Affordable homes as lucrative investments

Migrants from India are looking at investing in affordable homes in India. Owning a home while working away from home is in their priority as is evident from the encouraging response to several projects that are on display during property shows held abroad.
A survey by Cushman & Wakefield has estimated the housing demand to be over 2.3 million units across major cities in the next five years - between 2011 and 2015. While the supply level is estimated at one million units, the shortfall will be 1.3 million units. The report analysed demand for the top seven cities - Bangalore, NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata.
Read the full report here

NRI buys flying car

NRI businessman buys flying car to fly between Ahmadabad and Mumbai and Delhi. Soo there will be traffic jam in the skies.... but it will take some time as a car like that cost 6 crore...
read the full article here

Growing retail presence

A nice article and graphs about the growing retail sector.. Specifically on the Life Style group.. Nice to know an Indian businessman who started very small has reached so far. They have presence in 15 countries and is planning a massive expansion in India soon. Read the story in Businessworld here

Stronger NRI role urged

An interesting article in Khaleej Times...


Non resident Indians in the Gulf have a significant role to play in ensuring the continued flow of capital and technology to enable India sustain its vibrant growth story, Sanjay Verma, Indian Consul-General in Dubai, said on Friday.

Addressing the inaugural session of the Indian Investment Seminar & Meet, Verma said India’s economic model that blends capitalism with a strong regulatory mechanism would enable it to ensure its long-term growth.

Full story here

SBI to play matchmaker for NRIs

Forget Shaadi.com or jeevansathi.com now our very own SBI will play the role of the marriage broker... open and acccount and get maaried...

The country’s largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI), will now play matchmaker to non-resident Indians (NRIs).

The bank has come up with an idea to match profiles for NRI account-holders. It will facilitate exchange of details of NRI account-holders and their families. The onus of background checks, however, will be on the respective families.

Not just this, the Hyderabad headoffice of SBI will also arrange for delivery of flowers, cards, documents, books and medicines.

Read full story here

Despite red carpet, NRI inflows crash - The Times of India

I thought otherwise, but TOI article says it's down....

Data shows that despite the government's efforts, NRI inflows in the form of foreign direct investment in 2009-10, estimated at $354 million, was a mere one-fifth the level seen two years before that. In 2008-09 - the year of the Great Recession - NRI inflows stood at $1.6 billion, which means in 2009-10, the level was 22% of that seen in the previous year.

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this might interest bangalore NRIs

State Bank of India (SBI) opened a exclusive branch for Non-Resident Indians at Koramangala. The branch offers overseas Indians and persons of Indian origin various schemes such as external rupee account, foreign currency non-resident account, resident foreign currency account, NRI home loan, car loan and safe deposit lockers. The branch also has a rapid remittance and instant transfer facility.

This is the fourth NRI branch in Bangalore city.

The bank site is available here