Home owners who wish to keep pets at home, need to ensure that their house caters to its needs and provides a safe environment for all. We explain the dos and don’ts.

Besides providing companionship, there are also therapeutic benefits of owning a pet. Nevertheless, owning a pet is also a commitment and a responsibility. Consequently, home owners should ensure that the house is safe and comfortable for their pets. Although a pet can turn your house upside-down, things generally change as the pet grows up and you learn to adjust to its behaviour and needs.

The most common change that home owners make to the décor, is to remove all rugs. If you have cats or dogs at home, the carpets can turn into breeding grounds for fleas, cautions Lekha Gupta, senior architect, LAB (Language Architecture Body).

“Wooden flooring is usually slippery. Pets love to run around and wooden flooring may cause serious injury. So, avoid it,” adds Gupta.

All staircases must be barricaded, to prevent small pets from rolling down or trying to climb up, unattended. “Also barricade all grills that overlook lower floors, as your puppy may try to jump down. All balconies and windows with wide grills, must be meshed so that puppies cannot go through them,” advises Yashodhara Hemchandra of Yashbans Kennels in Bengaluru, a well-known pet groomer, who along with her two daughters, Rishya and Radhiya, offers various pet related services.

Protecting your home’s décor

People with dogs or cats at home, are likely to find that their sofas are covered with hair, no matter how often they vacuum the house. Hence, opt for sofa covers that can be taken off and washed occasionally. “When you have guests at home, you can remove these covers,” offers Gupta. To keep the house clean, one should also designate a dining area, a toilet area and a cosy sleeping area for your pet. “To ensure that they do not spoil the floor with urine or poop, owners should start potty training from the first day the pets come home. Continuous and correct training for the first few days is important,” states Hemchandra.

“Most pets will tend to walk right into glass. So, put a frosted film, or a decal on the glass to avoid accidents. Pets can also get hurt by swinging doors or get locked in a room. Therefore, use door stoppers that are heavy, so that the pet will not be able to play with them,” advises Gupta.

Ensuring comfort for your pets

Cats and kittens tend to scratch, to sharpen their claws. Buy a scratch pad, so that they do not scratch your furniture. Ensure that cords on curtains and wires do not hang at a low level. “Keep small objects, stationery and children’s toys, medicines and household cleaners away from your pets’ reach to prevent them from swallowing these objects,” adds Hemchandra.

Birdcages should be kept away from windows, to protect the pet from the sun’s heat and rain. Aquariums should also be kept away from direct sunlight, to prevent the growth of algae, which will make the water green. While painting, polishing or doing pest control treatment, keep the fish tank away, as the chemicals in the air may kill the fishes. Also, keep the tank away from sources of loud noise and check the electrical equipment of the tank regularly.

Tips for home owners with pets

• Vacuum-clean the house regularly.
• Hard flooring and anti-skid tiles are ideal for homes with pets.
• Provide steps for pets to climb onto high furniture. Else, their nails can rip the upholstery when they try climbing.
• Protect the pets by covering sharp edges of furniture.
• Store household chemicals in a locked cabinet and keep glassware and lighted candles away from the pets’ reach.
• Use wide and low wicker baskets to store all the pet’s toys and to avoid cluttering the house.
• Most common household plants are poisonous to dogs. Hence, keep plants like jasmine, poinsettia, castor bean, lantana, philodendron, etc., out of their reach.
• Keep dustbins and toilet lids closed.

Mumbai: The continuing liquidity crunch facing non-banking financial companies is likely to result in increasing bad loans risks for banks both from these shadow banks as well as from companies relying on such lenders for funding, warns a report.

The spillover of stress among NBFCs to borrowers, and ultimately to banks, will hinder improvements in banks' asset quality, profitability and capital, which is credit negative, says a report by Moody's on Friday.

NBFCs have been facing liquidity crisis following the bankruptcy of IL&FS in September 2018.

"Tight funding for NBFCs, a consequence of the default by IL&FS in September 2018, is raising asset risks for banks in an economy that has grown increasingly dependent on non- banking lenders for the provision of credit," Moody's said in the report.

Owing to liquidity crisis, NBFCs are forced to reduce lending, leading to funding constraints for borrowers relying on non-bank lenders.

This increases the risk of loan losses for NBFCs, and as a result, they will continue to have difficulty in obtaining funding, the report said.

"As financial health of NBFCs deteriorates due to loan losses, they will have greater difficulty obtaining funding, which will exacerbate their funding constraints. It can result in more bad loans from NBFCs for banks, the report said.

Also, as NBFC customers' financials weaken, banks will reduce lending to them, which in turn will further worsen their funding stress and can lead to more bad loans from these companies for banks, it warned.

A type of NBFC credit to controlling shareholders, or promoters, of large listed companies across various industries is also emerging as a source of asset risk for banks.

