MHADA Should build 5 Lac Houses

If someone really wants to beat the recession and give a stimulus to the economy, it could be our very own government housing agency MHADA.

Recently MHADA announced sale of around 4000 houses and believe it or not more than 5,00,000 people applied to own a house at government advertised discounted rates.

It is common knowledge that MHADA builds very poor quality houses, nevertheless the response has been overwhelming.

If MHADA was to convert every application that it received in to a firm allotment, the economy of the country would receive a big boost.

Let us get the maths straight;

Flats on Offer : 3863

Average Sale Price : Between 20,00,000 to 30,00,000 (2 to 3 Million Rupees or 20 to 30 Lacs)

Taking a median price of 25,00,000 ( 2.5 Million or 25 Lacs)

Forms Sold : 5,00,000 (5 Million)

Money Collected from sale of Forms 5 Million x 100 (500 Million or 5 Crores)

If MHADA was to make a firm allotment to every person that has applied;

Total Sale Realization 5 Million x 2.5 Million = 1250000 Million Rupees ( 12.5 Billion Rupees or 1,25,000 Crores)

Considering a profit margin of just 20% for the government, it would translate to 25,000 Crores for the government.

All the babus can make their cut from the developers, the Babus get stimulated.

The politicians can fill their pockets by awarding contracts to their cronies, the politicians get stimulated.

Poor mumbaikar can have a house to call his own. They get stimulated.

The steel companies can churn more steel from their factories, the cement companies can spew more cement and thus everybody in the value chain gets stimulated!

Banks can lend money to these flat buyers because for one thing they are indirectly giving the money to the government, land title will be clear, flats will be built on time and chances of getting cheated are limited. Banks get stimulated!

Any takers for the scheme?

Slumdog Millionaire and Why Amitabh choose to slam the movie

When Slumdog Millionaire became a hit with world audiences, film folks back home choose to applaud the film that showcases the dirty underbelly of Bombay City.

Some leading lights choose to differ. Amongst them were Amithabh Bacchan and Aamir Khan.

Why did they choose to play down the film which had got critical and mass acclaim all over the world?

Perhaps it could be to do with the fact that they have individually contributed almost nothing to the development of the city? It could also be that they never ever knew that such an underbelly existed?

But it would be naive to think that these were the real reasons.

I think it was their conscience that prompted them to issue these statements. They know in their heart of heart that they have only taken from the city and choose to look the other way when the problems depicted in the movie came face to face with them in their day to day life.

I am sure Amitabh and Aamir have seen beggars on the roads, driven through the shanties that are home to more than 60% (90 Million of the 150 Million) population of the city. They know how people live in sub-human conditions in these shanties but have always thought of it, like almost all of us, as a problem for the government to tackle.

They forgot that it is people from these shanties that make or break their movies every friday at the box office. They also forgot that they have the power to make a difference, a power that they have chosen not to use.

Therefore when someone showed them the ugly face of the city, they cringed at the site and choose to slam the movie rather than come out and say, Hey, I am ashamed that all this is happening in my city and I take full personal responsibility to move the mountain, to change all that is depicted in the movie and strive to make the city a better place to live.

Had they done that, they would have become bigger darlings of the masses.

BMC Officials run the Slum Racket

Recent report in Times of India points to BMC officials being involved in aiding and abetting slums in Bombay.

This should not come as a surprise to anyone, least of all the residents of Bombay.

In a recent conversation with a senior police officer, he remarked, that the Crime Department of the police is actually involved in Crime, similarly the Social Service Branch is involved in Gambling and Prostitution or giving protection to these rackets run all over the city. The Economic Offenses Wing extracts it's pound of flesh from White Collar crime reported to it. Often, case property is divided amongst the players at various levels.

The slum report goes on to detail how the whole racket operates. How migrants come to occupy the slums and live in sub-human conditions and how locations are later converted to commercial use by greasing the right palms.

What is the remedy for such crime?

Why do I call it a crime? It is a crime against all other residents of the city who pay taxes and contribute to the city. Slums on the other hand are a drain on the city. Electricity is stolen to light these houses, water connections are pilfered to supply water to people living in these slums.

All these slums are an encroachment on government or unprotected private land. Government officials along with local corporators, ward officers, et all contribute to mushrooming of slums. They hold more than 60% of the total population of the city pegged at 150 Million according the report published in Times of India. Therefore about 90 (9 Crore) Million people live in slums. If for each slum the average occupancy is 6 persons, then there would exist around 15 (1.5 Crore) Million individual slum homes.

