Kolkata and ADB are working systematically to update the city’s ancient urban systems after years of piecemeal approaches

670,000 households in Indonesia are benefitting from improved access to water and sanitation.

The Health Sector Development Program, supported by the ADF facility and additional ADF grant funding for a total of $20 million, is improving primary health care delivery and information systems in Bhutan.

The Second Investment Climate Improvement Program has included help for the government in constructing the policy, legal, and financial framework needed to encourage, negotiate, and close agreements for sound PPPs.

The unique challenges of financing and building a climate-resilient port in a tiny Pacific country required ADB to develop and deploy innovative approaches to ensure the project’s design, governance, and monitoring were efficient and effective.

Heritage homes are fast becoming the favourite hunting grounds of luxury brands scouting for premium retailing space in India, where suitable high-end malls are too few and the sales potential at five-star hotels is still uncertain. When designer wear brand Kimaya Fashions searched for a store in Hyderabad, it settled on a 16,000-sq ft bungalow in the upscale Jubilee Hills, in a property with floor area nearly three times the size of its average outlets. French luxury brand Hermes also moved into a Victorian property in Mumbai’s Horniman Circle to retail its popular Birkin bags. “It’s not necessarily out of choice,” says Pradeep Hirani, managing director of Kimaya Fashions, “This […]

While the the stock markets, the corporate world and a large section of the country’s citizens are celebrating the election verdict, 45-year-old Shailesh Singh, a Delhi-based executive, is a worried man. Singh has been hunting for an apartment in the National Capital Region (NCR) for the past six months but has not been able to zero in on one. Now he is afraid that in the euphoria generated by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) decisive victory, real estate prices may start rising again, making his purchase more expensive. Why prices won’t move up Singh’s worries might be premature. Realty experts are of the view that while there might be some […]

NEW DELHI: Real estate developers have been buying more land from farmers over the past year than usual because of apprehension that the new law may raise cost of land acquisition significantly, even as they pin their hopes on the new government at the Centre to relax the proposed norms. The land acquisition bill that was passed last year but is yet to come into force proposes to double the compensation for acquisition of land in urban areas while land acquired in rural areas will entail four times compensation. The clause mandating consent of 80 per cent of land owners for a private project will delay the process of acquiring […]

NEW DELHI: Real estate developers and property consultants today welcomed the RBI decision to cut statutory liquidity ratio (SLR), saying this would enable banks to lend more to industry, including cash-starved realty sector. However, developers demanded easing of interest rates to boost housing sales. RBI today decided to keep the key policy rate unchanged but slashed statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) by 0.5 per cent to unlock about Rs 40,000 crore into the system. “The RBI’s move to cut SLR by 50 basis points to 22 per cent will give banks more headroom to lend and thereby spur lending in future. However, the much anticipated cut in rates would have been […]

Welcoming the 0.25% rate cut by two of the biggest home loan financiers SBI and HDFC, realty sector participants today said the move will help revive interest in the gloomy market. “This is a positive move to boost property sales and spur industry growth. Home buyers who were earlier waiting for rates to come down will now certainly look at buying their dream homes,” industry body Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (Credai) Chairman Lalit Kumar Jain said. “The home loan rate cuts from certain banks have occurred after nearly a year, and will augur well for investment sentiments in the market,” property consultant CBRE South Asia’s Chairman […]

Approved project 53128-001 in Pakistan.

Approved project 50278-002 in Mongolia.

Approved project 54061-001 in Sri Lanka.

Approved project 50222-002 in China, People's Republic of.

Approved project 42466-018 in Bangladesh.

Approved project 53097-002 in Papua New Guinea.

Approved project 45009-003 in Mongolia.

The intuitive habit of drawing macroeconomic conclusions (about India) from the corporate feedback (and vice versa) is fraught with risk. After all, only half of India’s GDP and 10% of India’s employment are in the formal sector. Further, only a fraction of the formal sector is listed.” This is not any Swadeshi ideologue speaking. This is what the Asia Pacific/India Equity Research paper of Credit Suisse titled “India’s better half: The Informal Economy” says about the most unique aspect of Indian economy. The paper points out that corporate sector accounts for only one-fourth of the national capital formed – the share of listed corporates in it is even less, just […]

Capitedge India Investment Advisory, a realty fund and asset management firm floated by six former members of Indian realty team of American banking giant Wells Fargo, is coming out with a residential properties-focused fund in India. This would mark its first fresh fundraising exercise after floating an independent investment advisory firm, which is also managing the remaining assets of Wells Fargo after it shut operations in the country last year. While the founding partners are closely associated in operations, Hiral Soni is driving the domestic fundraise and investment strategy, as per the company website. She was previously with Marvel Realtors and had later also set up a boutique investment banking […]

East Asia is setting the pace for the recent trend in regional and interregional integration, which is associated with multilateral infrastructure connectivity initiatives.