Corporate promoters use their company shares as collateral to borrow, mostly from NBFCs or mutual funds, typically for the purpose of making investments, including in external businesses.

"The risk for banks is that promoters with weak governance can use company resources to repay their debt, causing financial damage to their businesses, which as a consequence, can default on their own loans from banks," the report said.

Refinancing can be difficult for promoters of companies as investments they make using loans are often illiquid, a problem made worse by tighter availability of credit from NBFCs.

The report further said the non-bank lenders collectively have a large market share in retail and SME loans, a segment that has grown rapidly in recent years and now is susceptible to asset quality deterioration as the economy slows.

"A curtailing of lending by NBFCs will add to risks from retail loans for banks by reducing the availability of credit that individuals can use for refinancing and by contributing to the slowdown," the agency said.

The report also said real estate companies are under significant stress, and tighter funding will further increase stress in the sector. It could lead to more NPLs for banks because they have large exposures to NBFCs active in real estate lending.

Banks also have direct exposures to real estate companies, and the growing stress in the NBFC sector will result in more impairments of bank loans to these borrowers.

"However, increases in banks' real estate NPLs will be marginal as their direct exposures to real estate companies remain small, growing more slowly than NBFC loans to the sector," it said.

The centre has sanctioned 22 green express highways in Karnataka, worth Rs 1.5 lakh crores, union minister for road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari has announced.

In a major thrust to infrastructure development in Karnataka, the Road Transport and Highways Ministry, on December 10, 2019, gave the nod for 22 green express highways in Karnataka, worth Rs 1.5 lakh crores. This includes a new alignment of the Pune-Bengaluru Express Highway, which will be completed in the next few years, at a cost of Rs 50,000 crores.

We have just sanctioned projects worth more than Rs 1.5 lakh crores for the state. The annual infrastructure plan for Karnataka was Rs 2,150 crores, which we decided to increase to Rs 3,990 crores, Gadkari said. “We are making 22 green express highways. Today, we cleared the Pune-Bengaluru project as a ‘green express highway’, with a new alignment of 600 kms, costing about Rs 50,000 crores,” he said.

Gadkari said his ministry and the state had sanctioned 2,300 kms of new roads, where the detailed project report was ready. The bidding process would start soon, he said. Another important infrastructure project of the ring road in Bengaluru was also resolved, with the centre agreeing to the state’s request, to bear 80% of the land acquisition cost, he said.

Macrotech Developers’ Mangal Prabhat Lodha and family, with a networth of Rs 31,960 crore, are among the top property developers focussed on premium housing, as per the GROHE Hurun India Real Estate Rich List 2019. Omaxe's Rohtas Goel and family with a net worth of Rs 1,990 crore leads the affordable segment category.

Realtors in India have broadly categorised the market into three segments: premium, aspirational and affordable.

In the premium segment, Mumbai's Macrotech Developers top the list followed by Niranjan Hiranandani of Hiranandani Communities with a networth of Rs 17,030 crore), and Vikas Oberoi of Oberoi Realty (Rs 13,910 crore).

The top five in the affordable category cater to segments that begin with the middle class. New Delhi's Omaxe tops this category, followed by Kolkata-based Ambuja Neotia (Rs 1,760 crore) and Sattva Developers' Bijay Kumar Agarwal and family from Bengaluru (Rs 1,070 crore).

The aspirational segment is led by Ahmedabad’s Adani Realty (Rs 2,510 crore) followed by Bengaluru-based Sobha’s PNC Menon and family (Rs 2,700 crore) and Mumbai’s Boman Rustom Irani of Keystone Realtors with a net worth of Rs 1,930 crore.

India’s real estate, construction and infrastructure industries are in “deep trouble," and non-bank finance companies which lend to these sectors should have their asset quality reviewed, former central bank Governor Raghuram Rajan said.

There is also “significant distress in rural areas," Rajan wrote in an opinion piece in India Today magazine. He said India is in a growth recession, defined as an economy growing at a slow pace and where unemployment is rising.

India’s GDP growth slowed to 4.5% in the quarter ended September, a six-year low. A crisis among shadow lenders and a build-up of bad loans at banks have curbed lending in the economy.

The Reserve Bank of India should carry out an asset quality review of the non-bank finance companies, Rajan said. The central bank closely monitors the top fifty non-bank financiers, which account for about 75% of total assets in the shadow banking sector, Governor Shaktikanta Das said in a press conference on Thursday.

“We have a fairly good idea of where the vulnerabilities lie," said Das, reiterating that the central bank won’t allow any large or systematically important non-bank lender to collapse.

The government is planning to rework the findings of the Household Consumer Expenditure survey for 2017-18 and check it for inconsistencies, reports The Economic Times.

“We looked at serious issues of data consistency and if post survey, some studies can be done to correct those inconsistencies,” an official told the publication.

