Indian_Express Page1

NORTH AMERICAN EDITION

WESTCOAST Newsline

JUNE

27, 2008

The Indian

EXPRESS

SAM RAO

Vallejo, Calif.

HE fact that many US archi-

tects, both of Indian-origin

and otherwise, have been hir-

ed by the Indian real estate industry,

often in multi-million-dollar projects,

is often lost in the debate around the

outsourcing of IT to India, said Ku-

mar Gera, chairman of the Confeder-

ation of Real Estate Developers As-

sociation of India (CREDAI). “So

you can say the reverse (of IT out-

sourcing) is true in case of the real es-

tate industry in India.”

In an exclusive interview with

The Indian Express

, Gera, who re-

cently visited the San Francisco Bay

Area, discussed the real estate in-

dustry in India.

One of the major problems of the

real estate industry in India is the

“highly fragmented nature of the

business, with different laws in dif-

ferent states,” Gera said, adding that

the formation of an apex body like

CREDAI was long overdue and wel-

comed by all having an interest in

the real estate sector in India.

CREDAI is an apex body

representing more than 3,000 prop-

erty developers in India. It was

founded in 1999 to represent the in-

terests of all builders and developers

based in India.

The phenomenon of globaliza-

tion is also affecting the real estate

sector, a small indicator of which is

the presence of non-local builders

and developers across India; it just

points to the way of things to come,

said Gera, who is the owner of Gera

Developments Pvt. Ltd.

He said along with the major re-

forms of liberalization in India, the

repeal of the Urban Land Ceiling Act

of 1976, which limited land holdings

of individuals in metro areas, in 2004

helped fuel the real estate boom.

Gera, who is the founding presi-

dent of CREDAI, said the organiza-

tion has been successful in lobbying

the Central government to take

“proactive steps to encourage hous-

ing starts and get results in infra-

structure development in towns and

cities, especially with Tier II and Tier

II cities, given that the urban popula-

tion in India will double from 2001 to

2025 and put pressure on infrastruc-

ture, housing and real estate needs.”

Other changes are also the bring-

ing in more professionalism, he

added. Today there are over two-

dozen real estate firms listed on

stock exchanges, with another 20 or

so in the pipeline.

CREDAI has been involved

with a couple of major Real Estate

Expos abroad, including in the US

and Canada.

In case of real estate in

India, the reverse of IT

outsourcing is true: Gera

PRACHETA SHARMA

BHATIA

Palo Alto, Calif.

MARRIAGES are made

in heaven, but matches

are definitely made in the

SF Bay Area, especially

when it comes to the In-

dian couples.

Jasbina Ahluwalia, 37,

plays Cupid for many In-

dian professionals work-

ing in the IT sector, fi-

nance world and the

medical and law field.

Founder of Intersec-

tions Matchmaking, Ah-

luwalia gets those ‘hoo-

ked up’, who while

pursuing their careers of-

ten have no time to search

for that perfect soul mate.

“I was a practicing

lawyer for 5 years, when I

decided to become an en-

trepreneur,” she says.

The idea stemmed from

her own experiences as a

second generation In-

dian, looking for a seri-

ous relationship. “While

growing, up our parents

would always make us fo-

cus more on our studies

and career; dating was

not given any consensus.

So for second generation

children like me, it was

really challenging to ex-

plore relationships within

the parameters.”

Distinguishing Inter-

sections

Matchmaking

from casual dating ser-

vices, Ahluwalia says it is

more tailored around the

needs of the Indian work-

ing

professionals

search of a serious rela-

tionship that might lead

to matrimony.

“Our demographic age

group is between 20s and

30s, some going all the

way to 40 years. Although

predominantly it’s the sec-

ond generation of chil-

dren, the first generation

crowd is part of our radar

as well,” she says.

At Intersections, the

way matchmaking works

in quite interesting. The

company has a pool mem-

bership of $375, wherein

one becomes a part of its

database for matches,

while the second option is

of a proactive introduc-

tion plan, costing $2500,

which is more aggressive

and personalized.

