Industrial output falls 2.1% in Nov

New Delhi: Industrial production contracted for the second consecutive month, falling 2.1% in November, as manufacturing activity slumped, raising concerns of a prolonged slowdown. The latest data has raised a fresh dilemma for the Reserve Bank of India which is due to take a call on interest rates later this month.      While mining and electricity managed to stay in positive territory, a 3.5% decline in manufacturing output meant that the overall index of industrial production stayed in the red, latest data released by the Central Statistics Office on Friday showed.      What will come as a bigger worry is that compared to October 2013, production across factories and power utilities was lower in November, resulting in a month-on-month decline in IIP. "This reinforces the belief that fall in manufacturing growth has not yet bottomed out. Urgent measures and freshthoughts are required to boost manufacturing, without which the jobs potential here will remain depressed," Ficci president Sidharth Birla said in a statement.      Given the bleak forecast, even Yes Bank managing director and CEO Rana Kapoor said that a prolonged slowdown will adversely hit employment.      Economists do not expect industrial activity to pick up immediately. "The slowdown in the industrial sector is coming to an end, but we expect a prolonged bottoming out process as there are no visible triggers for an up-cycle at this stage. Even if industrial production growth rebounds back to positive in December, industrial production growth will be negative in Q4 of 2013, suggesting that GDP growth is likely to moderate in the fourth quarter after the rise in the third quarter, despite better agriculture growth," Nomura economists Sonal Varma and Aman Mohunta said in a note.      Ratings and research firm Crisil too predicted tepid growth in the remainder of 2013-14, citing infrastructure and input constraints and weak domestic demand.

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Mhada allots realtor extra 1.7L sq ft area Space Belongs To Adjacent LIG Colony

The Maharashtra housing and area development authority (Mhada) has sanctioned D B Realty an additional built-up area of 1.70 lakh sq ft worth around Rs 500 crore to redevelop the Middle Income Group-1 (MIG) colony in Bandra (East). This additional area belongs to the Lower Income Group (LIG) colony, which is part of the same sprawling layout the authority built five decades ago.      Mhada denied it had transferred the development rights of LIG to MIG and described it as pro rata or proportionate allocation of floor space index (FSI) among all the residents living on the layout. FSI is the ratio allowed of floor space in a building to the plot size.      Mhada CEO Satish Gavai said the additional built up-area sanctioned to D B Realty is not the first case; it has been done in other Mhada redevelopment projects, including the ongoing Samata Nagar project in Kandivli. The authority said it will earn Rs 105 crore as premium for allowing D B Realty this additional area.      But sources said Mhada's decision flies in the face of its own affidavit filed in the Bombay high court in 2006 in response to a public interest litigation by Awaz Foundation. The affidavit categorically said that "there will be no allotment of the unutilized FSI of LIG societies to MIG or high-income (HIG) societies and vice versa."      In the Bandra (East) MIG-1 project, D B Realty said it was unable to consume the entire FSI it was entitled to. Mhada has increased the FSI to 3.5, but the developer said it will be able to utilise only up to 2.66 FSI on the 20,150 sq m plot.     It further contended that the FSI of the LIG society, with its 1,098 tenements, will be as high as 6.06—a built-up area of 1.49 lakh sq m on a plot of 24,580 sq m. The builder said that since the maximum FSI cap is 3.5, there is FSI left that cannot be utilized by LIG societies and so the same should be granted to the MIG portion of the layout, which is larger with low density in terms of numbers of tenements.      "It is therefore in the interest of Mhada that wherever the societies can consumeFSI on gross leased area up to 3.5, the same may be permitted. Mhada will stand to gain premium which otherwise would have remained unutilized in the layout. This will result in revenue of hundreds of crores to the authority," said the developer in its proposal letter to Mhada.      D B Realty has the mandate to redevelop the 19 buildings in MIG-1 located in Gandhi Nagar in Bandra (East). However, the project has stayed stalled since over six years due to a host of problems and the developer has been unable to start work. Recently, it proposed to mortgage the colony land to raise funds for the redevelopment. However, residents rejected the proposal a few months ago.  BANDRA PROJECT      Mhada allots 1.70 lakh sq ft of additional built-up area belonging to LIG colony to MIG-1 in the same layout in Bandra (East). This additional area is worth at least Rs 500 crore. Mhada said it will receive Rs 105 crore as premium from builder D B Realty      In response to a 2006 PIL, Mhada's affidavit had said there will be no allotment of unutilised FSI of LIG societies to MIG and vice versa      The developer said the LIG portion of the Bandra layout has over 6 FSI while the cap is 3.5. Hence, the additional portion be allowed to be used in the MIG part D B Realty has the mandate to redevelop the 19 buildings in Gandhi Nagar's MIG-1. The project is stuck for six years

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NGOs draw plans to free city of slums

Mumbai: Social welfare groups working with the poor have drawn up a five-point plan to make Mumbai slum-free, their focus being on slum redevelopment and generation of affordable housing, implementation of work and life concept to allow formalization of the informal economy with legal entitlements and jobs.      The plan is part of the Development Plan consultative exercise initiated by municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte to ensure maximum participation and consultations before finalizing the city's fate for the next 20 years. The workshop will be conducted on January 11 at the F-South office between 2pm and 6pm and is open to the public.      Activists want the BMC to apply town planning norms to slum rehabilitation projects as it does to the rest of the city. "If you want to see the city free of slums, the same norms need to be applied, ensure amenities and open spaces when slums are redeveloped. The Existing Land Use Plan mentions some slums will be developed by Special Planning Authorities and in some areas, it shows the BMC will provide infrastructure. Builders will only take advantage," said Shweta Damle, a member of Committee for the Right to Housing (CRH).      Architect P K Das, who is also an activist and town-planner, said their chief demands were that all slum land in the city be reserved for affordable housing. "There is no more public land available in the city for social welfare projects including affordable housing. So, slums must be redeveloped to produce affordable housing. There should be no commercial complexes on these plots," said Das.      The NGOs, which include Nivara Hakk Suraksha Samiti, CRH, Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), Slum Rehabilitation Society, along with Tata Institute of Social Sciences, want the BMC to publish a map of all slum-occupied land with areas and population. "We want the BMC to identify tenable and nontenable slums and state reasons for non-tenability. CRZ II slums must be identified along with slums in eco-sensitive areas such as along rivers, creeks, buffer zones and mangroves," member of YUVA Sitaram Shelar said. The group also wants the BMC to maintain the current FSI of 3 for slum rehabilitation but at the same time, assess the density that will emerge upon development of the land.

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