The government may release a revised report early next year, the report stated.

A leaked Household Consumer Expenditure report reveals that average consumer spending per month fell 3.7 percent to Rs 1,446 in FY18. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has junked the leaked survey.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

The MoSPI and the National Statistical Commission (NSC) made the decision to rework the survey during a meeting on December 4.

While examining inconsistencies in the survey, the government will especially look at spending on health and education in rural areas.

The leaked survey showed that in rural areas, average consumer spending per month declined 8.8 percent in FY18.

A committee has been formed to evaluate whether supply side data can be incorporated into the expenditure figures, the report said.

The MoSPI has suggested reworking the survey within the next two months, since the ministry is examining the feasibility of conducting the survey in FY21 and FY22, the report added.

After a series of rate cuts, the RBI has maintained a status-quo on the repo rate at 5.15%, at its fifth bi-monthly monetary policy for this fiscal.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on December 5, 2019, kept the key policy rate unchanged at 5.15% and decided to continue with its accommodative stance, to support the economy. The central bank also revised GDP growth downwards to 5% for 2019-20, from 6.1% projected in its October 2019 policy.

“The Monetary Policy Committee recognises that there is monetary policy space for future action. However, given the evolving growth-inflation dynamics, the MPC felt it appropriate to take a pause at this juncture,” the RBI said, in its fifth bi-monthly monetary policy for this fiscal. The panel decided to continue with the accommodative stance as long as it is necessary to revive growth, while ensuring that inflation remains within the target. All the six members of the MPC voted in favour of a rate pause.

The CPI inflation projection is revised upwards to 5.1%-4.7% for H2 FY20 and 4%-3.8% for H1 FY21. Between February and October 2019, the RBI has reduced the repo rate by 135 basis points.

Mumbai: Private equity (PE) firms are increasingly looking at capitalizing on the growing requirement of last-mile funding by real estate developers, considering that the prolonged slump in the residential segment has been aggravated by the ongoing liquidity crisis.

Several private equity investors are either setting up platforms for financing real estate projects, which are in the late or final stages of construction, or looking to offer capital for such projects from existing funds.

Demand for late-stage capital has gone up over the past two years with developers focussing on completing projects, particularly after the implementation of Real Estate (Regulations and Development) Act (Rera) in 2017. The ongoing liquidity crisis and reluctance of banks to refinance loans have also increased demand for funds, given that several late-stage projects are stuck for want of capital.

For instance, global alternative investment manager Investcorp, which is setting up a new real estate platform, will look at opportunities for last-mile funding apart from serving other credit requirements.

According to Ritesh Vohra, partner and head (real estate), Investcorp India Asset Managers, developers are faced with severe cash flow issues due to the current liquidity crisis in the financial markets along with the continuing slowdown in the residential segment.

“In such a situation, last-mile funding makes eminent sense as any fresh liquidity that comes in to complete projects can be quite transformative for all stakeholders," he added.

Last month, Edelweiss Alternative Asset Advisors (EAAA) partnered with South Korean Financial services conglomerate Meritz Financial Group to launch a late-stage funding platform to buy out existing residential real estate loans. The platform will target to raise $1 billion from international institutional investors in the next 12 months. Everstone Group is another private equity investor which has set its sight on lending in the real estate space. Mint reported on 18 September that the India- and SouthEast Asia-focused private equity firm is looking to set up a credit fund for the real estate sector in India.

Private equity firms are eyeing this space also because last-mile funding is relatively less risky, considering that such projects come with the required approvals and have already started generating sales.

“Projects are not getting completed because of lack of capital, especially in the last-mile stage. So, where approvals are in place, construction has started and sales have even been established, risks are mitigated to a certain extent. With less risk, you get a better reward; hence, everyone is interested. But it has to be pick and choose," said an official with a real estate fund, requesting anonymity. The interest from private equity firms comes at a time when the government is lending help to sort out the mess in the real estate sector.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently announced setting up of a ₹25,000 crore alternative investment fund to provide last-mile funding for stalled housing projects.

According to the government, there are around 1,600 stalled projects with 458,000 incomplete housing units. While the government will initially pump in ₹10,000 crore, it plans to raise the remaining capital through several other institutional investment firms and sovereign funds, including State Bank of India and Life Insurance Corp. of India.

Real estate experts said the government’s initiative to revive stalled projects will revive sentiments in the residential segment, which has seen a slump for the past four or five years.

Home sales have seen continuous decline since 2014, barring a marginal growth in 2016. However, post the government’s demonetisation move and implementation of the good and services tax (GST), home sales saw a sharp decline by 40% to 72,300 units in the first nine months of 2017, according to property consultant JLL. “The declining trend in residential sales stabilised after 2017 whenl sales gained traction in 2018 and reached 1.15 lakh units in the first nine months of 2019. However, the recovery has been gradual and the quantum of sales is still a tad below the 2016 levels," said the note by JLL published on 22 October.