If you take an average transfer rate of 40,000 for creation of a slum home, it would translate to 600 Billion (60,000 Crore) rupees that have been generated from these slums. All this money has been distributed amongst the players ranging from the ward officers, local corporators, local politicians, goons and the underworld.

No wonder no one wants to rock the boat.

These slums also serve as vote-banks for the politicians that have been instrumental in creating these slums in the first place. They provide protection from various government agencies to the residents of the slums who in turn use their votes to keep the leaders in power.

The slums are also result of zoning rules and development rules created by the same ruling class. These rules create artificial scarcity of land by capping the floor to space index (FSI) and creating green zones, coastal zones and a plethora of other rules to reduce land supply. On the other hand they acquire land from their ill-gotten money and reduce to available land for housing. This drives up the land price and in turn house prices. Slums thus indirectly allow the political class to hoard land with the money made from slums.

One solution to the problem could be a radical re-look at FSI and DCR (Development Control Rules) imposed on the city. Another solution could be to dis-enfranchise the residents of all encroached land. This way the politician will not benefit from the vote-banks that they now depend upon and are instrumental in creating in the first place.

A more severe solution would be death penalty for corruption. But then who will bell the cat?

Your comments are invited.

Read the Times of India Report Here

Real Hustle

Yesterday, I went shopping in a mall near Mira Road in suburban Bombay.

My daughter had purchased a garment which she wanted exchanged. Once that was done, we entered Archie's a gift shop located on the ground floor. Here we selected a photo frame and as we were about to pay our way out we noticed a sudden commotion near the payment and packets counter.

On inquiry we learnt that someone had absconded with a bag belonging to another customer. Normally this would be a mistake and the customer would come back and take his right bag but this turned out to be a con job. Here is how it was committed.

The con artist was tailing the group of women who had made a purchase from Croma (an electronics store on the first floor). These women had purchased two mobile phones. The thief had made a purchase of a cheap headphone from the same store at the same time. He ensured that their packing bags were of the same size and type. Once this was done he started tailing his target. The target entered Archie's and handed over their bag for safekeeping and security purpose, the thief did the same. The shop provided both the people with tokens to claim their parcels on the way out.

This is where the con artist used his skills. As soon as he saw that the target group was exiting the store he rushed over to the parcel counter and presented the guard with his token at the same time as the target group did. He then confused the gurard by pointing to the wrong bag and claiming it as his own. As the guard was holding both the tokens and as was being badgered by the con artist to do his job quickly, he handed the bag containing the mobile phones to the con artist.

He disappeared in a jiffy leaving the target with a bag containing the cheap headphone.

You could be target of such a real hustle and may lose your belongings. Be aware and beware.

Let us Stand up and Salute ASI Tukaram Omble

Other than the three top cops of Mumbai police, Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar who were killed in the recent attack on Mumbai by terrorists, people have forgotten a real hero. Tukaram Omble, 48, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), the only cop who with his daredevil courage was helped in the nabbing of a terrorist on 26/11 alive.

Omble was asked by his senior officer to take up a position on Marine drive on Wednesday night, as soon as the news of firings at Leopold Café, Oberoi and Taj Hotels came in.

Subsequently, at 12.45 am, Omble got an alert on his walkie-talkie that two terrorists had hijacked a Skoda car and were heading towards Girgaum Chowpatty. Minutes later Omble saw the Skoda drtiving past him. He jumped onto his two- wheeler and chased the terrorist’s car.

A team from the DB Marg police station was busy setting up a naka bandi at the Chowpatty signal. As soon as the car approached the signal the terrorists fired at the police team but had to reduce the speed of the car, thanks to the barricades laid by the police team for naka bandi.

Omble overtook the Skoda and stopped in front of it, forcing the driver of the car to change the direction towards right and hit the divider.

With one terrorist busy controlling the car, Omble sprang on other terrorist, Amir Kasab and caught hold of the barrel of the AK-47 rifle with both hands. In retaliation Kasab pulled the trigger of the gun, whose barrel was pointed towards Omble.

A spray of bullets entered Omble’s stomach and intestines. But the latter held on to the gun until his last breath, stopping Kasab from shooting anyone else.

