Archive for October 27, 2007
Polymer products catching on
The Hindu : lling and false ceilings, windows and doors and PPR-Pipes in plumbing are catching the imagination of builders in the city as was evident at a presentation of new products from Reliance Industries, organised under the auspices of KOAPA.
Bubble guard sheets for wall panelling, false ceilings, door and tile protection offered a cost-effective and efficient alternative to conventional products from gypsum or particle boards, aluminium or galvanised iron sheets, etc. Bubble guard sheets are 100 per cent recyclable, non-toxic and are resistant to most known chemicals. Use of PPR pipes too have spread rapidly across the globe.
PropertyPlus.
A model ‘dream’ venture
These days when cities are fast turning elastic with stretching suburbs, most are forced to spend long hours in commuting from home to workplace and back.
This is where Redhawk, a Colorado based company involved in the development of real estate opportunities, promises a solution with its ‘Twenty Minute Lifestyle’ concept.
The company which has recently announced a township ‘Vishadh Park’ to be developed in Hyderabad, bases itself on the concept of offering a balanced lifestyle by cutting down commuting time and bringing all daily living requirements within 20 minutes reach.
Redhawk’s patented ‘Twenty - Minute Lifestyle’ concept involves building a community of captive services centres for about 20,000 employees and providing modern and high quality residential, healthcare,…More
Architecture industry needs to be structured
The Hindu : ng exponentially, construction and architectural firms are growing rapidly as well. Typically, a 50-member architectural firm of today would have had a strength of 12 to 15 a few years earlier. As firms scale up, problems in maintaining quality of output and standards are encountered.
At the entry level, architectural firms in India spend about Rs. 70,000-Rs. 90,000 per employee, and in some cases close to Rs. 1.5 lakh for seeing them grow. Currently this segment faces attrition levels exceeding 50 per cent. Attrition rates are at similar levels, even at middle and senior ranks, as architects who have experience and know-how are in great demand.
In order to understand the issues involved, Bangalore-based e2e Business Solutions conducted a survey for adapting the best practices in architectural firms, particularly from the U.S. The survey covered 10 leading architectural firms in the U.S.
Better structure
“In our preliminary survey we found the U.S. architectural firms have better corporatised structure leading to enhanced transparency and clear-cut career paths,” said Yeshasvini Ramaswamy, director, people practices, e2e Business Solutions. “American firms tend to be system oriented, which helps achieve higher output and quality. In addition, systems tend to capture metrics that one can work and build on,” the e2e survey seems to feel.
Some of the organisations surveyed include Gensler, a $ 536 million firm, with over 2,900 employees in 29 offices worldwide; and Callison, a 750-employee company with $ 129.5 million turnover.
“Implementing processes that are transparent with clearly demarcated accountability and sound people management practices helps mitigate problems in attrition and quality of work output” finds out Yeshasvini after the endeavour.
Findings of the e2e survey
* The office must become a resource centre for information,…More
Water bills need to say more
The Hindu : worth of water when the well is dry. The new one would say, we know the worth of water when the bill arrives. If you are one of the lucky few who has a well in your house count your blessings and take steps to ensure that your well always is brimming with water. If you depend on your bore well then you have to take a look at your electricity bill to get some understanding of the price you pay for water. The poor unfortunately pay with
time and bad health for the water they access. Let us examine the people who are connected to the mainline to get a feel of the flow.
Getting a bill may not be the most pleasant thing to look forward to, be it electricity or water. But a bill can silently speak a lot more things and tell you many hidden realities. The foremost thing it teaches you is that it reaches your home only with a price, that it is an economic good and that it is costing somebody some money to get it to your house.
One would perhaps not be surprised to know that not everybody gets a monthly bill for water in India. Most cities recover water charges from property taxes or charge a flat monthly fee. Very few water providers charge on a volumetric basis, which experts agree is the best way to charge for a product. The more you consume the more you should pay.
In Bangalore city, there are over 5 lakh connections with meters. The Garden City is one of the rare few cities which has all water connections metered with a large percentage of the meters actually working! Take a long hard look at this bill which every customer connected to the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board gets, that is of course, if you are in…More
There is simply no respite
The Hindu : nced recently by a few housing finance companies and banks and the possibility of others also following suit, with the festival season round the corner, could not be better timed.
The slashing of the rates comes at a time when the real estate is going through a sluggish patch in the backdrop of the sharply rising land prices making middle class households increasingly feel there is little for them to purchase.
While representatives of the realty sector are happy about the reduction, as they feel that the move would revive customers’ interest, existing customers of most of the HFCs and banks who opted for floating interest rates feel that they are being discriminated against. This is because the reduction in the rates is only for new customers, i.e., those who will seek loans afresh.
What this means to the existing customers is little respite from the rather sharp increase in the rates on their home loans in the last two to three years. Their demand for also being extended the benefit of the recent reduction is not without reason as many of them have seen the interest rates spiral from 8 to 10 per cent or even more. It meant either an increase in the EMI (Equated Monthly Instalment) amount or the repayment tenure.
Upward movement
Sources in HFCs said most of the institutions were in the practice of revising the floating rate every quarter though for some quarters the movement has been only upwardly. While pointing out that the reduction could well mean the beginning of the end of the alarming phase with regard to the spiralling rates, an official of LIC Housing Finance Limited said the reduction is translating into more customers.
As regards the decision of the institutions to apply the reduction to…More
Transaction of immovable properties
| Acquiring immovable property in India by persons residing outside the country is regulated by the Foreign Exchange Management Act and by RBI notifications, writes C.H. Gopinatha Rao…More |
Foreclosing loan, a better option
In 2004, housing loan was available for 7.5 per cent floating rate.
The same has now gone up to to 12 per cent. The question every borrower is facing is whether he or she should partially foreclose the account. What will be the possible savings?
For example, if one had borrowed Rs. 20 lakhs at 7.5 per cent interest for a term of 10 years, the EMI is about Rs.23, 471.
Now, the interest rate has gone up to 11.75 per cent and the EMI is 28,406. If he has saved Rs 5 lakhs in the last three years through other sources, would it be better that he pays Rs. 5 lakhs towards the loan? Let…More
