of a book like, “In to Every Life a Little Zen Must Fall” as what this city makes to the tourists visiting here no other quote could describe it better way! I love to wander by feet in not only Goa but any city I am visiting as it makes you actually feel the city by being part of it! I never liked the concept of taking ride in some open too bus & move on the roads which most tourists do as that makes them able to see more of the city. But by me what I feel from the city is more important than the just quantum of what I see & no better way than to be on roads & inhale the fragrance of the city in your lungs, yes then you see what the city is in reality!

‘’Come look at my Shop, here everyone can be what he wants”, says a billboard at a shop in Goa, displaying Goan attitude towards life in perfect way! Like Pune, Goans shop keepers too are famous for their boards but the major difference is, here at Goa shops the boards reflects Goan cheerful attitude towards the life & witty too, where as Pune shopkeeper’s boards are famous for their curtness & typical serious attitude towards business! I had been to Goa number of times & every time the city makes me love it more, this trip also wasn’t exception. All my earlier trips I have stayed in South Goa & this time deliberately I booked myself in North Goa which is happening as per my veteran Goa lover friends & even my sons & nephews’ also recommended it! Here, one will ask what the term happening means? Well it differs from person to person but when its describing Goa, mostly it’s the vibrant beaches where people are drinking, dancing & that too in colorful apparels or skimpiest of clothes & these are people from all age groups as well from not just India but all over the world. The streets here are narrow, aligned with shops selling everything right from florescent bikinis to leather goods to fashion accessories. Here every third shop out of four is a liquor shop & every fifth joint is some Goan specialty cuisine serving restaurant, needless to say with a bar! And all these shops are full with bargaining tourists & so are the bar counters. Here the beaches come alive as the orange sun sets in the sea, the famous shacks i.e. food & drink joints aligned right on the beach starts playing popular Bollywood/Hollywood songs, beer starts flowing on every table & the feet starts dancing;  this is called as happening! In the contrast the South Goa has calm & quite beaches with white sand but less habituated & for miles of stretches on roads you won’t find much shopping or restaurants, that’s what meant less happening!

I always wonder what it makes people go wild in Goa forgetting their age, gender or position, it’s here people get dressed in funkiest way which they wouldn’t even imagine back in their home town. Even women from the so called respected or let’s say orthodox communities dare to go bare here; I think that’s what makes Goa very special! We all need some outlet for our hidden desires which in our daily routine we keep suppressed but it’s very much alive & kicking inside. And it’s all those hidden desire which may include wearing red colored shorts & move around bare chest without worrying about bulging belly or caring for what people will say & Goa allows each of us to do what we desire to do! Here  I have seen people wearing weirdest looking outfits & getting themselves clicked proudly, rather happily will be more appropriate word for the expression those faces carry. There is something in the air of Goa which makes to the tourists to behave in such way. In no other city in our country I have experienced people especially tourists behaving so natural to their own self, carefree is the only term I can think of to describe this behavior! This must be main reason for Goa becoming dearest destination for the foreigners especially westerners as when they have best of the beaches in Florida, California, Greece or France, yet Goa remains on top as a freak out holiday destination where you can let your hair down & just party! Here the westerners must be feeling much at home as nobody cares what you are wearing & how you are dancing unless & until you don’t bump physically on others & even that can be forgiven here with a smile! In a way its West of East, you can call it! And to add the fizz, Goa offers minimum rate for the booze in country, as already when converted to USD or Euro India is very affordable for the foreigners & on top of it in Goa liquor is nearly two third cheaper than any of the States! On one side many States are taking pride in banning sale of alcohol & look at Goa, it’s like having flooded by every sort of Beer, Wine, Whisky or Rum & yet it has retained its cultural values. Imagine any city in any of the State starts giving permission to liquor shops so liberally; there will be processions against the Govt saying its killing our culture & younger generations, destroying families with booze! But at the same time Goa is free from the biggest curse this country has i.e. chewing pan or tobacco selling thelas i.e. stalls! This has helped a lot in keeping city free of spitting or else the whole city would have got colored in tobacco spitting by the millions of tourists! Surprisingly in Goa you never feel insecure even with so much alcohol flowing around, which is supposed to be main cause of crime, making people especially men to behave like animal!

