Archive: January 3, 2022

Industrial and Logistics, Residential top the investment chart with 51% in 2021; touching new highs

Mumbai, 3rd January 2022: Real estate institutional investment volumes closed at USD4billion in 2021. Although it is a 17% dip yoy, capital flows came on a broad-based recovery across most asset classes, geographies and doubled in the number of deals compared to 2020. Further, the dip is noticed as some large transactions had concluded in 2020. 2021 has been one of the best years for the industrial & logistics and residential sectors, accounting for about half of the total investments at about USD2 billion.

The Office sector attracted the highest investments at USD1.2 billion, accounting for 31% of the total investments in 2021. This reaffirms the resilience and the long-term growth story of the sector.

On the other hand, the industrial and logistics sector was the most sought-after and investments rose to a five-year high of USD1.1 billion. This was also more than a five-fold increase from 2020. The sector has been drawing strong operator and investor interest due to increased demand from e-commerce and 3PL players post-pandemic. This growth momentum is likely to continue in 2022, as major global investors and developers continue to expand their footprint in proximity to high consumption areas across Tier I and II cities.

“The pandemic has accelerated a number of structural trends and will have lasting changes on the nature of real estate business in India. The Investments across asset classes have seen promising inflows in 2021 reflecting several opportunities for investors to recalibrate their strategy towards growth sectors. This is already evident in the rapid investment being allocated towards the residential, increasing development of data centers, alternatives, industrial, office as well as the evolution of the life science sector. There is a reflection of confidence in the industry to participate in the growth story and hence develop, build and own real assets in long term.” says, Piyush Gupta, Managing Director, Capital Markets and Investment Services, Colliers India. 

“The year 2021 has seen a strong investor appetite for residential and industrial & logistics sectors while office continues to be dominant. The former breached record highs in recent times lapping up nearly USD2billion of the overall institutional investment volumes. This resonates the strong fundamentals and attractive valuations of the underlying assets supported by a positive economic outlook. The broad-based recovery signals signs of ebullience amongst investors and expansion of REITs, asset diversification, imminent potential in industrial & logistics will keep them busy in the Indian market. Moreover, niche asset classes such as Data centers, student housing and life science will provide a unique opportunity for investors to diversify their investments.” says, Vimal Nadar, Senior Director and Head of Research, Colliers India. 

Investments in the residential sector witnessed a two-fold rise in 2021; the luxury segment makes a comeback
Inflows in the residential segment witnessed a significant uptick with a two-fold increase YoY amid a recovery in the residential sector and increased demand for capital. Private Equity funds are looking at providing capital for fresh investments in residential projects, and also for refinancing/restructuring existing loans of banks and NBFCs. The luxury segment accounted for about 35% of the total investments, with the rest in mid-income and affordable category projects. Luxury residential projects witnessed increased investments in 2021 as demand for bigger homes and gated communities has significantly increased during the past one year.

Share of city-focused deals double, led by Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru

As compared to last year, the share of single city deals witnessed a two-fold increase during 2021, indicating investors’ rising preference towards specific high-quality assets in key locations. With increased investments in select luxury residential projects and data centres, Mumbai led the investment pie in 2021 with a 20% share. Foreign private equity investors continued to have the majority share in the investment volumes, but domestic funds have shown higher confidence, compared to last year, led by a steady recovery in the economy.

Student housing and life science sector see increased traction

Investments in the alternatives continued the growth momentum during 2021, led by data centres. Alternate assets (student housing, co-living, life sciences, data centers) accounted for 11% of the total investments in 2021, from 8% in 2020. Data centres garnered the highest share of about 60% in total investments in alternate assets in 2021. We expect investments in data centers to further accelerate in the next 2-3 years, a major data centre and digital infrastructure companies are creating platforms and JVs to expand their presence in India.

Along with data centers, investors’ appetite towards student housing and life sciences sectors increased during 2021, with major private equity investors such as Warburg Pincus and Cerestra making investments in the sectors. In 2021, Canada based Ivanhoe Cambridge committed investments worth USD100 million to develop a 1 million square ft of life science and R&D office labs in Genome Valley, Hyderabad.

