| Start- up that made waves at IITs |
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Mumbai, 13 December As you walk into the offices of Housing. com at Powai in central Mumbai, you will see the collective thought of 12 IITBombay engineers engraved on the wall — " We wanted something better, so we built it ourselves." The dozen founders of the map- based housing portal — all IIT- Bombay engineers in their mid- 20s — now have many others wedded to the same motto. The less- thantwoyear- old company was the biggest recruiter among startups, snapping up 45 students from IIT campuses this placement season. The packages it offers is nothing to write home about —₹ 13- 18 lakh a year, depending on job profiles. But cofounder Advitiya Sharma says Housing. com was in demand on IIT campuses as " we give them an opportunity to leave their fingerprint on the work they do. We give them a huge opportunity for technology innovation." The idea for the housing portal came up in February 2012, when Advitiya Sharma and 11 friends set out to look for a rental accommodation, after passing from IIT- Bombay. Little did they know this collective effort would give birth to a business venture that would change the way Indians hunt for homes. "We spent 30 frustrating days on Mumbai's roads looking for an accommodation. But the not- so- good accommodations and weird conditions for renting out a flat to bachelors made that experience a nightmare. That is when we decided to do something about it," says Sharma. All of them gave up their lucrative consulting and software jobs to set up a 3D mapbased portal they hoped would redraw the landscape for real estate websites. The company has expanded to 10 cities — Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Gurgaon, Chennai, Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad, Hyderabad and Faridabad — and has 700 staff members. It boasts of 90,000 daily unique visitors (Sharma claims it is the thirdlargest in terms of traffic, after MagicBricks and 99Acres. com). Housing. com plans to double its reach in six months. "The real problem plaguing the real estate business is lack of authentic information in making a buying and selling decision. At Housing. com, we address that," says Sharma. Turn to Page 14 > Map- based housing portal boasts of third- largest traffic within 2 years of inception domain name and a national number 03333- 333- 333 for $ 1 million and 700 staff members with daily unique 90,000 visitors |Plans to double its reach to 20 cities in six months |Trains staff to deal with partner brokers and landlords |Housing. com says data verification is core business |
| Click: Article continued from…Start- up that made waves at IITs |
| Start- up that made waves at... |
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The data is verified by an inhouse team before being uploaded. So one can search for ahouse with " child friendliness index" or " housing lifestyle ratings" or " price heat map" feature, which would enable users to check prices of localities across a city on a map. One can also check if the house they are looking for is located near, say, a highway. The portal earns revenue only through its broker vertical, but a proposed builder vertical and land vertical will multiply the revenue, says Sharma refusing, to divulge revenue details. " We charge a subscription fee of ₹ 7,500 for six months and ₹ 15,000 for one year to brokers. We would be revising that upwards soon." The portal has around 6,000 broker- members. This June, the portal raised $ 2.5 million Nexus Venture Partners after it secured two rounds of angel funding from a group of investors led by Zishaan Hayath, co- founder of the phone commerce company Chaupaati Bazaar, and former Network18 CEO Haresh Chawla. Kishore Biyani's Future Group acquired Chaupaati Bazaar a couple of years ago. With more innovative products to be rolled out soon, Sharma is betting big on the online space. " We are the kind of people who want to do what makes us proud and I know we will rock the industry." |
| Karnataka HC admits second winding- up plea against UB Holdings |
