From being the governance wild child to maturing into a market influencer, India’s real-estate sector has transformed in the past decade, with a paradigm shift from family owned businesses to corporates along with a few companies listing on stock exchanges. The change began with the government opening doors to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2005 and then welcoming the next wave of stability as corporate houses brought image restoration for the sector. Led by corporate entities, realty companies soon adopted corporate governance wherein transparency began to trickle down into the system as a norm slowly.

Track2Realty Exclusive: A report released by BNP Paribas earlier this year on realty firms found that each of them performed poorly on one or more of the parameters. Some of the assessment parameters include compensation structure, ability to retain key personnel, financial stability, pending litigation and trading in own stock.

Track2Realty: With economy witnessing a downturn, interest rates and inflation reaching all-time highs, 2013 has been one of the most eventful years for Real Estate in India. While introduction of Real Estate Regulatory Bill and Land Acquisitions Bills in the Parliament was positive for the real estate industry, end users sitting on the fence expecting a fall in prices lead to a contraction of demand in the past few quarters.

Track2Realty Exclusive: Urban Planning, experts suggest, is based on the three-tier concept of engineering, architecture and social concerns. Each is incomplete without the other. While a city needs its share of road networks, it also needs space for, say drainage and it needs hospitals and schools and blood banks et al. although each city has separate agencies to deal with these needs, a central agency is needed to provide a holistic approach to crisis management and to contain chaos.

Track2Realty Exclusive: Mumbai, while being known for its ability to provide a livelihood for one and all, is infamous for having the highest population density in the world: close to 30,000 people per square kilometer, about three times that of Delhi.

Track2Realty Exclusive: The concept of city-states is centuries old. Ancient Greek cities of Athens, Sparta and Thebes were known to be poleis (singular polis) and what set them apart from their ‘non-poleis’ neighbors was these were self-governed and autonomous city-states. Relevant examples in today’s modern world are Singapore, Vatican City and Monaco.