Anand VS Kulkarni bags Role Model Entrepreneurs with Disabilities Award at NCPEDP-Mindtree Helen Keller Awards 2021

The winners were commemorated on the eve of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities for creating employment opportunities for persons with disabilities

Mumbai, 2nd January 2022: Founder of Flop Films, India’s first and only production house spearheaded by a visually-impaired filmmaker, Anand VS Kulkarni, recently bagged the NCPEDP-Mindtree Helen Keller Awards under the category of Role Model Entrepreneurs with Disabilities. The awards are given every year to recognise the efforts in empowering persons with disabilities by creating job opportunities. This year, the 22nd edition of the prestigious award was held virtually on the eve of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Fighting against all odds, Anand topped the University of Mumbai in a vigorous and demanding course Bachelors of Mass Media (BMM). His passion and dedication for filmmaking strengthened his resolve to complete this course against all odds. After graduation, he dived deeper into the sea of commercial filmmaking, and the rest they say is history. In his remarkable growth journey, he has worked with celebrities like Naseeruddin Shah, Boman Irani, Salim Sulaiman, and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. He also associated with industry leaders such as Shapoor Mistry and Anu Aga and offered high-octane assistance to brands like Sennheiser, Harley Davidson, Asian paints, Axis Bank and Mahindra Group. Unsurprisingly, he is also the youngest Indian Line producer with two international shows across India, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, and Turkey.

Anand has admitted that he worked harder than anyone to make up for his visual limitations. In addition, he was so hungry for skills and best-in-class work that he took all jobs from writing, directing, producing, and even editing. He dabbled in music videos, brand-centric ads, independent films and eventually started his venture, Flop Films. He has made a record of 350 commercial films for more than 150 clients in the last six years. He aspires to make the entertainment industry more accepting and accessible for persons with disabilities. In fact, even with Flop Films, his quest is to work towards building inclusivity and equality in filmmaking and handcraft a future where prejudices do not handicap talent.

It is pertinent to note, this year, nearly 100 applicants from around the world applied for NCPEDP-Mindtree Helen Keller Awards. This award is distinguished as one of India’s preeminent recognitions for people and organisations working to encourage PwDs. These awards are organised by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), India’s leading cross-disability advocacy organisation, with Mindtree, a global technology services, and digital transformation company. The sole aim is to encourage PwDs and motivate others to enhance collective and collaborative growth.

About NCPEDP:

Registered in 1996, the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) is the country’s premier cross-disability, not-for-profit organisation working as an interface between Government, Industry, International Agencies, and the Voluntary Sector towards empowerment of persons with disabilities. Its mandate is simple – to encourage the employment of people with disabilities, increase public awareness on the issue of disability, empower people with disabilities with knowledge, information and opportunities and ensure easy and convenient access to all public places. NCPEDP works on six core principles, also called the six pillars of the organisation, namely: 1) Education; 2) Employment; 3) Accessibility; 4) Legislation/Policy; 5) Awareness/Communication, and 6) Youth.

To know more, please visit www.ncpedp.org

Impact Foundation completes 25 years, celebrates Silver Jubilee

Hyderabad, January 02, 2022: Impact Foundation, a voluntary foundation founded in the year 1996, initiated a platform called “Impact” to provide free personality development, grooming and to impart employable skills to rural, unemployed Telugu speaking youth in both the Telugu States traveled 25 long years and celebrated Silver Jubilee Celebrations at a function held in FTCCI, Red Hills, Hyderabad on Sunday.

The foundation in the last 25 years impacted over one lakh plus kids, teens and youth in rural areas of two Telugu states. Many of these youth are well settled in jobs in India and abroad. The foundation also produced many trainers.

Probably it is one of the only its kind of a foundation in Telugu states, impacting over one lakh rural youth in settling in their jobs, professions and chosen fields including in their entrepreneurial journey. Probably it is one of the few Non Governmental bodies in India impacting such a large number of youth of the nation.

There is a long due of government recognition to this organization, given the kind of a work and service to the society it has been doing.

It has been working with an objective to produce one speaker from every house and one trainer from every village. It has been the most purpose-built foundation, which has exceeded its expectations and has come as a god-sent opportunity for many economically backward youth.

Jaya Prakash Narayana; VV Lakshminarayana; Yandamuri Veerendranath; Dr B V Pattabhiram; Gottipati Satyavani graced the day-long celebrations.

And as part of celebrations, 5 social workers were honored.

