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The cost of fossil fuels is soaring, while renewable energy costs are plunging.
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Release The Drones
Out of a total of 22,724 villages in Assam, 700 villages remain to be mapped as on date, leading to repeated hurdles in executing government projects and transacting land.
Then, there are border issues with neighbouring states and a country as well, that need permanent resolution. And without maps, boundaries have no meaning.
Deploy The Machines
To address this long standing problem, the government of Assam has deployed drones to do detailed aerial surveys and help the administration demarcate borders of 700 odd villages with other states.
For this huge task, the Survey of India is providing the drones, while the Kamrup Administration and Assam Survey will be doing the actual flying and mapping.
The Backstory
Through the 1960s and 1970s, a major portion of Assam's villages were mapped conventionally by cartographers.
However, many villages with interstate borders as well as borders with Bangladesh were left unmapped.
To finally demarcate the true borders today, mutual sign offs with bordering states need to happen and then the data from the drones can be used to draw the final lines.
As of now, both these processes are concurrent.
Progress Report
🎙 Pankaj Tiwari, Principal, Assam Survey and Settlement Training Centre told the press, "Once the pilot project (already underway) in Singimari is over, there will be a massive mapping exercise in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia, where the target is to map about 600 revenue villages."
We reckon the drones will be flying over Assam for the next year or more as there is a lot of ground to cover and the terrain is not exactly amicable everywhere.
Optimistic But Cautious
India's housing market has exhibited a spirited, against-the-traffic U-turn that has left experts bewildered and stakeholders elated.
Per a Proptiger report, 55,907 new apartments were sold across India’s top-8 cities in Q3, 2021, - an increase of 59% when compared to Q3, 2020.
On the flip side, new housing supply was up in the last quarter as well, with a big jump of 228%, to 65,211 apartments when compared to Q3, 2020.
The Tailwinds
Several reasons are behind this buoyancy. All-time low mortgage rates, bottomed-out real estate prices, festive discounts and government incentives are together powering housing sales like seldom seen before.
Add to that a record-high consumer sentiment and housing demand is spilling over from the metro cities to state capitals and tier 2/3 cities as well.
The Homebuyer Is Cautious
Emerging from two major lockdowns, job insecurities, and personal losses, the mindset of the home buyer - like consumers in all segments - has been altered.
Industry veterans observe a paradigm shift in the psyche of the home buyer, who is more cautious and smarter than before - planning strategically before making buying decisions.
Unlike festive seasons earlier, which witnessed many impulse purchases (and sudden cancellations later), buyers are in full control of their purse strings this year.
In One Sip
Housing sales have been strong for the last couple of months and this momentum is likely to continue, signalling that this time around, housing demand is sustainable.
On cue, some segments of commercial real estate are also resurgent.
Half A Cup Extra
- ⚠ High-rise building complexes may be a breeding ground for Covid-19, an analysis of the surge in cases in Gurugram post-festive season reveals.
- Protesters flocked to the Noida Airport site and stalled construction work over rehabilitation demands.
- 🏆 The Spanish cabinet just approved a bill penalising empty homes, while rewarding lower rents.
Fine Printing
We thought we'd seen it all and then came the homes of the future, resembling your everyday fairness face cream - basically a lump of oozing goop.
Hold My Toothbrush, What?
100 3D-printed homes will be squeezed out of nozzles in Austin, USA in early 2022, creating the largest 3D-printed locality in America and perhaps the world.
These umm, first set of prints, a JV between home construction company Lennar and 3D printing company Icon, will be an acid test for the technology.
If the project attracts residents, it would signal that 3D printing is a viable solution to the home construction industry’s labor shortage and material issues.
How Does It Work?
Icon’s 15 feet tall printers squeeze out layers of concrete like softy ice cream.
In a week’s time, they can print the exterior and interior walls of a single floor, 2,000-square foot villa.
Don’t expect a big discount for buyers, though. According to Lennar, the 3D-printed homes will be priced similarly to other homes in the Austin area—a city recently described as the “capital of homes selling at super premiums.”
Stapling The Pages
Supporters of 3D-printed homes hope the technology’s cheaper building methods and more environment friendly assembly can offer solutions to the housing crisis and traditional construction’s carbon emissions.
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Till tomorrow morning 💚
☕ The Crew@Ginger Chai