'One World, One Realty' concludes: K'taka govt to fund start-ups to solve urban challenges

Bengaluru: 'One World, One Realty', the virtual Global PropTech Summit aimed at defining a sustainability road map for the real estate and construction industry, concluded on Friday. It was presented by Brigade Reap and HDFC Capital with eminent speakers deliberating on proptech for urbanization.

Setting the context to the theme for the day, M R Jaishankar, CMD, Brigade Enterprises said, "Technology has brought in a lot of near real time intelligence and transparency into almost every aspect of our business. For example, almost 95% of our workforce at Brigade are on site and all progress was mapped from people physically transferring information from the project site to the Head Office.

Today, using the AI technology of a Brigade REAP mentee, our Project Heads are able to get these reports in real time. This has enabled 25% time saving in quality audits and rework if necessary. Drones and video analytics tools are being used to map progress in real time. We are looking at engaging companies that are using drones and video analytics tools to map progress in real time. We also work with data analytics companies that help us use trends and predictive mapping to validate our decisions."

In his keynote address, Dr. C N Ashwath Narayan, Deputy Chief Minister, said, "The Government of Karnataka understands the importance of encouraging startups and innovative technologies in solving urban challenges. We are soon launching a grand challenge in partnership with the urban development department and transport department where startups can access funding of up to Rs one crore to solve urban challenges.

Challenges will include issues such as property tax collection improvement, underground utility detection and digital enforcement portal for the transport department. I encourage you to be on the lookout for this challenge and participate in it. Our Government has always adopted a consultative and the stakeholder driven approach toward developing any sector."

According to the reports, Urban Development department has already launched a pilot for Karnataka urban observatory on the lines of global best practices and India urban observatory. The observatory will provide a data repository for all the innovators and startups in other domains to use government data sets and design solutions. The next step will be to institutionalize this effort and design pilot solutions in partnership with the private sector, academia and startups.

DCM C N Ashwath Narayan urged everyone to join hands and collaborate to create a more resolute India for tomorrow. We can leverage technology in urban planning and city development and also develop a vibrant property tech ecosystem in Karnataka. I encourage all stakeholders to make Karnataka the Proptech Capital of Asia.

"I strongly believe that every Real estate & Construction company across the world has no choice but to re-engineer itself and adopt technology at a far more rapid pace. I believe that with reskilling our workforce using 'reskilling platforms' and using a large degree of automation, we can get as efficient, if not better than the automotive industry where I see many similarities.

If we all put our minds together and we work as One, I can confidently say that we can mitigate the challenges to both the environment and also help enhance efficiency of our Industry" Jaishankar added.

Kunal Wadhwani, Principal Investments, HDFC Capital Advisors Ltd. In his address said, "Innovation in new technologies will play an important role in affordable housing. Technologies enable project development cycle information in real time and this helps bring in sustainability in real estate through water management and solar technologies. Drones can help map and contour large pieces of land.

Technology helps provide data analytics and market intelligence. Sales to benefit from technology through virtual 3D tours. Technology disruption is here to stay and we need to keep up with the latest technologies and adopt PropTech to become sustainable"

The fireside chats and panel discussions that were held over the two days of One World One Realty were of the voice that PropTech is likely to witness a tremendous boost in the near future with growing use of technologies such as big data, AI, virtual reality etc.

Proptech start-ups that showcased technologies how proptech is disrupting processes in real estate and construction included Breeze (Germany), Metrikus (UK), Snaptrude (India), SmartvizX (India) and Massive Mobility (India).