OPINION

The Indian nation has a deep sense of history and a proud tradition of soldiering, yet today there is a distinct lack of strategic psyche. New Delhi is more adept at thinking economically and garnering votes. Matters defence are always under played and there is a culture of allowing the events to adrift thus following a wait and watch policy.

India follows a reactive policy as far as its geostrategic interests are concerned. As a nation post-independence New Delhi is always reacting, China in Tibet,

Pakistan gave away Aksai Chin,  Pakistan’s invasion of “47, infiltrators in ’65, recent Kargil, and an ongoing violent insurgency for which there have been no clear cut directions; New Delhi, is never proactive. The net results are two, firstly the nation lost whatever strategic space there was to China, and with Pakistan it’s a history of blunders right from 1947 onwards.  Secondly the security forces are always hampered as the geostrategic environment to ensure success except Bangladesh in ’71 is not created.

There is no use crying over spilled milk, the current situation in J&K, and internally the Maoist security related operations, all are bleeding the Indian state.The cream of the nation is bleeding and this will increase as those who are affected it seems, neither have the answers,  or psyche to be affected by the harsh reality. The cowardly acts will always be regretted by the spokesperson, but that is where matters rest.

Last Sunday was extraordinary from "news point of view", whatever that may mean. The prologue for the same was written the night before when Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced sacking Cabinet colleague Kapil Mishra for "having failed to deliver on the water front." Mishra responded by saying that he will hold a "reveal all" press briefing the next day. Indian politics has come to witness a fair degree of dramatics ever since Anna Hazare launched his anti-corruption movement in 2011. Delhi in the past six years has proven to be the laboratory of dramatised politics.

Thus, no wonder that Mishra on Sunday first travelled with "evidence of corruption" to the Lieutenant Governor, then went to Mahatma Gandhi's last resting place and then dropped, what many media headlines called, the "bombshell". With the script delivered, it was time for media, especially television, to go as cantankerous as possible. The same evening your reporter had to visit Gurgaon for a prescheduled meeting. The meeting was fixed for Sunday as the long distance between the eastern fringe of the NCR and Gurgaon was thought to be covered in short time given the thin traffic on the weekends. It was not to be as there was a huge jam between Qutub Minar and Sultanpur on Mehrauli-Gurgaon road, the arterial connect between the national Capital and its prosperous suburb. We wondered about the reason for the jam and then saw a large number of people walking down on from the opposite carriageway, the trickle of people slowly converted into a flood of humanity making us realise a major mishap.

It's been a week since the results of the municipal polls were declared. It has given Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a reason to continue to feel upbeat about its political fortune. It has expectedly created a turmoil with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the disparate Congress rank and file. In the case of the former, party leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is facing ire of the rivals which now has a new face in his close friend Kumar Vishwas. Within the Congress party, the going was never easy for its Delhi unit president Ajay Maken, given the history of his long-standing political feud with former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and her former parliamentarian son Sandeep Dikshit. During the course of the campaign, the fissures came to the fore with former Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely and Mahila Congress chief Barkha Singh quitting the party to join the BJP just ahead of the polling day. Understandably, Maken and the party general secretary in-charge for Delhi PC Thomas resigned from their position, which party leadership refused to entertain. On the other hand, the state BJP president Manoj Tiwari is being celebrated as a political leader of immense talent, taking the party to a resounding victory.

The future outlook for the Indian real estate sector is bright. Rapid urbanisation, favourable demographic changes and increasing affordability are expected to drive growth over the next decade. Nearly five million of our countrymen migrate to urban areas annually increasing the demand for housing. These factors over the last decade have pushed the average age of a first-time homebuyer in India down by more than 10 years. In fact, it is about 30 now. By 2025, increasing GDP and income levels will make property prices more affordable for a large number of Indians. The rising growth combined with an improving mortgage-to-GDP ratio and lowering interest rates will make real estate affordable for a large number of people.

Let’s now look at the specifics that drive the market sentiments determining the contours of a country’s development graph.

The Union Budget 2017 has provided more cheers for the real estate sector. It must be observed that due to demonetisation, the sector had been hit heavily during the last quarter of 2016.

It needed a major push and the finance minister provided just that. After a wait of several years, the government awarded infrastructure status to affordable housing, which is encouraging for developers.