India is projected as the world’s youngest country as it has the world’s largest youth population. Over 65% of its population is said to be below 35 years. This large section of the tertiary-age population provides our country with an exclusive demographic advantage. However, despite this unique demographic dividend, a major segment of Indian graduates remain unemployable. We are filling the bridge. It is the most happening organization for the past 25 years. The goal has been to bridge the gap, by promoting and maximizing the outcome of collaborations between industry and academia, by organizing Impact Camps which range from three full days to 30-day long evening programs, now gone online, informed Dr Gampa Nageshwar Rao, the man behind the Impact Foundation.

We made a humble beginning with a month-long training program in St. Adam School, Chikkadpally in 1996 along with Mr Chokkapu Venkataramana. 30 to 40 youth who underwent training program procured jobs in Ashoka and Ampro Biscuit companies. This gave as a fillip to our efforts. When the youth came back and told us the impact it had created on their lives, we changed its name to ‘impact’ on a suggestion from Soma Mahesh, shared Dr. Gampa Nageshwar Rao.

Then it moved to bigger places to accommodate more youth. For the next few years, the venue was City Central Library, Chikkapally; Vysya Hostel, Kachiguda; Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, King Koti; Hari Hara Kalabhavan, Secunderabad.

This continued till 2012, informed Dr. Gampa.

From 2012 we started getting requests from different cities from the then combined Andhra Pradesh and we moved to Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Vijayanagarm, Srikakulam, Kakinada, Anantapur, Tirupathi, Warangal, Nalgonda, Kamareddy, Nizamabad, Khammam, Karimnagar and many other places. The training camps varied from 3 full days duration to 30 days. The participants varied from 1200 to 3000. With 5700 unemployed attending, the Kurnool registered the highest participation ever.

The participants include unemployed, underemployed, budding entrepreneurs, Civil Services and other competitive exams aspirants.

In 2015 it embarked on Training the trainers. Trained many trainers, who in turn went to many educational institutions and imparted training and gained practical experience by putting the skills they leant into practice. With this, the Impact Foundation also emerged as the biggest ever organization churning out trainers in Telugu states.

Now, it has also moved into online space along with changing times. 1779 trainers were certified by Impact Foundation in this area.

During the Pandemic, it has taken up massive Public Speaking training. It trained 18000 online for 21 days.

It embarked on a program Young Minds, an initiative to train kids of 6 to 12 years for about 21 days on a wide variety of subjects of their importance. Teens too were not left behind. The foundation rolled out Teens Challenger aiming 12 years to 19 years with age-appropriate training programs.

Some of the subjects Impact Foundation chose were Spoken English, Career Guidance, Goal Setting, Leadership Management, Public Speaking, Time Management, Crisis Management, Stress Management, Failure/Success Management, Attitude and many others.

Impact works on three broad areas: Spiritual Development, Psychology and Nationalism. The trainers focused on health, wealth and family management besides doing good to the nation.

Some of the trainers and speakers who addressed in 62 plus cities Telangana and Andhra Pradesh include Jaya Prakash Narayana, former bureaucrat, politician, founder and president of Lok Satta Party; VV Lakshminarayana popularly known as JD Lakshmi Narayana, a retired police officer, a politician, an inspirational speaker; Yandamuri Veerendranath, a novelist and screenwriter, YouTuber and Trainer; Dr B V Pattabhiram, Psychologist and celebrated magician, author and trainer; Gottipati Satyavani, a public speaker, educator and social activist, a retired Scientist at Central Silk Board Govt of India and hundreds of others.

TiE Hyderabad names Suresh Raju as President for 2022

January 02, 2022, Hyderabad: TiE Hyderabad, the global entrepreneurial network, has announced that Suresh Raju will take over the reins as Chapter President with effect from 1st January 2022. Suresh Raju is the Founding Managing Partner, Jupiter Alternative Investment Fund that invests in equities and equity-related securities using a proprietary quantitative investment model to maximize risk-adjusted returns. He was Vice President, TiE Hyderabad in the year 2021.

Setting the agenda for TiE Hyderabad in 2022, Suresh Raju said, “TiE Hyderabad will continue to play a key role in engaging local entrepreneurial ecosystem through well-known TiE programs like MentorAdvisor, Investor Connect, TiE Women, Knowledge Series, Leadership Series, Open Mic, TiE Grad, TiE Young Entrepreneurs, TiE-SNC Israel.”