May be alcohol is part of the culture of Goans so they know to drink responsibly from their childhood & then to fight seems to be last thing on their agenda. This makes Goa one of the least crime cities in country. And if you are a keen observer then you will surely notice while roaming on the roads of the city that height of compound walls of the homes is hardly three feet! Those walls are not built for security but they are just to define the boundary of the property. In a way these walls tells us welcoming nature of Goans as if they are saying “here we don’t believe in keeping visitors away but welcome them whole heartedly & with colors!” As the best thing I like about Goa is the way bright colors like Red, Yellow & Violet are abundantly used here for decorating exteriors of the homes! These colors no modern day architect will dare to use in any of our so called Metros like Mumbai or Bangalore but then that’s why Goa is special! One more fact is these colors looks more beautiful on the backdrop of greenery & white sand which Goa has in ample. At the same time one more important aspect making Goa get cozy feel is most of the Goan homes are ground storied or two storied & not sky-scrappers which cut us off from the earth!

One more thing is Garbage management of the city, as knowing habits of we the Indians, by now the city should have got flooded with every sort of thrash right from beer cans to pizza boxes. But with very effective garbage collecting & disposal system in place, you find Goan streets pretty clean all the time. And yes there are no hoardings or cutouts or banners of any political figure or party or the so called social workers in Goa. This allows visitors to enjoy charm of the nature around than looking at ugliest faces in the hoardings which we are so used to in our Smart City! If Goa can achieve it why we the so called Smart City couldn’t make it on hording front, is what the question did cheeped in my mind!

One main lacuna Goa has is poor public transport, as any city will buckle with so much number of visitors along with their vehicles & the narrow streets; traffic is major concern in last few years in Goa. But in comparison to other popular tourist destination across the world Goa don’t have any public transport system in place, high time the govt should look in it. The only possible threat Goa possess is rampant buildings encroaching on greens. With the popularity it has gained, everyone wants to have a piece of land here & we all know what happens with such greed! The steps should be taken right from today to curb this greed & plan the city accordingly as the greens, the white sand & blue water of sea are the backbone of Goan heritage & they need to be conserved at any cost.

Looking at what Goa has achieved, few things for our dear Maharashtra State needs to learn & adopt, provided we want to! Goa is world’s tourist destination & major flow is from Mumbai or Pune side & condition of both highways is horrible especially Pune Goa; for ages work is going on & the moment we enter in Karnatak State road conditions improves drastically! Road widening work between Pune to Satara is seems to cross  first “Five Years Plan” & heading for next such plan but no one is bothered except the commuters & govt is busy in just collecting toll! Our State Tourism Dept i.e. MTDC must have their presence at prominent locations in Goa where the tourists visiting Goa can get information of better beaches in our State. Also MTDC must open outlets in the form of eating joints & stay arrangements on regular intervals on both the highways leading to Goa, which will be great publicity as well, facility to the tourists! I must also mention the police force in Goa, whose presence can be seen on roads but only as service provider to the tourists & not causing any nuisance to them. MTDC can think of conducting training program for the local police at our tourists spots to teach them how to handle tourists load as well how to behave with them!

Lastly on one of my walks I stumbled up on gallery of Mario Miranda, famous cartoonist from Goa. It’s a place made in honor of Mario, displaying most of his paintings, books & many items featuring his work. I myself am die-hard fan of Mario as he has seen & shown us true colors of Goa which gets reflected in his hundreds of paintings. Those who claims they have seen whole of Goa should visit Mario’s gallery to understand how little they have seen Goa as Goa is not a place to see but it’s a place to feel & that’s what Mario’s works teaches us! This city makes every visitor feel young again making him or her forgetting their all worries back at home & it’s our duty towards Goa to keep its charm & happening mode always on. As then only true Goa will be always in our heart even when we head back to our gray ocean, with a promise to come back again very soon! 

-- 

Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1415&v=blgni8HSfDU

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2016/09/difference-between-project-society.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below) 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/sets/72157627904681345/

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Think Green, Think Life

www.sanjeevanideve.com

Ease Of Doing Business & Real Estate!

