Business
Real estate barons betrayed people’s trust, pulled down a growth sector
The Supertech Twin Towers in Noida that are supposed to be decimated next month is representative of the fall of the real estate czars in the recent past, especially in Delhi-NCR.
The real estate landscape in the region suffered multiple blows as leading names of the trade were mired in scandals in the recent past and some of them even landed in jail.
This is a story of how real estate barons have played with the system, betrayed people’s trust and created multiple crises.
Ashutosh Kashyap, Director, Advisory Services, Colliers India pre 2012, said the residential real estate dynamics of NCR were characterised by double-digit capital value appreciation coupled with robust absorption.
On one hand, prospective buyers were in a hurry to buy, apprehensive of price rise, while on the other hand, robust absorption motivated developers to go on a project launch spree.
In the absence of a proper regulatory regime (such as RERA, which came later), the financial ring-fencing of projects was not proper, which allowed developers to use booking money from one project to acquire more land, which was only based on the underlying premise that the robust absorption will sustain.
“The reason, most of these happened in Noida was because the city offered the option of staggered payment for allotted land. This allowed builders to accumulate and launch more projects in anticipation of robust demand. The residential real estate segment witnessed a prolonged muted period (till 2020-21), especially for the primary market. Most of the developers that built their pipelines on anticipated demand found it difficult to sustain this phase and what we see today is the result of the same,” Kashyap added.
A number of real estate czars have faced enforcement action and some even bankruptcy. This has in turn caused immense despair and hardship for home buyers stuck with incomplete projects having poured in their life savings.
Members of the Chandra family of the Unitech Group are in jail. The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to propose steps to bring back homebuyers money amounting to Rs 5,000 crore diverted to tax havens, which was revealed in a forensic audit.
At the beginning of the hearing, Additional Solicitor General N. Venkataraman, representing the Centre-appointed board of the Unitech, submitted before a bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud that over a thousand crore is outside the country and some money should come back, which could be utilised for the purpose of construction, and the court should ask ED, what progress has been made so far.
In April last year, the ED attached movable and immovable properties worth over Rs 300 crore in 10 separate cases of money laundering.
The agency had said that Unitech Group had diverted proceeds of crime, which are over Rs 300 crore to Carnoustie Group and in turn, the entities of Carnoustie Group purchased several immovable properties from these funds.
In December 2019, the top court had directed the Centre to take over the management of Unitech by appointing independent directors after a forensic audit revealed that home buyers’ money worth over Rs 5,000 crore had been diverted to tax havens such as Cyprus. The diversion of money affected the completion of at least 74 projects and damaged the interests of nearly 12,000 homebuyers.
Also in jail is the Ambience Group owner Raj Singh Gehlot. An (ED) probe has revealed that the group has not made the obligatory contribution of Rs 462 crore for the construction of a Rs 1,272 crore luxury hotel project at Shahdara in the national capital, violating the loan conditions of a consortium of banks, led by the Jammu & Kashmir Bank.
Business
L&T Technology Services bags over $75 million five-year deal from global tech enterprise

New Delhi : Larsen & Toubro Technology Services (LTTS) on Wednesday said it has won a five-year contract worth more than $75 million from a leading global technology enterprise.
In a regulatory filing, the company said the engagement will involve deploying its Engineering Intelligence (EI) capabilities across the client’s product development and engineering lifecycle.
In addition, the deal will cover product engineering, software development, testing and validation, sustenance engineering, platform operations and other digital engineering services, LTTS said.
Under the engagement, the company will also use its suite of Engineering Intelligence solutions to establish a dedicated engineering centre for the client’s technology and digital functions.
However, it did not disclose the name of the client — citing contractual obligations. It said the contract was awarded by an international entity and would be executed over a period of five years.
The latest order comes as LTTS continues to expand its engineering and artificial intelligence capabilities across global markets.
Moreover, the company had reported a 17.4 per cent year-on-year increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 352 crore for the first quarter of the current financial year. While revenue during the quarter rose 11.5 per cent to Rs 2,940 crore.
However, on a constant-currency basis revenue growth stood at 1.9 per cent, compared with 12.8 per cent in the corresponding period last year.
LTTS last week also announced the launch of AgenticIQ, an end-to-end agentic artificial intelligence platform aimed at enabling engineering and manufacturing companies to deploy autonomous AI agents at scale.
Shares of LTTS on Wednesday traded at Rs 3,517.65 apiece on the BSE in early deals.
LTTS is a subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro and provides engineering research and development and digital engineering services to customers across industries.
Business
PM Modi to inaugurate fifth edition of ‘SEMICON India’ on Sept 17

