Real State Sector (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Economy)

Context: A 14-member committee chaired by former NITI Aayog CEO and India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, was constituted to examine stalled real estate projects and recommend ways to complete them.

About the Committee

• Establishment: March 2023
• Ministry: Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

Recommendations of the Committee

• Rehabilitation Package: State administrations ought to formulate a rehabilitation package, while developers need to pledge a completion schedule spanning three years.
• Zero Period: Spanning from April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2022, would entail the suspension of interest and penalties owing to Covid-19 and court directives.
• Mandatory RERA Registration: The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, provisions for registering projects with RERA must be enforced.
• Resolution for Incomplete Projects: RERAs need to identify primarily finished projects encountering administrative obstacles and offer a solution within a 30-day timeframe.

SWAHIM Fund

It has government backing and operates as a Category-II AIF debt fund under SEBI registration.

• An Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) denotes a privately pooled investment vehicle gathering funds from sophisticated investors, Indian or foreign, for purposeful investment based on a defined policy for investors' gain.
• SBICAP Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBI Capital Markets and the State Bank of India, serves as the Fund's Investment Manager.
• The Government aims to inject funds totaling up to Rs. 10,000 crores into the affordable and middle-income group housing sector via the Special Window.