“When I was growing up, we used to play basketball in a park that was never shoveled when it snowed. The basketball rims were never fixed. And we understood then that there was a relationship between public policy and our quality of life!”… DeForest Soaries

Reverend DeForest Blake "Buster" Soaries, Jr. is an African-American Baptist minister, author and public advocate; from Montclair, New Jersey as well he is former Secretary of State of New Jersey too! Yes the above quote might look odd for our topic but when I read the news about “Ease of Doing Business” in our beloved country, I couldn’t found better option! The news was about rating by World Bank on scale of “Ease of Doing Business’ in different countries; in simple words it’s about how easy it is for setting up or running any type of business in our country. And India as they have rated stood 130^th in some 187 countries, definitely not a thing of which we should be proud! Some solace is in 2014 our ranking was 142^nd which we rise to 131^st in 2016 but the forecast by World Bank for 2017 is we are now 130^th, just one position up! To add salt on our wound even one another survey was about utilizing youth’s strength & there also we rank too low; where as our neighboring countries like Sri Lanka & Bangladesh also are way up of us!

Many will say what’s news in this as most know that in this country only two kind of people can do business peacefully; one who are super rich & can bend the law or get the govt policies as per their needs & second is those who care a hang for any law or policies! Rest all who goes for asking any clearances or obey the laws, keep making rounds of various tables in numbers of govt offices & give up the idea of becoming business-man, is a bitter fact. 

As in this country the most difficult thing is start your own business & run it, may it be a soft-ware company or a wada pav joint, entrepreneurs are the last thing this country can develop! Many won’t be agreeing with me because are there not big business houses here or so many people doing business here, are they fools? These questions certainly will be asked & yes they have potential in it! But I am sure I am not alone with such opinion about “Ease of Doing Business, let’s make a short form as EODB” as millions of Indian’s who makes long queues’ for govt jobs may it be of a peon (chaprasi), forgetting their education qualification or joins processions for getting reservations in govt service will vouch how World Bank is right about EODB here! As nobody believes in doing business but get a secured job in govt even that of chaprasi would do! Even all those big business houses also share the same opinion only they won’t admit it in open as lots of stakes are involved & no big business-man can remain big by rubbing the rulers on wrong side is a naked truth! And speaking against EODB means indirectly speaking against the ruling party or the govt itself! But ask any chay-wala on road, who also is a respectable businessman in his capacity & he will tell you the truth! If you go for asking permission for tea stall, then right from obtaining PMC license to FDA acts, so many things come across but if you pay to local leader or elected member along with concerned officer then that’s all you need to become a street vendor & its lot easier way! Same is the situation may it be a big factory, though I don’t say there should not be any rules but if you make rules or policies which nobody can follow & yet you expect people to follow them then that’s end of EODB & which is what exactly happening here!

Interestingly as per World Bank when we are at position of 130^th in EODB amonsgst some 187 countries, the industry-wise scene says we are 185^th in real estate or say building industry! And on other side builders or real estaters or developers, call them anything are supposed to be master in law breaking, at-least media as well common man feels in that way! So is it that the policies in real estate are such (this also the World Bank report mentions) that obtaining any permission & following the conditions along, takes so much time & there are numbers of them, that the developer prefers to break the law than following it?  For two reasons I don’t blame officers or the govt people who are supposed to implement the laws & procedures; one I can’t afford to do that being in same business & second these are front men & they are supposed to just follow what’s been written in law books! The real master minds or culprits are unseen & they are the ones who can make the right policies but doesn’t make it for obvious reasons! It’s these people who are power house of any govt, who either don’t have capacity to make right policies or just don’t care about making it or else this scene wouldn’t have been there around. For e.g. delay in making development plans of the city or may it be decision of merging villages in PMC or making two separate development plans for one city i.e. new limit & old limit! All such things makes mess of the policies & create more obstacles for getting clearances, even a new entrant in real estate can understand it but the veterans sitting for years in those chairs are clueless towards these facts, why I should believe it? Here the sanctioning authorities like PMC or PMRDA or PCMC collects millions of rupees in name of various premiums or so called development charges but puts conditions on sanction plans that the said body won’t be responsible for anything right from water supply to drainage lines to access road making & what not! And yet this joke is happens only that still the developer accepts all these conditions & pays the money to the local body & completes the building & takes on the customers head on as they are aware enough & demand to pay even their domestic water bills from the developer! No sane person sitting in power house intervenes & at-least makes correction to those conditions on sanctions that whoever is using or availing the services he only should pay for the same! As not being able to provide the water or drainage to all parts of the city I can understand but then why the property tax bills are issued to the said residents when local body isn’t providing any service to them? At the same time how & why the builder should pay for the water bills when he has completed the building & done every possible duty he has towards the said building?