Commenting on how TiE Hyderabad plans to impact startups in the year 2022, Suresh said, “Entrepreneurs are germinating new businesses in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities faster than ever before, and TiE Hyderabad intends to support them by enabling mentoring and knowledge sharing, networking, funding and facilitating customer connections in new markets. Expanding beyond Hyderabad to work with startups across Telangana is the need of the hour. We will launch a new program in 2022 to connect and build startup ecosystems in Tier 2 & 3 cities.”

Welcoming Suresh Raju as the new President of TiE Hyderabad, Manohar Reddy, Past President, Founder and CEO of Feuji Inc. said, “The Chapter conceptualized and organized the TiE Sustainability Summit 2021. We created a new record with 42,000 registrations and 17,000 attendees. The Chapter looks forward to Suresh’s leadership to further TiE’s mission in fostering entrepreneurship.”

The new board comprises Suresh Raju, Managing Partner, Jupiter Alternative Investment Fund as President TiE Hyderabad; Rashida Adenwala, Founder Partner, R&A Associates as Vice President; Manohar Reddy as Past President, Founder and CEO of Feuji Inc.

The other board members for 2022 include Annapragada Venkateswara Rao, Investor & Business Mentor; Dr. Balaji Bhyravbhatla Managing Director, HyLasCo Bio-Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd.; Bhat Dittakavi, Founder, CEO, Data Scientist, Variance Ai; JT Rao, Chairman & MD, winAMR Systems Pvt Ltd; Ranvijay Lamba, MD & Country Head, Arcesium India; Ravi Chennupati Chairman and Managing Director Ezone Security Solutions; Sharlin Thayil Co-Founder & CEO, Business Director View360 Technologies, Carnegie Technologies; Narasimhan Venkatesh, Sr. Director-Engineering, Silicon Labs; Venkat Kamalakar Bundla, Founder and MD, Garphi Biosciences Pvt Ltd.

About TiE Hyderabad

TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) is a go-to network of over 15,000 global entrepreneurs across 63 cities in 14 countries, and Hyderabad is one of the most vibrant and renowned chapters worldwide. Each year, TiE Hyderabad impacts over 1,100 start-ups and 6,400+ students, conducts around 100 events and activities to encourage and nurture next generation entrepreneurs. Some of the well-known programs include Mentor Advisor, Investor Connect, Knowledge Series, Leadership Series, Open Mic, TiE Talks, TiE Grad, TiE Young Entrepreneurs, TYE Summer and My Story, among others. TiE organization comprises of successful entrepreneurs and accomplished professionals, who are volunteering to support startups with an aim of fostering entrepreneurship across industries and at every stage of the entrepreneurial life cycle. https://hyderabad.tie.org

GiantLands Theme Park Will be a Game Park Built on a Groundbreaking Vision

Wonderfilled is bringing to life an entirely new kind of theme park experience. Called GiantLands, it will be an incredibly immersive gaming destination based on Wonderfilled’s game by the same name. GiantLands will be the first game park of its kind, based in Wisconsin.

Madison, WI, January 01, 2022: Wonderfilled today announced a project of remarkable vision: to bring to life an entirely new kind of theme park experience. Called GiantLands, it will be an incredibly immersive gaming destination based on Wonderfilled’s game by the same name.

GiantLands will be a game park for everyone, with a new generation of interactive and immersive game-based experiences that reimagines what it means to be a theme park. Begging the question “Who will you become?” Guests are invited to imagine their future selves and to live out the fantasy in the park.

Imagine a place that radically offers offline experiences, with real people, in the real world, however within a fiction, with thrilling mixed-reality attractions and shows that will forever change the guest expectations and perception of live-action play within a themed land. Set in a highly themed, and completely immersive smart environment inspired by Wonderfilled’s vision for GiantLands, it will be the kind of game park.

“My team has been working hard over the course of the pandemic to take all our learnings from decades creating new product categories to deliver a living game world. One that our players can step inside of,” said Stephen E. Dinehart, President of Wonderfilled.

Wonderfilled’s GiantLands will be located in Wisconsin, the birthplace of the roleplaying game. Work is already underway on the project, and more details will be released in the future. The GiantLands 1st Edition game, which is the basis for the park was released late last year.

You can learn more about GiantLands on the official site. GiantLands 1st Edition is now available for sale for $129.99 and is currently only directly from Wonderfilled at WFD.games.