Cases related to insolvency proceedings by homebuyers against developers have been on the rise ever since buyers were granted the status of financial creditors status under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). Developers are now claiming that buyers are taking undue advantage of the law, which they want amended. Their main demand is that instead of just one homebuyer, at least two-thirds of allottees of a real estate project should be required to trigger IBC proceedings against a promoter. Other demands include making Rera the sole. Ashwini Kumar Sharma asked experts if such demands are viable.

The demand of developers that they should not be made subject to IBC and should only be regulated by Rera has no legal or factual basis. Rera’s objective is to regulate real estate projects, primarily to bring in transparency and to protect the rights of the homebuyers, while IBC’s aim is to revive stressed assets or companies. One cannot be a substitute to the other.

IBC comes into play only when a real estate company defaults in payments to its creditors, while Rera continues to be in operation throughout. If an existing developer is unable to complete a project, and IBC is triggered, a new resolution applicant may come in to complete the unfinished project and also meet its obligations towards lenders. Rera does not have any mechanism to deal with such a situation.

To check the risk of IBC being misused by a single aggrieved homebuyer (in the process jeopardizing the interests of other stakeholders), IBC could be amended to increase the threshold for triggering corporate insolvency resolution process under IBC for real estate companies by specifying a minimum number of homebuyers.

Classifying homebuyers as financial creditors in insolvency procedures addresses their concerns substantially and provides them with an additional forum to seek relief. However, it also increases the default risk for developers, especially for those having delayed legacy projects.

The time-bound nature of the insolvency process provides a limited window for developers to reach settlements with claimants, failing which the interim resolution professional takes over. Even a single buyer in a project pursuing such a remedy could put the company at risk of a default on loan obligations, irrespective of its liquidity position, and this exposes the law to a possible misuse. An effective solution to this involves the stipulation of a minimum number of homebuyers, either in terms of absolute numbers or the value of their claims, relative to the total outstanding debt on a project, for the initiation of insolvency proceedings.

Moreover, IBC doesn’t focus on timely project completion. Referring cases to Rera and following up with IBC if the issue remains unresolved could be a solution.

Bengaluru has emerged as India’s highest ranked city at No 83 in a new index of the world’s 113 cities, in terms of economic and social inclusivity, topped by Zurich in Switzerland.

The first-ever Prosperity & Inclusion City Seal and Awards (PICSA) Index, was released in the Basque Country capital of Bilbao in northern Spain, on November 21, 2019. The index is designed to showcase not only the quantity of economic growth of a city but also its quality and distribution across populations. Bengaluru emerged as India’s highest ranked city at No 83, followed by Delhi at 101 and Mumbai at 107, among 113 global cities. The top 20 were awarded a PICSA Seal as the world’s highest-ranked cities building inclusive prosperity. Bilbao, the host city of the new index, was ranked at 20.

“As the first ever non-commercial ranking index, PICSA provides a new measure of economic productivity that goes beyond GDP, to provide a holistic account of how well people are doing in the economy and which have the populations that are most empowered to contribute to its economy and share in its benefits,” explained Asier Alea Castanos, director of strategic programmes at the Regional Council of Biscay, in reference to the index launch.

“There is increasing recognition in governments and also the private sector that success needs to be judged in new ways. Factors like health, housing affordability and quality of life, need to be put alongside jobs, skills and incomes, when measuring prosperity,” he said.

Commissioned by Basque institutions and compiled by D&L Partners, the PICSA Index measures factors such as the affordability of housing and access to education and healthcare, besides GDP per capita. It marks the first time that the world’s major cities have been ranked not just by the size and health of their economy, but for their efforts to build an inclusive and prosperous environments for all its citizens.

Zurich, as the number one, scores strongly across all measures, particularly on quality of life, work, housing, leisure, safety, and education – with the Swiss higher education system attaining an especially high score. Vienna, the Austrian capital in second place, scores close to top marks on healthcare. Copenhagen, Luxembourg and Helsinki complete the top five. The higher end of the list is dominated by European cities, with 15 of the top 20, joined by four North American cities (Ottawa in 8th place, Washington DC ranked 11th, Seattle in 14th and Boston in 16th) and Taipei, which is the only Asian city to make it into the top 20 at 6th place.

Dr Bruno Lanvin, founder and CEO at D&L Partners, said: “Without equity and inclusion, economic growth is not sustainable. Without growth, equity is about redistributing poverty. By measuring performance of cities across different pillars of inclusive prosperity, as the PICSA Index does, policy makers can identify high performers in specific domains and establish roadmaps of best practices.” For the index, the cities were assessed on comparable data from the main focus areas by a jury of experts and business leaders. These assessments then produced an overall score for each city’s inclusive prosperity, allowing them to be ranked based on a wide range of measures.