 and President of Naradko. Please put your hands together to welcome on stage Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani. Good evening, friends. I must first own up that Mr. Anurag Patra is my favorite, favorite, favorite editor. And I love the way you speak and the way you carry people and speak from your heart straight. And I think that we should all respect, especially when it comes from magazines and papers, which actually give you diluted versions of things in these day and time, and are not willing to really get down to the business of business. Friends, am I the managing director of LIC Housing? Mr. Sa, thank you very much. And very, very nice for you to recognize the partnership that industry needs today, especially in these difficult times for financial institutions to say we want to partner with you and people are running away from the builders. Thank you very much for this great partnership that you extend. My guru and teacher, Mr. Parimal Shroff, solicitors here. Many of the wonderful builders are over here. Of course, we have our friend right from one of the foundations, Vokat, which is wonderful. Thank you very much. It's wonderful to be here today. I think let's begin with the most difficult situation. And what's the most difficult situation of all? And I think Mr. Vinay Shah put it across. The question is of being consumer focused. And when he says consumer focus, why is it that there are hundreds and thousands of flats available all over the country? And still, there are no buyers and takers for so many of them. It's simply because we haven't been buyer focused. And I think that story tells it all. If we can focus on what the buyer really wants, I'm sure that we will have sales beyond our imagination. If it is to be believed, affordable housing for all, let's take the direction and vision of the prime minister, not as an objective which he wants to do, but what we think really should be there. And actually it should have been a thought of the industry and not the prime minister. Because the prime minister looks at a holistic view, but for you and me in the industry, it's a part of our business. So in reality, we should look at it. And I always give this example. And for fault of repetition, I'm going to repeat it again. In the business of business of aviation, it's not the full fare and the business class airlines which make money. Those make losses. They make cash losses. And it is the indigos of the world which are low cost airlines which make profits, Mr. Batra. So the same aeroplane which every company buys, the same aviation fuel given to all the airlines, and still a low cost airline having low price of tickets makes more profits. Can we in industry rethink and make that paradigm happen? That is a big question mark for our industry. And if you can't make it happen, you will go out of business in the next couple of years. So when I mentioned it to the managing director of LIC, housing, finance, I mentioned it to him, not in just the passing. It is because in the next couple of years, we will all have to learn how to get into this segment because only being in the luxury segment is going to be like the selling of Mercedes-Benz's and Bentley's. You're not going to get the volumes that you want. And you will not get the business of business enough to make your company profitable. So if you want to be in the profitable business, Mr. Batra, we will have to do affordable housing because you will not have a choice. The volume of business is going to come in the segment that we talk about. The second part of it is, what is this country heading for? And of course, the newspapers, including the business standard today, this morning echoed it. And I believe Mr. Yashvan Sena has also mentioned it today in one of the releases which has taken place. That the country is going through a downturn in terms of an economic downfall. 5.7% growth is pitiable. Of course, Mr. Yashvan Sena says, it's not 5.7 in reality, it's 3% only because they had done the style of measuring this has changed. And so it's only a 3% growth, which counting in terms of inflation means a real growth of almost 0% if you take the inflation into account. So what is it that is going to change this country to go back into that grind? Because we're not gonna sit down and cry that nothing can be done. I think the country needs to take the bull by the horns irrespective of the four tsunamis that we have had in the last eight months. We really need to look back and say the tsunamis happened yesterday. If you're gonna think about it and say, it's because of GST, it's because of demonetization, it's because of insolvency law, it's because of RERA that we are not going to succeed, then you're in the business of yesterday. And as all newspaper people know, it's not the edition that's already on the ground, but it's the next edition that you're going to shoot out is what going to be important. And it's also going to be in the real estate industry. What is it I'm going to do today for the business of tomorrow? And what is it that I'm going to sell tomorrow is going to be more important as far as this is concerned. So don't look at an ambition which the prime minister talks about. It's a direction. It's where the compass is showing. You look at the North Star and you know that you will have to get into the affordable housing. Can we bring down the cost of construction of this? Can we make it economical? Can we make it in such a way so that our company, instead of making losses, instead of having sales, can actually increase the business of business so that and still become very profitable. So land cost have gone up, just like aviation planes have gone up. Petroleum costs have come down to some extent, but so many other benefits have come because they're going to give you infrastructure status and other things in the affordable housing segment. So we do see lots of issues that we nearly need to address. So what do we say? Are we going to get away and run away with it and think that we can wish back and wish out all the issues? Thank you, Mr. Batra for mentioning about Noida and Greater Noida because we have only two lack apartments which are being constructed. Structures are complete, 30% invested into the place, but actually we have collected, builders have collected 90% of the amount from there and there is still an amount to be paid to government. There's still the balance construction to be