Good morning, for the first time ever, spicy chillies have been sown, grown and harvested in space. Oh yes, and they've been eaten as well.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station decided to have a harvest carnival in orbit and threw themselves a taco party, using the space-grown chilli peppers in the filling.
With such tangy news doing the rounds, Indians are finally looking at space as a career option. 😉
The space below is interesting too, btw.
Net Zero By 2070
In a much awaited announcement towards deep decarbonisation and a '1.5 degree' future for the planet, India said that it would achieve a Net Zero carbon footprint by 2070.
With this commitment, India stood out among top emitters, including the U.S. and China, that were being closely watched at the COP26 climate summit.
What You Should Know
- Net Zero by 2070.
- 500 gigawatts (GW) of non fossil fuel (renewable) electricity capacity by 2030.
- 50% of all energy requirement to come from renewable sources by 2030.
- The emissions intensity of the GDP to be reduced by 45% by 2030.
What's It Going To Take
- India's total installed solar capacity should reach 5,600 gigawatts by 2070.
- Use of coal to generate electricity will need to drop by 99% by 2060.
- Consumption of crude oil has to peak by 2050 and then reduce substantially by over 90% between 2050 and 2070.
- Green hydrogen to power about 20% of all the energy needs of the industrial sector.
Are We Getting Any Help?
Yes, with this commitment, India has practically rolled out the red carpet to global and local entities who want to invest in research, development and deployment of green technologies.
🎙 "This was a very significant moment for the summit," said Nicholas Stern, chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics.
It's a chance for India to show that "it can deliver on both economic development and climate change."
Approve This ASAP
The pandemic induced slowdown in real estate can wait because new project approvals in Mumbai cannot.
Wait, What?
Real estate developers in Mumbai have to pay hefty premiums to the BMC and the state government in order to get additional development rights, and till December 31, 2021, this premium has been reduced by 50%.
Per this TOI story, this slash in premium has led to long queues outside the sanctioning office at the BMC as builders line up with their project plans for speedy approval.
How Big Is The Queue?
Sample this and figure it out yourself.
A record INR 4,800 crore has been collected as sanction fee between April and September, 2021. By the time the December 31 deadline gets over, this amount is expected to be north of INR 8,500 crore.
In comparison, INR 2,500 crore was collected by the BMC in FY21, and INR 3,800 crore in FY20.
What's Moving?
Redevelopment projects, which were earlier being shunned by Mumbai's builders owing to high premium charges, and decreasing profitability, are back in vogue.
In the Bandra-Khar-Santacruz belt alone, 70 redevelopment projects have already been approved by the BMC since the premium was halved.
Also, since higher FSI is being offered for commercial towers, a lot of redevelopment is skewing towards office space.
Increasing Demand
New projects, no matter how incentivised need actual demand to become viable for builders, and experts opine that over and above general factors - like increasing vaccination and economic recovery - the boom in the stock market is a big reason for Mumbai's increasing real estate appetite.
Semi luxury apartments, priced between INR 5 to 10 crore are thus seeing a lot of traction.
Half A Cup Extra
- Watch this video highlighting how the Panama Canal is running out of water.
- West Bengal has increased the rebate window given to the real estate sector by another 3 months.
- Aurum PropTech to pick up 49% stake in Integrow Asset Management for INR 25 crore.
Getting Physical
Property technology (PropTech) has transformed the way we transact and use real estate assets over the last decade and the billions invested in it speak volumes about its acceptability and future.
But there is a general notion out there that proptech is still less prop and more tech because so far, the proptech space has been dominated by tech entrepreneurs and funded by technology VCs.
That long standing trend could soon change.
Taking On The Built Environment
While tech investors have aspired to transform the real estate industry into a digital space, digging deeper shows that this change has been more of a give-and-take.
Recent trends are about tech players digitizing workflows in real estate, while also vertically integrating into construction of real estate assets that they specialize in.
Context, Please.
Just like Netflix began as a pure streaming platform and then expanded into producing the content that it streams, PropTech firms are starting to build the very assets that they list/sell.
Whether it is Airbnb building its own properties and partnering with developers, or Zillow buying and selling homes on its own account, PropTech is making its presence felt in the built environment.
How Does It Help?
What are the benefits for a proptech firm when it enters into the world of development?
Once full stack proptech players have achieved scale and garnered a global consumer base, taking over development management perhaps becomes necessary to reduce third party risks while increasing control over quality and delivery.
Quite like Amazon’s bid to purchase MGM to take complete control over it's own future.
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While you were reading this, we were eating tacos filled with earth-grown chillies to honour the astronauts and their awesome agricultural feat.
Who knows what's brewing next? Tomorrow's Ginger Chai is for sure.
💚
☕ The Crew@Ginger Chai