In next to no time other cops arrived and killed another terrorist, Ismail, pounced on Kasab and captured him.Investigating agencies were successful in gathering lot of information from the sole terrorist who has been arrested. But this was only possible because of Omble’s daredevil move.

Omble is survived by his wife and four daughters. He is a real hero, who has been forgotten by people as well as the politicians who are busy in resigning and giving up their responsibilities rather than to fight against such terrorism.

Original Article here

Bombay Terror Attacks

It has been many days since the actual siege of Bombay ended.

But it will take many days before the mental siege ends.

The terror attacks on Bombay have been widely reported all over the world with a lot of on the ground coverage and live telecasts being beamed into our homes as the events unfolded.

Major takeaways from the tragedy are;

1. Politicians are only interested in holding on to their seats and their inaction vis-a-vis modernizing the police force led to poor response to the situation. The bureaucrats that advise our politicians are equally to blame as they impede the decision making process in every department of the government. All concerned (actors in this sordid drama) should not only be axed but should face a court case of culpable homicide amounting to murder. They, if convicted, should be handed out capital punishment setting a precedent for all to follow.

2. Atrium type design in hotels, malls, hospitals and other buildings offered the terrorists strategic advantage when it came to fighting our brave soldiers.

3. While our commandos fought these bastards, no special tools, such as building plans, walk throughs were made available to them. They fought a brave a often blind battle against the well entrenched terrorists.

4. Building designs should be done in such a way that it is possible to isolate sections of the building without affecting the ability to rescue hostages. All buildings should have mandatory fire escapes on their exteriors.

5. While the Television Journalists did a commendable job of live reportage, they should have factored in the possibility of their reportage being used by the controllers in guiding the terrorists. Henceforth, TV media should not be allowed to cover such events live, at best they can be given a controlled feed from ground zero by a single responsible source and the feed should be suitably time delayed.

6. Elevators (Lifts as we call them in India) should have remote management capabilities thus allowing the manager to restrict their use in emergencies. In high rises such a facility will restrict movement of terrorists from one floor to another.

7. Buildings, especially public buildings should have a sanitized approach area. All people entering the premises should walk down at least a 50 meter corridor before entering any building. Cars should not be allowed to be parked or driven to the building. Everyone, and that means everyone (including the President and Prime Minister) should follow this rule.

8. All police men on the street all over the country should be armed with AK-47 or AK-56 assult rifles and should be provided with enough ammunition to last them for a 30 minute engagement with any terrorist. All .303 rifles should be immediately discarded. Police personell manning important positions should be provided with latest communication hardware and protective gear to protect them in case of any attack.

9. Security of elected representatives should be scaled back till the security on the street does not equal of exceed the requirements of these elected representatives.

10. Every state should have an ERT (Emergency Response Team) with the same level of training as the NSG to take the menace hands on.

11. Real time surveillance of buildings should be done using high resolution video equipment and not useless CCTV systems that hardly produce any useful input to the control center.

12. Video feed should be available over Internet such that the need of a control center is done away with.

I am sure I will be able to add a lot of other suggestions to this list as time goes by.

I am also sure that the authorities that be are more smarter than me and can think and implement much more that this small list that I have put up.

ICICI increases Home Loan rates

While RBI pumped 1000 Crores of liquidity into the banking system to prevent credit squeeze in the market, ICICI bank has quitely increased rates on home loans by 1% for old and new customers.

RBI's actions should have resulted in decrease in interest rates as key bank rates have been lowered to increase liquidity in the banking system. In effect banks have more money to lend now than before the rate cuts.

Some banks have lowered their home loan rates for loans less than 30 Lacs by 0.5%.

The question is Why is ICICI raising rates in a market where rates are headed in the other direction?

The answers (all speculations) could be;

ICICI wants to deliberately become less competitive thus pushing new customers to other banks in an environment where risks have increased due to imminent fall in real estate prices.

ICICI wants existing customers to close down their home loan accounts with them. This will serve multiple purposes.
One, it will make the bank earn money in foreclosure charges.

Second, the bank will get back it's money which is now at risk.

Third, falling property prices (estimated fall of 30 to 40%) will not hurt it's balance sheet in the mark-to-market norm of accounting.

All along ICICI bank has been saying that they are very liquid and people have no reason to fear of any problem. It's actions seem to suggest otherwise.

You be the judge.