Category: India

Dharavi: While the ice cream cone melts

30 October, 2009 (09:54) | Capital markets, Development, Dharavi, Global news, India, Slums, Speculation | No comments

Did you ever fight with your sibling over who got the ice cream cone, only to see it splatter onto the sidewalk?
 

Who ordered the large?
 
That’s the sinking feeling probably being experienced by the government public-private team trying to recruit developers into their Herculean effort to redevelop Mumbai’s Dharavi slum, as the global credit crunch thins [...]

Great posts by other (GPBO) 01: Introducing a new series

7 July, 2009 (11:13) | Atlantic Yards, Cities, GPBO, Home asset finance, India, Microfinance, Norman Oder, Speculation | 1 comment

Because information wants to be free, blogs are all about sharing, so from time to time I’ll post these potpourri columns of Great Posts By Others, featuring thought-provoking posts and our reactions thereto.

We seek out new posts and new inspiration

1.1 Atlantic Yards Report

Ever since I first encountered [...]

The Model T house?

25 June, 2009 (09:47) | Affordability, Configuration, India, Innovations, Tata, Usonian, Value Chain | 2 comments

To make housing affordable, why don’t we lower its costs, using mass production?

“A car that ordinary Americans can afford.”
Henry Ford with his Model T

For nearly a century, that thesis has appealed to automotive titans, of whom the latest is from India, as reported in the Financial [...]

The challenge and opportunity of slums: Part 2, the opportunities

27 March, 2009 (09:35) | Cities, Demographics, Dharavi, India, Kenya, Kibera, Policy, Slums | 1 comment

[Continued from yesterday's Part 1.]
 
Yesterday’s post covered half of my little talk – the challenges part – on the Infrastructure and Real Estate panel at Harvard Business School’s 2009 India Conference, one of the largest student-run events in the country, attracting several hundred people. 
 

“So far out there I can’t be contained behind a dais!”
 
My [...]

The challenge and opportunity of slums: Part 1, the challenges

26 March, 2009 (09:56) | Cities, Demographics, Dharavi, India, Kenya, Kibera, Policy, Slums | No comments

In mid-March, I had the scintillating experience of participating on a panel in Infrastructure and Real Estate at Harvard Business School’s 2009 India Conference, one of the largest student-run events in the country, attracting several hundred people. 
 

“Who knew slums could be funny?”
 
My fellow panelists were:
 
Abha Joshi-Ghani, Urban Sector Manager for the Finance, Economics, and [...]