CM Siddaramaiah government makes buying farmland easier in Karnataka

BANGALORE: Karnataka has made life a lot easier for investors by doing away with the need for getting farmland converted for industrial use after a project is approved by the government.

"The agriculture land where an investor has proposed a project is deemed converted once it is cleared at the highest level," Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee told ET. "This will open up flood-gates for good industrial development." A high-level committee chaired by the chief minister clears investment proposals above Rs 50 crore, and those below that are approved by a single-window committee, headed by the chief secretary.

The government of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has pushed this significant change through an amendment to Section 109 of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, 1962. The relief is applicable to educational institutions, housing and horticulture (green-house) projects as well as places of worship. Those investors failing to set up industries within the timeline prescribed will, however, have to surrender the land to the government.
"This is the single-most-important ingredient of the government's new industrial policy," the chief secretary said, adding that the government came under resistance while trying to push for this change. "There was a lot of corruption at lower levels and proposals often got stuck because of the conversion requirement," he added.

Corporates see this as a welcome relief. According to TV Mohandas Pai, chairman of Manipal Global Education Services, the amendment will empower farmers to sell their land directly to the highest bidder. "Because of the reduction in processes, farmers will get a better price while buyers a quicker conclusion of possessing the land," he said. According to Ramadas Kamath, executive vice president at Infosys, his firm has gone through the pain of land conversion for each of its projects in the past. Source

K R Balasubramanyam, ET Bureau Sep 15, 2014, 05.48AM IST

Bangalore break records in new home launches

Bangalore

The country’s IT capital saw the highest number of new residential property launches between January and September of 2013 among Indian cities. The final number for the year could be the highest ever for the city.

Bangalore is estimated to have accounted for a record 30% share of the 1.32 lakh units launched across the top eight cities in the country in the first nine months of 2013, a reflection partly of the positive sentiments in the IT industry through most of the year. NCR accounted for 23% of the overall pie, followed by Mumbai with 19.14%, Pune 11.29% and Chennai with 7.25%.

In the same period of 2012, Bangalore accounted for just 9.25% of the total 1.25 lakh new launches, while NCR had the largest share of 34%. So in 2013, Bangalore saw a whopping 205% growth over 2012. Chennai, NCR and Pune reported negative growth rates of 44%, 28% and 26% respectively. Mumbai had a modest growth of 19%.

Source: TOI, Bangalore

Bangalore ranked India's top business destination

Bangalore, known as India's silicon city, has been ranked as the country's top business destination, followed by Chennai, Mumbai and Pune in terms of infrastructure, human capital, city culture and basic quality of living, says a survey.

While Delhi does not figure on this list, Noida and Gurgaon from the National Capital Region have been ranked 17th and 19th respectively.

The survey, conducted by Global Initiative for Restructuring Environment and Management (GIREM) and real estate consultancy firm DTZ, also found that smaller cities like Indore (5th), Bhubaneswar (6th) and Coimbatore (7th) are competing with top metros in the race to be ideal business destinations.

The list includes a total of 21 top business destination in the country. Ahmedabad has been ranked 8th, followed by Nagpur at 9th and Kochi at the 10th place.

Commenting on the findings of the report, GIREM Chairman Sankey Prasad said that few of the top 21 business destinations in India are already established while others have the potential to emerge as major business destinations.

"The ranking provides companies across industries and sectors with insights for future investment opportunities," Prasad added.

The ranking rated the cities based on factors such as human capital, energy, water, transport, housing, healthcare, climate, office space availability and city culture, which constitute the basic eco-socio-economic parameters critical in determining the growth of the city.

"With the metros already bursting at their seams, it is important to have options that are fresh for investments and conducive for business operations," DTZ Chief Executive Anshul Jain said.

Jain further noted that "in order to relieve the burden on the established metro cities, it becomes all the more important to encourage the Tier II cities to grow up to their potential so as to meet a twin objective of de-congesting metros and nurturing talent in Tier II cities."

The others in the list include Chandigarh at 11th place, followed by Hyderabad (12), Mangalore (13), Vadodara (14), Jaipur (15), Calicut (16), Kolkata (18), Navi Mumbai (20) and Vishakapatnam (21).

Source BT-October 22, 2013  |