Overall, the real estate market may just be limping back to some level of normalcy. The JLL India Market Update says that the market witnessed a marginal six per cent rise with 1,43,923 homes sold in December 2019 as compared to 1,36,273 in the corresponding month of 2018. The year 2019, however, witnessed a 14 per cent decline in new launches, with the October-December quarter reporting a 31 per cent fall. All this is in comparison to figures for the year 2018. So in this difficult market, Mr Jain’s new launch carries plenty of significance.

Several global rating agencies have meanwhile lowered India’s growth forecast for the January-March quarter to 4.5 per cent. No doubt this will be a period of economic stress, but eventually, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while addressing a slew of industrialists in December and early January, India has the inherent capacity to bounce back. “This is not the first time that the economy has seen a growth slowdown. But India has managed to pull through each time such a situation has arisen,” he assured the industry.

There are many business stories in this issue. Hope you’d like going through them.

Happy New Year.

(sayantanc@gmail.com)