100 Most Influential People of 2007- Business & Economy

"> B&E 100 Most Influential People of 2007 as the indian economy moves into a new year with all guns blazing, Business&Economy presents a compilation of the people who will matter most... WITH THE LOOKS, COME $2.9 BILLION Manoj Benjamin! That’s the name the realty sector wants to get to know well, and real soon, for with $2.9 billion of planned foreign direct investment in the real estate arena, in one shot, he becomes the king colada, the big enchilada, and for the sake of simple words, the number one player in the sector. If this man’s name has a huge twang of an ethnic touch, wait till you hear about his corporation of which he is Chairman – Royal Indian Raj International Corporation. The fact is that in the year 2007, the real-estate sector is expected to better the already high growth being shown; and that despite the RBI’s consecutive hikes to the prime lending rates in an attempt to curb demand push inflation. According to Assocham, the FDI in this sector is expected to rise by 10% in FY 07. It has also forecasted that in FY07, the real-estate sector would attract 26% of total FDI in the country. And to take advantage of that, Manoj is planning to bring this huge FDI under the Integrated Township Development Program, a scheme of the Indian government. With his investment, he has left behind heavyweights like Blackstone Group & Goldman Sachs (which have plans to invest around $1 billion each) and even the Dubai-based Emmar group (investing $800 million). The magnitude of the impact of Benjamin on the economy will be much more due to the fact that the company has prime land in metros like New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore, where already it has acquired more than 10,000 mind numbing acres. No doubt, with the US asset class being looked at negatively, Manoj’s great gamble might not give expected returns. But as long as Indians are Indians, real-estate would be real estate, and Manoj, well, Manoj!