Rajiv is based out of Delhi-NCR and writes stories on startups, corporates, entrepreneurs of all kinds, and yes, marketing and advertising world. His ‘historic feats’ include graduation in history from Hansraj College, master's in medieval Indian history from Delhi University, and PG diploma in journalism from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Another forgettable achievement was spending over a decade at The Economic Times as his maiden job. For the first seven years, he learnt the craft on the desk, and the remaining years were spent unlearning and writing for Brand Equity and ET Magazine. What keeps him going, and alive, apart from stories is the heavenly music of immortal legend RD Burman.
Q. Betting Big on India The underlying fundamentals are positive in terms of urbanisation, population growth and employment. But there is some negativity around the ability to get things done. That, however, seems to be rare.
Q. On the real estate market Real estate goes through ups and downs. And India is no different. You can find reasons to be a bit cynical and negative. But compared to other markets, India offers a healthy yield for a global buyer. We see opportunity in whatever circumstances we're in. Sometimes recession is good to reset the market. And other times, it's not.
Q. On why commercial realty market is growing When you talk about real estate in India, people think in terms of residential. And that's fair because 90 percent is that. But if you leave that out, there are some green shoots in the affordable and mid-income category. The commercial market is doing well because the services economy and the global outsourcing in artificial intelligence and cloud data security are working well.