Description

There has been a vast response to the appeals made by the Editor through covering letter that accompanied the December, 2001 issue of the Journal and the February 2002 issue of the Newsletter. The Institute has received numerous papers on a variety of topics. While the editor would like to thank the authors for their overwhelming response, it is once again requested that material for publication must be sent in a soft copy format also. The material received only in the hard copy not only delays the selection process, it gets a low priority over the materials in a soft copy format due to extra time needed for typing and checking the proofs. However, the photographs. if any, be sent in original for better reproduction.

This issue of the Journal contains a collection of seven papers besides an extended Book Review.

The first paper on 'Budget 2002-03: Implications for the Real Estate Sector by Dr. P.S.N. Rao reassures the planners, and those concerned with the real estate and housing development that the budget is indeed a 'housing savvy one. Moreover, an Infrastructure Equity Fund has been proposed to be set up to help provide equity investment for infrastructure projects. Provisions have been made so as to benefit both the Housing Finance companies as well as housing consumers both in the urban and rural areas. Dr. Rao however, cautions on the outcome of some of the provisions of the budget, specially the removal of Chapter XX-C and the introduction of section 50C. Similarly, long awaited items on the industry wish list such as the granting of 'industry' status have not been incorporated in the budget.

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