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In a setback to UB Group Chairman Vijay Mallya, the high court here on Friday admitted a second winding- up plea in less than a month against the Group's principal holding company, UB Holdings Ltd, which owes its creditors about ₹ 600 crore. This comes barely two days after Mallya lost his right to stop bank seizure of his Kingfisher House in Mumbai. Judge Anand Byrareddy admitted a petition from French- Italian aircraft manufacturer Avions de Transport Régional ( ATR) against Mallya's firm for non- payment of about ₹ 92- crore dues. The company's counsel, Holla & Holla, has been given time up to January second week to file an appeal against the court's decision. Failing which, an advertisement asking the creditors to approach the court for their dues will be published in newspapers. In a similar ruling on November 19, judge Byrareddy upheld BNP Paribas' petition seeking a wind- up of the firm. UBHL had provided guarantees to BNP Paribas to finance three aircraft for group firm Kingfisher Airlines. Of the five other wind- up appeals filed against the company, the three other petitioners are Intl Aero Engines ( IAE), Rolls- Royce & Partners and RRPF Engine Leasing. Together, the five are fighting to get back dues of about ₹ 600 crore from UB Holdings. The court also heard arguments in the winding- up petition filed by engine manufacturer IAE against UB Holdings but has not admitted their appeal yet. However, Mallya's lawyers claimed Kingfisher Airlines suffered a loss of ₹ 1,600 crore due to faulty engines supplied by IAE. UB Holdings is in the process of filing an original side appeal ( OSA) against the BNP Paribas order and the matter will be heard on Thursday. The court has also upheld a similar petition from Aerotron Ltd against the grounded- carrier on December 6. The airline is counting dues of about ₹ 7,000 crore to various lenders, including a consortium of banks. In the past 30 days, lenders have moved swiftly to corner Mallya over dues from the two companies. They are trying to monetise the collateral and recover their loans. On December 10, Citicorp Finance Ltd, sold about 1.34 per cent of a stake in another group firm, United Breweries Ltd, from a part of the pledge by Kolkata- based Kamsco Industries Private Ltd, a part of Mallya's corporate empire. The shares were picked up by Heineken in the open market for ₹ 275 crore, in a move that made the Dutch brewer the largest shareholder in the maker of Kingfisher beer with atotal stake of 38.7 per cent. The company may be interested in buying more shares if made available to them. SBICAP Trustee Company, acting on behalf of State Bank of India, the largest creditor to Kingfisher Airlines with dues of ₹ 1,600 crore, had moved to seize Kingfisher House less than ₹ 100 crore in an attempt to reclaim some of the loan it had given to the company. The Kingfisher Villa in Goa, which has also been pledged by Mallya for some loans, is also under dispute at a Goa court after he sought to restrain SBI from making any changes to the property. UB Group Chairman Vijay Mallya PHOTO: PTI |
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Tata trusts given irregular tax exemptions: CAG |
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New Delhi, 13 December The Comptroller and Auditor General ( CAG) on Friday pulled up the income tax department (ITD) for allowing irregular tax exemption to two Tata Group trusts, involving tax implication of a little over ₹ 1,000 crore. "ITD allowed irregular exemptions to Jamshetji Tata Trust and Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust, who invested ₹ 3,139 crore in prohibited modes arising from accumulation of capital gains which involved tax effect of ₹ 1,066.95 crore," said the CAG report tabled in Parliament. The CAG has given notice to 14 Trust cases involving tax liability of ₹ 1,090 crore, wherein accumulation arising from capital gains was either not invested in the specified mode or computed incorrectly. Moreover, the CAG added, in some cases " they were not fully utilised... Proceeds for acquiring capital assets. The ITD allowed exemption irregularly in these assessments completed after scrutiny". Referring to a particular case, the auditor said Jamshetji Tata Trust and Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust earned ₹ 1,905 crore and ₹ 1,234 crore on account of capital gains during assessment years 2008- 09 and 2009- 10, respectively and " invested the same in prohibited mode of investment which is in contravention to the provisions of section 13 ( 1) ( d) of the Income Tax Act ( dealing with investment)." The Comptroller & Auditor General ( CAG) has pulled up the Income Tax Department (ITD) for irregular exemptions to four cricket associations engaged in commercial activities on their income from television rights, leaving the exchequer poorer by ₹ 37.23 crore. " ITD allowed exemption for the income received from TV rights from the Board of Control for Cricket in India in the cases of Saurashtra Cricket Association, Baroda Cricket Association, Kerala Cricket Association and Maharashtra Cricket Association, resulting in soft levy of tax of ₹ 37.23 crore," CAG said in its Parliamentary IT dept slammed for not levying ₹ 37 cr on 4cricket associations |
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