Tech startups rely on an array of financing sources, and venture capital is not a common source.

High labor productivity, a large firm size, foreign ownership, and high technological capability are important for a firm to participate in global value chains.

Foreign-currency exposures on an economy’s external balance sheet may jeopardize financial stability when the exchange rate depreciates.

The European experience could be useful to inspire the future evolution of the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization in the ASEAN+3 membership.

This paper presents an analysis of business development programs (BDPs) based on a theoretical framework aimed at understanding the mixed effect of business training on entrepreneurs.

A well-designed evaluation system can be effective in motivating bureaucrats to shift their efforts toward a more environmentally friendly growth path.

Providing safely managed sanitation services for all requires extending the partnership between the public and private sectors.

Growth in the region is expected to slow sharply to 2.2% in 2020 under the effects of the current health emergency and then rebound to 6.2% in 2021.

East Asia is setting the pace for the recent trend in regional and interregional integration, which is associated with multilateral infrastructure connectivity initiatives.

Tech startups rely on an array of financing sources, and venture capital is not a common source.

High labor productivity, a large firm size, foreign ownership, and high technological capability are important for a firm to participate in global value chains.

Foreign-currency exposures on an economy’s external balance sheet may jeopardize financial stability when the exchange rate depreciates.

The European experience could be useful to inspire the future evolution of the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization in the ASEAN+3 membership.

This paper presents an analysis of business development programs (BDPs) based on a theoretical framework aimed at understanding the mixed effect of business training on entrepreneurs.

A well-designed evaluation system can be effective in motivating bureaucrats to shift their efforts toward a more environmentally friendly growth path.

Providing safely managed sanitation services for all requires extending the partnership between the public and private sectors.

AN2784 - USB4712 Auto-FlexConnect Implementation Guidelines

AN3265 - UPD301A USB Power Delivery Operation

The passage of contentious Telangana bill in the Lok Sabha may not have much impact on investment sentiment in realty sector across Hyderabad, as the city has already been planned to serve as a joint capital for next 10 years, according to property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle. “The Bill is being viewed with mixed feelings by various stakeholders, but it is still too early to gauge its impacts on the real estate industry. That said, it is likely to end the political uncertainty that Hyderabad has been facing for the past few years. “The outcomes are still unclear, but Brand Hyderabad is not likely to be overly affected as it […]

NEW DELHI: One would imagine that office rents would go down with a strong bounceback in demand for space from corporates. Pure economics, one would think? Not really. Office rentals are likely to climb up in the coming months because of a shortage of quality spaces in key business districts around the country. “In certain key locations, rentals could go up 20-25 per cent in the next 12 months,” says Sanjay Dutt, executive managing director for South Asia at property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield. The situation has been brought on by the fact that most developers and even private equity players have chosen to focus on the residential property market […]

KOLKATA: For the next couple of months from now, the Mamata Banerjee government will not acquire any land from farmers even if it is required for government projects. The message has already reached government departments after the chief minister’s press meet with Anna Hazare in New Delhi on Wednesday. The Trinamool chief will champion the cause of farmers as she did earlier. All infrastructure projects in Bengal will therefore, have to wait till the Lok Sabha polls are over. Mamata Banerjee doesn’t want any land controversy before the elections. State departments have been asked not to place any proposals for land acquisition for the time being. This even after the […]

NEW DELHI: Low-cost housing, which found several mentions in BJP’s 2014 election manifesto, is likely to get infrastructure status, making it easier for real-estate developers to get finance from banks and for longer tenures, and eventually increasing the supply of houses. While developers are in favour of an infrastructure tag to the housing sector as a whole, the government is likely to grant it only to the low-cost segment, said a senior government official, who did not wish to be named. According to government definition, low-cost houses are those with an area of up to 40 sq metres. BJP’s manifesto talks about rolling out a massive low-cost housing programme to […]

Mumbai: Brookfield Asset Management Inc., a Canadian asset management company that manages investments worth $181 billion, is set to acquire all of Unitech Corporate Parks Plc (UCP), a London Stock Exchange-listed, India-focused real estate investment firm, paying `3,000 crore. A definitive agreement to this end is likely to be signed this week in London, said four persons directly involved in the deal. None of them wanted to be named. “We do not comment on market speculation,” said Brookfield Asset Management in an email response. Routhu Nagaraju, executive vice-President at Unitech Ltd, said, “UCP has announced that it will sell six projects and the process has not seen anything adverse. It […]