New Delhi, Aug 18: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the fifth edition of SEMICON India 2026 on September 17 here as India seeks to accelerate the development of its domestic semiconductor ecosystem, an official statement said on Tuesday.
The three-day conference and exhibition — themed Silicon to Systems: Building the Ecosystem — will be held between September 17 and September 19 and is being jointly organised by the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) — under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) — and global industry association SEMI, the ministry said.
The event is expected to bring together policymakers, global semiconductor companies, industry executives, researchers, academics, start-ups and students to discuss developments across the semiconductor and electronics value chain.
In addition, the Centre recently approved Semicon 2.0 to strengthen the country’s semiconductor manufacturing and supply-chain capabilities.
The government said it is also supporting semiconductor research, innovation and design through access to advanced design tools for more than 332 academic institutions and 105 start-ups.
Moreover, 24 start-ups have been approved under the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme.
However, India’s semiconductor ambitions have gained momentum under the Semicon India Programme with 12 projects approved under Semicon 1.0 to help build a domestic semiconductor ecosystem, according to the ministry.
S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY, said the 2026 edition comes at a significant stage in India’s semiconductor journey, noting that three of the 12 projects approved under Semicon 1.0 have commenced commercial production.
“The announcement of Semicon 2.0 with six major pillars further strengthens India’s commitment to build a robust and resilient semiconductor ecosystem,” he said.
Ajit Manocha, President and Chief Executive Officer of SEMI, said India is well positioned to expand its role in the global semiconductor industry through its talent pool, policy support and long-term vision.
Ashok Chandak, President of SEMI India and IESA, said the event reflects India’s efforts to build a comprehensive semiconductor value chain and has become a key platform for collaboration among industry leaders, policymakers, investors and researchers.
Additionally, the exhibition is expected to feature more than 500 exhibitors, including over 240 international companies, with delegations from more than 40 countries.
According to the ministry, the event will also include six country pavilions, 10 state government pavilions, a start-up pavilion, innovation showcase, start-up pitch competition, student hackathon and workforce development pavilion.
Business
Sensex plunges 493 points, Nifty falls 133 points amid global tensions

Mumbai, Aug 18: The benchmark indices extended their losses on Tuesday, with the Sensex and Nifty coming under pressure amid heightened geopolitical tensions and weakness in key sectors.
The Sensex fell 493 points, or 0.63 per cent, to 77,235.46, while the Nifty declined 132.75 points, or 0.55 per cent, to 24,154.90.
Commenting on technical outlook, the 24,300 zone is likely to act as the immediate resistance.
“A sustained move above 24,300 could help stabilise the structure and support a recovery towards the 24,400–24,500 region. However, failure to reclaim this level could keep recovery attempts vulnerable to selling pressure,” an analyst stated.
“On the downside, 24,150 remains the immediate support level. A decisive break below 24,150 could intensify selling pressure and drag the index towards the 24,000 psychological mark,” as per the market expert.
Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Asian Paints and Infosys emerged as the top losers among Nifty constituents. The broader market also remained under pressure, with the Nifty MidCap index declining 0.43 per cent, while the Nifty SmallCap index ended flat.
Sectorally, Nifty IT, Nifty Realty and Nifty PSU Bank were among the biggest drags on the benchmark indices. In contrast, the Nifty Auto index emerged as the top-performing sector during the session.
Experts said that the market sentiment remained cautious as investors assessed the impact of ongoing geopolitical tensions, with selling pressure in IT, realty and PSU banking stocks weighing on the overall market.
“Although domestic fundamentals continue to be supportive, sustained high crude prices and rising input costs could pressure recent earnings upgrades, prompting investors to remain cautious in the near term,” as per the market expert.
Meanwhile, Rupee traded largely flat near 95.67, but the broader weakness continues as the currency faces hurdles in sustaining strength.
“The rupee is expected to trade in the 95.25–95.85 range in the near term,” a market expert noted.
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