Similar is issue about road making, on one side local bodies are making expenses on so many non-essential fronts like some Social gatherings or Sports events like Kabaddi or Wrestling! Whereas on other side we read the news that a school in western suburb got the access road done by contribution of parents of the school kids as PMC doesn’t have funds provision for making of the said road! Means we can neither provide good schools nor the roads to the existing schools, what kind of smart city we are & how we expect to businesses to grow here without any provision for infrastructure? Another joke is we have policy of giving higher TDR or FSI on wider roads but road widening responsibility the said sanctioning authority doesn’t accepts, then what’s use of the policy for giving more FSI on wider roads? How some individual developer who is a business man also, is going to make a public road & why he should do it? Nobody asks such questions here as all know that nobody cares to answer them! Here if you have a God-Father behind you, then you can dig any road at your will & wish for any reason, even for putting up a illegal pedal (mandap) on road itself; but if you apply to dig some road for water connection as your building is complete then in monsoon you won’t get permission for four months as roads are not supposed to be dug in this period. And in summer as a policy decision you won’t get water connection as low storage in dams; so if you are unlucky & you have finished your building work at the start of summer then all you can do is wait for PMC water connection till eight months i.e. winter arrives & pray to the god that water connection gets released with good rains & dams full! And remember, for eight months it’s your job to supply the water to the residents at your cost; btw don’t ask me what you do with your drainage connection if road digging isn’t allowed! Can anybody imagine that in real estate where we need to dig earth for the foundation of the building, we are required to take NOC for Mining & Minerals’ & pay premiums for that! I wonder what kind of people we have as our rulers who can think foundation excavation comes under mining! Obviously one more NOC means one more opening for earning to many, so instead reducing NOC’s, everyone wants to increase them so all can have share in the income but in the process the principle source of earning is getting dried up is what we are forgetting!

Same way here policies can change in mid way of your construction as they are not decided in local body & never in tune with facts. Someone sitting up above in the govt thinks from today TDR norms needs to be changed then he does so & our local people are very fast in obeying any such new policy. So if you have started your project with some assumptions of then present policy, be prepared right from road width to relaxation in height any policy can become past, making your project also a history! It’s here only it’s possible that one department gives you exemption from considering parking height in total height of building but at the same time fire dept says they will consider the said parking in total height, making you wonder have you make any crime in becoming a law abiding builder! And on top of it when after taking all the pains of obtaining every NOC & completing your project, you read the news in  media that all other illegal structures which has been built without any sanction are regularized by the govt! And all above examples are just tip of iceberg as in one real estate industry only you can get such thousands of examples of clashes of policies making impossible to do the business & we are speaking about entire business fraternity right from automobile to small shops, so imagine what we are fighting with!

In 70’s there was said to be “License Raj”, means to start any business you have to get some license & for that you have to visit Delhi bosses & that’s it. But today it’s not just getting license but even doing business with that license has become impossible & the so called bosses are all over right from Delhi to in the ward of your own city. The solution is not that difficult, all what required is having right people in right position that can understand the nature of business & come out with right policies. Form a task force at every level & make them interact with people in various businesses & with open mind, to understand what a business really needs for survival! Right from tax policies to locate the hurdles in obtaining various permission to pin point obstacles in operating the business, everything is needed to be reformed! Age old laws related to environment protection or labor welfare, wipe them out & formulate new laws. I repeat, no one will say we don’t want to protect environment or doesn’t care for labors but a balance has to be strike if we want a business to survive. Most of the laws at-least those governing real estate has been made considering the developers are criminal & not going to follow them! Remember any wrong policy not only kills the business but as the businessman has invested his life time earnings, to save that he takes refuge of wrong ways which we call bribing, in the end damaging entire society! And it comes in all forms as right from the system which allows doing wrong things to giving hafta to local leaders, everyone wants their cut in the business! No, I am not defending bribing & businessmen’s attitude, agreed there are good people in system but most of the time they are helpless due to wrong policies is a fact! I am just sharing what’s happening around us which we know but refuse to acknowledge! No sane businessman will like to do something which the law doesn’t permits & live with that tension if not guilt. But if someone throws you in the tank of liquid oxygen, then what you can do than paying the person to pull you out of that tank?