“Before signing up an

individual for any pro-

gram, I spend almost 2

hours with each person,

gauging their personality

traits and talking to them

of what they look for in a

relationship, based on our

written questionnaire,”

she explains.

Since its inception last

year, this matchmaking

agency has seen a many

fold increase in the num-

ber its clients. Although

the clientele includes so-

me American profession-

als as well, over 50 percent

of the members are Indi-

ans. “For Indians this is an

ideal combination of

blending their romantic

notions with the cultural

tradition of an arranged

marriage,” she says.

PRACHETA SHARMA BHATIA

Fremont, Calif.

STARTING any entrepreneurial

venture in the Silicon Valley is not a

tough task, running it successfully

is. Simple but ambitious Indian en-

trepreneur Viren Rana has made

his mark in the latter.

Rana founded the ISTS World-

wide Inc. in 2002 from a modest

one-bedroom office. The leading

IT consultancy firm, of which Rana

is the president and CEO, now

serves top names in the retails and

payments domain, besides occupy-

ing a 6,000 sq ft plush suite in East

Bay, California.

The firm was recently named as

the fastest growing technology

company in the Silicon Valley by

Deloitte & Touché USA LLP.

Originally from Gurgaon in India,

Rana started his career in the US,

working for three years as the sales

and marketing consultant for the re-

tail chain American Stores, which

runs nearly 1,800 retail stores (form-

erly Albertsons) across the country.

Equipped with knowledge of the

retail industry, Rana was quick to

realize the potential of the fast-

paced IT consultancy business and

plunged right into it. “I always knew

I wouldn’t be working for someone

else in an 8 to 5 job, so starting my

own company seemed like the right

thing to do,” says the 36-year-old.

“My vision was always to have a

worldwide company.”

In early 2002, Rana went ahead

and established ISTS after juggling

with two startup initiatives. “It was a

time when people were closing shop

and the economy was dipping, yet I

was confident if we’re able to come

out with some solutions that help

our customers cut costs, then we can

survive,” Rana says, as he explains

how he led his company down the IT

outsourcing path in the initial years.

For this dynamic entrepreneur it

was his prior involvement with two

startups that paved the way for the

success of ISTS. “In the first consul-

tancy company I helped to build a

team from 10 to 100 people, and al-

though the second startup did not

quite work, it was these initial at-

tempts that were my learning gro-

und to develop the third venture.”

With ISTS, Rana adopted the

strategy of focusing vertically on a

domain, and given his competency

in the retail space and his team’s ex-

pertise in the payments sides, the

company chose to build its core

strength in these domains.

“We knew to flourish competitiv-

ely we had to differentiate from ot-

her vendors, and decided to extend

our horizontal technology strength

in building our specialty in the retail

and payments space,” he recalls.

From modest revenues of

$52,000 in the first year, ISTS

reached $14.7 million in 2007, and

now estimates a projected growth

of $22 million in 2008. Some of its

top customers include VISA,

Symantec, Blackhawk Networks/

Safeway, Intuit and Paymetric.

“Our top customers constitute

our multi-million dollar accounts

and we’ve recently signed a Global

Technology partnership with Veri-

fone, which reinforces our expan-

sion in the US market,” Rana says.

Looking back at his humble ba-

ckground, the entrepreneur, with a

B.E from Shivaji University in Kol-

hapur, India, says, “My grandfather

was a farmer and my father was in

the Air Force. I always thought that I

would just make enough savings in

the US and return home.” But fate

had something else planned for him.

From one-room office to plush suite,

Viren Rana makes a success of IT

Arranging Cupid’s ‘shots’ in the Valley

‘Globalization is also

affecting the real estate

sector, a small indicator of

which is the presence of

non-local builders and

developers across India’

Viren Rana is the founder and

president of ISTS Worldwide Inc., a

$14.7 million IT consultancy firm

Jasbina Ahluwalia gets those ‘hooked up’,

who while pursuing their careers have no

time to search for that perfect soul mate