done. There are banks and financial institutions which have lent money both to the developer and to the purchasers and we are into a log jam there. We in the industry really need to get together and to say what are the solutions for these problems? Instead of thinking that somebody is going to find out the way whether it's going to be the law of RERA or it's going to be the insolvency law, we in industry will need to sit out and say, these are the catastrophes which have taken place, economic catastrophes which have taken place. We need to take the bull by the horns and find solutions for that. Whoever needs to take the haircut, we need to take it, but we need to face the situation. People are running away from the situation. I think we don't need to put ostrich like the head in the sand. We need to stress on all these ideas. Let me tell you that the government is working faster than what you think, irrespective of what they have done on the economic log jam that we have had. I take the case of Mumbai and for the sake of repeating, we'll repeat it again only because it's extraordinary. In the Mumbai region, Mumbai metropolitan region, our state government is investing into metros. 170 kilometers of metros will be done in the next five years in Mumbai, which means they will double the railway track of the entire Mumbai region in a period of five years. A miracle, unbelievable to happen. Work is started, too much noise, too much traffic because of this problem, but we will have the metros which will be coming in very soon. We have a cross harbor bridge, which is going to be there. Only 17,000 crores, that's going to be built, which means that the entire region of Naina and the other areas will open out in the next couple of years. The entire region of Naina, right from Panvel up to Karjat, is equivalent to the land of Mumbai. So the government, by connecting these areas, will open up equal land in this region, empty, unbuilt upon, which will equal to the size of whole of Mumbai, which means that a new opportunity is being created. The Navi Mumbai Airport, already there expecting to be coming out in 2020, the Roro connectivity from South Mumbai to go to Mandwa and other things. You take your car in South Mumbai and travel by the connectivity vehicle to go into the, with your car, to cross across the Bombay Harbor to go to the situation there is. And the coastal road, the work which is going to start in December of 2017. What does it mean? 170,000 crores of infrastructure, money of loan, 70% already tied up with the Japanese aid funding agencies, which means all these projects taken off, environmental clearance is done for all these projects, most of them tendered out, 80% of the metros already tendered out and given for the purposes of execution. So what is it? The government is making mistakes, yes. And I think, unfortunately, they don't want to admit it. They have flaunted, have made mistakes. But on the other side, look at what Mr. Gadkari is doing in terms of the road network, 20 kilometers of national highway per day. That's a difference in paradigm that you're seeing. Mumbai metropolitan region, you won't recognize it. If you went in coma today and woke up after six years, you won't recognize what the infrastructure of Mumbai is. So all these positive things are happening. If we start saying, this is wrong, this is wrong, government, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. Don't you think you and I have made mistakes in our lives? Have we not in industry also made mistakes and problems for the purposes of the consumer? As Mr. Shah just mentioned to you, we have and we need to correct those mistakes. So I think on a positive note, I think the next five years is going to be extremely positive, irrespective of the situation that we are facing today. We do need to face the music of the problems that we have. We need to have a positive attitude that when the Prime Minister gives you a direction, take it because that's the right direction you do. You may have different ideas about how we need to execute these projects. Yes, because you are different than me and I am different than somebody else. And we will have that difference. But having said that, if we aspire to reach the moon, I promise you the amount of demand availability is enormous. 50% of Mumbai lives in Joprapati. More than half of them can afford a house if you can construct smaller size housing for that purpose. There is enough demand in these segments which is unbelievable. No other sector has a demand of that size and potential. Can we in building industry and we in government join and partner with the financial institutions that are there in order to create such a vision of India that we beat the shit out of everybody in the world. You can make that success. We can definitely make the success. And if you and I don't make it, the Prime Minister will. So let's join him, not because he is our Prime Minister because it's in your ulterior motive to join him. It is in your interest to partner with him just like the LIC MD mentioned just now that you partner with me. It is not out of our leadership's demand for us to join, but it is in your fiscal interest, in your financial interest and the long-term interest of you as developers, you as people of this city to join hand in this mission because no other business and industry will grow at the pace of housing in the next five years. But the paradigm has changed. Can you get into the affordable housing segment and make a profit and still be in the industry? Then you shall be number one. Otherwise, you will vanish like other companies have vanished because they are not able to understand the new paradigm of India which is going to happen. Congratulations to our award function organizers. Thank you very much for inviting me again and again and I'm very happy to be here with you today and always thank you so much and to the awardees who have come over here today. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. So I'm going to request you to please remain on the stage. If I may please invite Mr. Anurag Bhattra to please come forward and also present a token of gratitude to thank Shree Niranjan Hiranandani for his valuable, valuable presence here and for sharing those valuable thoughts. Let's have a huge round of applause. One more time, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you once again, sir, for your inspiring words. Thank you very much.