More than 400 professionals from the construction and real-estate industry gathered at the Construction Leadership Conclave 1.0

 The meet initiates the journey for the transformation in Indian construction industry led by NICMARians surpassing global best practices and riding the wave of disruption 

by Najuka G

MUMBAI, India – December 2018 – Global NICMARians Alumni Meet & Construction Leadership Conclave 1.0 concluded at a note that India has one of the fastest growing construction and real estate industry. Alumni of India’s only premier Institute for Construction Management and Research (NICMAR) came together & discussed industry best practices, ideas and laid down the road map to transform the Indian construction sector to world class. In the one day Global Alumni conference, global trends causing the disruption in construction as well as challenges and possible way forward to transform the Indian construction sector to surpass international standard were discussed during the panel discussions.

The inspiring keynote speakers this year were Mr V. Suresh, Chairman Indian Green Building Council, Mr. Gulam Zia, Dr. Mangesh Korgaonker, Director General – NICMAR Executive Director - Knight Frank, Mr. Rajagopal Palamadai – Chief Design Officer, Peninsula Land Ltd, Mr Raghvendra Singh Bisen, Vice President (EPC) - Oberoi Realty, etc. who discussed extensively on the theme of the event - “Making it Happen” .

Mr V. Suresh, said, “I am glad AGNI is organizing a Global Construction Leadership Conclave to get the best thought processes and best practices to be ushered into the Indian Construction sector. Eagerly looking forward to the event and wishing all success”. He also added, “we are planning to build 10 billion square feet green building area footprint in India by 2022”.

Mr. Raghvendra Singh Bisen – Vice President (EPC) Head Project Controls and Project Management, Oberoi Realty, one of the founding members and part of AGNI steering committee stated that “Share of the construction sector to GDP is estimated to grow from 9 % in 2017 to 15% making India the third largest construction market by 2030 globally. Such exceptional growth in the sector demands both technology and skill transfer.

Mr. Jairam Panch, Managing Director, Turner India and the team who worked on Status of unity presented the case study of Making Statue of Unity Happen. It was one of the most appreciated discussions was on ‘Making statue of Unity Happen’ that got a standing ovation from the audience for it being an indigenous engineering marvel. Jairam Panch, MD Turner India said that it was a feather in their cap. Almost all the equipment’s used for making the statue were Indian. It took 56 months to complete the statue, the core of the statue utilized 210,000 cubic meters and it is completely a green construction

 Association of Global NICMARians is committed to transforming this sector by riding the wave of disruption and unprecedented investment in the construction and infrastructure projects. Global NICMARians Alumni Meet and Construction Leadership Conclave 1.0 is just the first step in that direction and will bring the Industry leaders together to set the narrative and lay down the road-map for this exciting journey. NICMARians are shaping the construction industry today in India and abroad with nearly 20 % working abroad in around 40 countries.

Discussions were primarily centred on the way construction and real estate industry is growing in India and India will be the third largest construction market by 2030 globally.  The panel discussions on various topics included - Achieving operational excellence by balancing QCD (Quality, Cost and Delivery time), here the panelists included Krupesh Anklesaria - VP Engineering Group & Head Contracts, Balkrishan Singh - Executive Director Projects - VX Studio, Dubai.

Another panel talked about Chasing the dream - Journey of Entrepreneurs who are leading the change by setting up startup companies in construction or consulting leaving highly paid jobs. Here the panelists included Yayati Kene - Co-founder and CEO, Amala Realty and Manan Gupta - Director, Freespanz Design Build Pvt Ltd, who started their own firms leaving highly paid jobs. Mr Manan Gupta, Director Free Spanz Design Build Pvt Ltd and Mr Yayati Kene, Co- Founder and CEO Amala Realty announced during the panel discussion that AGNI will be starting off with entrepreneurship cell very soon.

The last session was very inspiring for all the audience where Gulam Zia, Executive Director, Knight Frank pointed, “India is driving towards 10 trillion dollar economy soon where in infrastructures will pay an important role. There is an immense amount of infrastructure work going on in India. Our companies will surely become one of the top notch companies in the world soon.” He added that NICMARians are thought to be good managers and hence they should take the front seat in the real estate and infrastructure industry.

 All the seniors from Global NICMARians who have completed 25 years of being a NICMARian were felicitated along with the volunteers of the NICMAR.

About A.G.N.I : Association of Global NICMARians (AGNI) is an official alumni body of NICMAR Postgraduates (National Institute of Construction Management and Research). The National Institute of Construction Management and Research (NICMAR), is a nonprofit organization with the express objective of engaging in activities for the promotion of training, research, professionalism and skill formation.

One of the main objectives of AGNI is to transform the Indian Construction Industry into world class, by bringing best global practices in areas of construction management, project engineering and management, real estate management, infrastructure management, construction financing and funding, smart city development management, Green Buildings, telecommunication & power sector and allied areas both at Urban and Rural level. AGNI has several active chapters including Mumbai (Founding Chapter), Pune (includes Pune & rest of Maharashtra, Goa), NCR, Bengaluru (includes all of Karnataka), Chennai (includes Tamil Nadu & Kerala) etc and also International chapters such as Australia and UAE with over 4,000 members representing more than 1000 companies globally and located in 40 countries.