October 31: CREDAI brought together eminent stakeholders across the banking industry at BANKCON a one-of-a-kind Conclave on Banking, Finance and Home Loans that focused on Government's vision ‘Housing for All by 2022' and discussed ways and means to make it an achievable target. The day-long conference witnessed gracious presence of Hon. Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley and Hon. Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Devendra Fadnavis. Many well-known Industry stalwarts and heads of banks - Smt. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson - State Bank of India, Smt. Chanda Kochar, MD& CEO, ICICI Bank and Shri Ajay Piramal, Chairman Piramal Group were part of various panels that deliberated on how the BFSI sector can address the challenges faced by real estate and construction sector. The topics discussed at length included: Ways in which the housing sector can get cheaper capital, Improving cost of home loans to consumers and providing more capital for affordable sector home loans, Presentation on overall taxation burden on the industry, How can BFSI sector support the ambitious schemes like Housing for all by 2022 and 100 Smart Cities and Can banks consider lending for land acquisition to make housing affordable.

Women's Wing Inaguration

Women's Wing of MCHI - CREDAI was inaugurated with elan amidst luminaries of Real - Estate world who had congregated at Silver Jubilee Edition of Expo on Sunday morning to laud the efforts of MCHI - CREDAI taken in the direction. Launched with the objective of giving a disciplined and structured approach to the CSR activities of MCHI- CREDAI, the members of the wing are seen as torch bearers for taking the social cause of the organization forward.

Attended in huge numbers by Core Committee members of women's wing, new joineess and aspirants, it turned out to be an event to remember for. Hony. Chairperson Mrs. Rupal Kanakia was lauded for her initiative in the field of education and taking the lead in fulfilling the objectives of women's wing. Amidst presence of Hony. Vice-Chairperson, Mrs Anuradha Shah, Secretary Ms. Binitha Dalal, Special Projects Members: Mrs. Sejal Goradia, Mrs. Mona Ajmera, Mrs. Richa Shah and Mrs. Jesal Shah, Mrs.Kanakia apprised about the objectives and activities of the wing going forward.

MCHI - CREDAI President Mr. Dharmesh Jain, Secretary Mr. Nainesh Shah, Past President, Mr Niranjan Hiranandani, Exhibition Committee Chairman, Mr. Bandish Ajmera, Committee Member & MPL Head Mr. Shailesh Sanghvi graced the occasion with their august presence. The event also witnessed active participation by Exhibition Committee Youth brigade represented by Mr./ s Diipesh Bhagtani, Dhaval Ajmera, Rajeev Jain, Prateek Patel and Nikunj Sanghvi.

Prakash Javdekar Meeting

Mumbai November 23, 2015: Hon'ble Shri Prakash Javadekar - State Minister for Environment, (Independent Charge) Govt. of India was in Mumbai for an important & high profile interaction meeting organized by MCHI - CREDAI to address the issues related to Environment Ministry faced by the members of the Chamber. A very vital role was played by Hon'ble Shri Prakash Mehta, Housing Minister, Government of Maharashtra in arranging this interaction session.
An all encompassing & comprehensive presentation was made before the Hon'ble Ministers and senior Govt. officials by Shri. Vimal Shah, Immediate Past President, MCHI - CREDAI covering issues like Environmental Conditions to be incorporated in the IOD/ Building Permits issued by Planning authority, Clearance to  be given on concept plan of the project and the Built Up Area (BUA) of the same submitted by the project proponent. Appraisal should be mainly done on full potential of the project without insisting on IOD or Building Permit; For small variation up to +/- 10% in the BUA and modification in the plans within Built Up Area (BUA) approved by MoEF; Amendment in the Environment Clearance shall not be insisted upon as it is causing delays. Approval for Buffer Zone from boundary of Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) Borivali, Mumbai requested.
Hon'ble Minister took keen interest in the issues raised in the presentation and assured of the speedier expedition of matter as per the norms to the delegation of member developers of MCHI - CREDAI represented by Mr Dharmesh Jain, President, Vice-Presidents Mr Boman Irani, Mr. Deepak Goradia, Mr Nayan Shah and Secretary, Mr Nainesh Shah.

NHB - PMYA

Mumbai, 26th November 2015: CREDAI-MCHI organized a special workshop for its members in association with National Housing Bank (NHB). The participants included, Shri Sriram Kalyanaraman - MD & CEO NHB, Shri S. K. Valiathan - Deputy Secretary GOI, Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Sanjeev Sharma, Executive Director, NHB and Shri C. Rajan - GM, NHB. From CREDAI-MCHI, President, Shri Dharmesh Jain initiated the workshop. The workshop was a first between the representative body of the Government and Developers. It provided a great platform to discuss transparently, all major issues that need to be solved, so as to realize the Hon'ble PM's dream of Housing for All. This being in the focus of the government because Real Estate sector covers all other major sectors, is the largest employer and is among the major contributors to the nation's GDP. The workshop was an eye opener on the various government funded & subsidy schemes, the thinking process of the government and the processes involved in implementing these government funded schemes. The CEO NHB, Shri Sriram Kalyanaraman enlightened all present on the role of NHB, as a regulator of EWS/LIG schemes and of the financial institutions that lend to this particular sector. The NHB also refinances HFCs involved in this sector. He said that the NHB has strived hard to bring all stake holders on board for stream lining the processes for lending to this sector. This includes standardization of agreements and paperwork. He put special emphasis on the fact the NHB keeps future in perspective and is working towards consolidating both Solar Energy Fund and Green Energy Fund into an umbrella scheme for building sustainable housing. Mr. Sriram said, addressing the august gathering of developers, “ I ask, why can't banks lend aggressively in this sector? Yes there are some constraints like limited or no availability of credit profiles and the likes, which have been looked into, so that things move much faster for this segment.” Lauding the efforts of Government, he added, “Govt. of Maharashtra is very proactive in implementing these schemes.”

On 7th November 2015, representatives from CREDAI-MCHI met Dr. Ramaswami N. (I. A. S.), IGR Govt. of Maharashtra, for understanding the methodology of fixing RR Values by the Revenue Department
R.R. Values are only a mechanism used by the Revenue Department to assess the approximate value of any real estate transaction in a particular zone and should not be treated as a benchmark by other offices like MCGM, I.T, etc.

MCHI - CREDAI is consistently following up with Revenue Department, Govt. of Maharashtra.

On 23rd November and 2nd December 2015, CREDAI-MCHI representatives met Dr. Nitin Kareer, Principal Secretary-UD, Government of Maharashtra, to discuss Ease of Doing Business (EoDB). Among various points that were discussed, the highlight of these meetings include, parallel processing of permissions to be looked into, to reduce time of getting permissions, which is the case in other municipalities. NOCs to last the lifetime of a project, and not just for a year. Except Tree and Fire, most other permissions may be given by the consultants. During this meeting, PEATA also submitted their four page presentation on ‘Simplification in DCR and procedure for allowing development permission”. Shri Dharmesh Jain, President MCHi-CREDAI, proposed Prospective Principle, whereby, all policy decisions need to have a transition period and a prospective date of application of those decisions.