About Wonderfilled

Founded in 2018 in Orlando, Florida, Wonderfilled Inc. is a Wisconsin-based corporation built in the spirit of so many visionaries, committed to creating wonder, inspiring awe and making the world a better place for dreamers and dreaming.

About Giantlands
GiantLands is a science-fantasy roleplaying game & live-action game world created by Stephen E. Dinehart & James M. Ward with Gary Gygax Jr. published by Wonderfilled, Inc. Fans can experience GiantLands through the tabletop roleplaying game, official events, various forms of media, and a GiantLands theme park.

Forever Living Products India distributes N-95 masks under their CSR Initiative

New Delhi, 1st Jan 2022

In a noble CSR initiative Forever Living Products India which aims to unleash entrepreneurial opportunities for millions of Indians, especially women and youth and also offers health, beauty, and wellness products based on Aloe Vera today distributed special N-95 Masks at Goonj.

Goonj is a non-governmental organization headquartered in New Delhi India which undertakes disaster relief, humanitarian aid and community development in parts of 23 states across India.

Over the last few decades, FLP has fostered a strong emotional connect with Indians and demonstrated admiration and respect for the country’s traditions through its initiatives on respect for nature. Forever is always dedicated to doing their part to positively impact the environment.

Mr. Harish Singla, Country Sales Manager FLP India said, “As a responsible and caring brand, FLP India has been leading on the CSR front since the beginning whether its contributing 2 million meals for Rise against hunger or contributing 100 thousand USD to PM Care Fund. Under the Forever Giving CSR Programme, today we distributed over 5000 masks to the NGO Goonj which will be further distributed to few of the adopted villages by Goonj to create a Safe and Healthy Environment for masses. I also like to thank Indian social entrepreneur Mr. Anshu Gupta, for giving us an opportunity to participate in this noble cause for society. “Adds Mr. Singla.

Forever Giving Foundation is a special CSR initiative by FLP wherein they have chosen to make a difference around the world by providing funds, facilities and education to help fight against poverty, hunger and the lack of medical services for children. Rise against Hunger and care for the wildlife injured and displaced during catastrophic wildfires are some of the endeavors taken by FLP, globally.

Dr. Vikas Katoch, CEO, Adomantra receives an honorary doctorate

Dr. Vikas Katoch, Founder and CEO, Adomantra Digital India Pvt Ltd, has been conferred with an Honorary Doctorate by Commonwealth Vocational University, Kingdom of Tonga, Australia for his significant contribution in the field of Digital Media. Dr. Ripu Ranjan Sinha, Vice-Chancellor (Asia) of the University, Professor and Adviser AK Khare, and Manav Ahuja of Kwantan University conferred this title on Dr. Vikas Katoch at the convocation held at Hotel Radisson, Gurugram.

Dr. Vikas Katoch is known as a ‘Global Visionary’ in the Digital Marketing Industry in India. He has made unprecedented changes in the digital media industry in the areas of business transformation, brand strategy and product advertising. His vision and understanding has influenced the growth of digital marketing in the country to a great extent. Dr. Vikas Katoch’s digital media agency Adomantra is one of India’s leading new media platforms. The biggest feature of this media platform is that it fully meets the needs of the customers with the changes taking place in digital media.

Adomantra established in 2012, fully meets the needs of the customers. Adomantra has been included in the list of Top 25 Digital Marketing Agencies in India by ‘CEO Magazine’. Under the guidance of Dr. Vikas Katoch, around 200+ Fortune 1000 companies have been successful in achieving their goals by creating a digital strategy. He has also been honored with the Global Visionary Award in 2019 for excellence in the digital industry. In 2018, Dr. Vikas Katoch founded ‘Adotrip’ based on online travel platform, which is very popular among travel enthusiasts.

Dr. Vikas Katoch aims to broaden the vision of the digital media industry and develop a transparent system in which both the merchant and the consumer get the most out of the digitally evolving landscape. Their aim is to make the youth of the country aware of their digital power. In a career spanning over two decades, Dr. Vikas Katoch has contributed significantly to the growth of the digital ecosystem in India. Digital agency Adomantra is transforming many businesses digitally today. They state that digital media penetration is going to increase by 45% in the coming years. Soon it will reach 70 percent of India’s population. This will provide huge growth opportunities to the businessmen and as always, domantra will help the customers to pass on the benefits through its best and prompt services.