Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The most successful of the private sector developers was Kushal Pal Singh, a business-
man then in his forties, who worked for Delhi Land and Finance, now called DLF. The
company had run out of land in New Delhi, having developed what became prosperous
middle-class suburbs such as South Extension, Hauz Khas and Greater Kailash, so Singh
moved out to what is now Gurgaon. There he began the urbanizing of rural settlements of
the agricultural Ahir and Jat castes and, in the process, turned DLF into the country's lead-
ing real estate company.
He illustrated the original buccaneering spirit in a
Business Standard
interview in
months with their families. I wore kurtas, sat on charpoys, drank fly-infested milk from
dirty glasses, attended weddings, visited the sick. To understand why this was important, it
is necessary to understand the landholding pattern. The average plot size in Gurgaon was
four to five acres, mostly held by Hindu undivided families. Legally, to get clear titles, I
needed the consent of every adult member of these families. That could be up to thirty
people for one sale deed. Getting the married daughters to sign was often tricky because
the male head of the family would refuse to share the proceeds of the sale with them. So I
would travel to their homes and pay the daughters in secret. Remarkably, Gurgaon's farm-
ers sold me land on credit. I would pay one farmer and promptly take the money back as a
loan and use that to buy more land. The firm's goodwill made them willing to act as bankers
for DLF. But it also meant I had to be extra careful about interest payments. Come rain or
shine, the interest would be hand-delivered to each farmer on the third of every month at
ten a.m. We bought 3,500 acres of land in Gurgaon, more than half of it on credit, without
one litigation against DLF.'
In 2007, Singh listed the company on the Indian stock exchange and five months later
falls in DLF's stock market prices had reduced that figure by October 2013 to just $3.4bn.
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Saddled with heavy debt, DLF sold hotels, wind farms and other diversifications while
maintaining its core activities. It was also hit by controversies that included a deal with
Robert Vadra, husband of Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka, whose sudden wealth and
business activities (which included DLF) had begun to lead to criticisms of the ruling dyn-
asty. The deal exposed widely suspected and gossiped-about links between businessmen,
politicians and bureaucrats in Haryana. A Vadra company called Sky Light Hospitality had
bought a 3.53 acre plot in February 2008 in Manesar-Shikohpur near Gurgaon for Rs 7.5
crore from a local real estate company that was owned by a businessman said to be close
state's town and country planning department issued a housing development licence for 2.7
acres of the land and, within 65 days, Vadra entered into an 'agreement to sell' to DLF for