Here I will share my own experience regarding EODB, though I am having a business of my own & that too of real estate! I have a small piece of land in green belt in Pune city right in the city center. Yes there are few green belts which are yet in existence in Pune city; so this piece is some 2000sq m & by present norms nothing is allowed to build on this piece because by present development rules if I have to get any structure sanctioned on this green belt then the plot size must be more than 4000sq m. And yet whatever agriculture base things are allowed like cattle shed or something which I need to build even to guard my piece of land, I have been asked every NOC right from Irrigation dept as its nearby to river to a fresh demarcation from city survey as my present one is four years old. Now when I asked for new demarcation, the said dept says its old record so I will have to pay fees for entire eleven hector of land of which my 2000sq m is part of & they will issue notices to all the occupants, so you can imagine what will be outcome. And this all circus for getting some structure sanctioned which has no commercial value; as I am not asking for some restaurant or marriage hall type purpose! But at the same time every land along the road in the said green belt of which my land is part, has come up with every possible commercial use right from garage to restaurant to logistics shades & what not! Now you will ask how this is possible. Because those land owners didn’t ask for any permission & just started utilizing their land for the purpose they want! Every day I walk from that road & look at my vacant piece of land & at restaurants, marriage halls in the neighborhood & think why can’t I do something like these guys are doing? Simple, because I am a respectable law abiding person, how can I do something illegal? Is what I tell to myself but in nutshell I am a coward who is afraid to break the law & I keep on waiting for the new policies by which I will be able to have some commercial use sanctioned in my size plots as well keep chasing the city survey office for demarcation certificate! And I really can’t blame the neighbors which includes even smaller size plots than mine i.e. of 500 sq m & that’s all they have got! By grace of god I am not depending for my day to day living on my land in green belt but what a person whose only asset is a piece of land below 4000sq m in the green belt should do? I remember famous dialogue by great villain Ajit in some 80’s movie, “Ise liquid oxygen me daal do, liquid ise jine nahi dega aur oxygen ise marne nahi dega”, he orders to his aide! Same is situation here as you have a land holding right in city center so you are not poor but the govt neither take away that land for the purpose of reservation with compensation nor would allow you anything to build on the said land!

In my sharing’s I never give my own example but this is something which is close to our subject & I am witnessing by myself the so called “Ease of Doing Business’, so I thought of using my own experience here. As simple things like the policies related to land use which are basic need for any business, if we can’t make right then how we are expecting the businesses culture to survive here?

The entire scene of Business, especially for the mid-segment entrepreneurs in our country reminds me a joke, “A man in tie & smart dress, hops in a running train & while he was just taking sigh of catching the train, the TC asks for his ticket/reservation. On which the man apologies saying he got late & queue at ticket window was very long so he jumped in & he is ready to pay the fine but he need to reach the destination. The TC says no, he can’t travel on this train without reservation & he will have to be deported at next station that too after paying fine. In the mean time the man’s eyes fall on a beggar who is comfortably sleeping in the passage of the train coach; so angrily he asks the TC, well how he can travel without reservation on this train? The TC calmly replies, you also can wear clothes like him & sleep besides him, and then I won’t bother you too!

I think the joke represents today’s business scene in our country, the well dressed man is the entrepreneur, the beggar represents illegal traders, the TC is govt system & the train is our country! If our govt is really keen about improving the ranking in EODB then the rulers need to introspect seriously & fast or else one day the train will have only beggars as no traveler will be in position to board the train with proper ticket!

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Sanjay Deshpande 

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Sanjay Deshpande 

Sanjeevani Dev.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1415&v=blgni8HSfDU

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http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2016/09/difference-between-project-society.html

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