Hiranandani Exploited Middle Class for Super Rich

Mumbai builder, Niranjan Hiranandani, exploited a middle class housing scheme in Powai to construct luxury apartments catering to the superrich. This comes across from a High Court order passed Thursday preventing the builder from selling more than two flats to one person.

In 1986, builder Niranjan Hiranandani was allowed to construct over 230 acres of land under the Powai Area Development Scheme, (PADS), in which 50 percent of the flats constructed had to be less than 40 square meters (430 square feet) and no flat could exceed 80 sq meters (861 sq ft). The objective was to allow the burgeoning middle class to benefit from the scheme.

However, in 1989, Hiranandani was provided an exemption allowing it to merge flats but the amalgamated flats could not exceed 15 percent of the total development.

However, the greedy developer built flats of area 1870 sq ft and 4925 sq ft which are currently priced at Rs 4 crore and Rs 8 crore respectively. In March 2008, a report submitted by the MMRDA confirmed the violations. However, the state government allowed the company to get away with just Rs 3 crore as a penalty.

Today's judgment came as a victory for petitioners, Kamlakar Satve and Rajendra Thacker. The judges said that the developer could carry out further construction at its own risk. The next hearing is December 18 when all parties have to file their replies.

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Dubai Debt to GDP a Whopping 148 Percent

The days of sipping black tea over puffs on shi-sha are over. There will be no more easy on Friday mornings, when expatriates would laze in the security that Dubai was India's cleanest city - considering the number of Indians here.

Many at times would argue that a European lifestyle, without citizenship and rights, was as good in the desert than one that was offered in the snowy mountains of Canada or coast of Australia or the islands of New Zealand. One could have it all here in Dubai, without the attendant niggling irritant called income tax.

Well until October, nobody cared what the GDP or inflation of Dubai was. They did not care to inform the world community anyway, as long as property prices in Dubai skyrocketed and speculators minted money with every 10 percent put down to book an off-plan apartment.

This was supposed to be Wonderland, but Alice has to wake up some day, and this day is now. When she does wake up indeed, Wonderland remains just a fantasy. And so it will be in 2009.

Millions of expatriates would find 2009 the most painful year in their history. God would indeed send the angel of death to knock them out. So many had got accustomed to easy speculation in real estate - a lot did in fact make money, only to invest in bigger and larger projects with more leverage - building their proverbial castles in the sands.

As I had said earlier, the devil has now come home to roost. Dubai has declared its debt through formal speeches of its member of the Executive Council, Mohammed Al Abbar, who said the level of debt owed by the Dubai government is $10 billion, with a further $ 70 billion owed by state-owned companies.

Dubai’s GDP is $54 billion, according to a source that releases such data, which puts Dubai’s debt to GDP ratio at 148 percent.