kushal pal singhis transitioning from being the chairman of dlf indias largest real estate developer to being the chairman emeritus in a 75minute interview with toi singh discussed the failure of urbanisation policy his relationship with the gandhi family including the controversial land deal with robert vadra and the future of the real estate sector excerpts since you have built this business there must be a lot of attachment is there a sense of giving up how does it feelvery nice for me this is not a change frankly my son rajiv singh has been the vice chairman he looks after the company and i am only counselling and helping him so this is a very good transition since i crossed 90 it is befitting that the active responsibilities should be given to the young people i will be chairman emeritus which means till you live you are attached is this current crisis one of the worst crises that you have encountered in your business careeryes i couldnt see world war ii but i hear that you have not encountered this kind of phenomenon which is not finished yet it will be wrong to say things are hunkydory as peaks will come then well go down this will go on till you get a successful vaccine which could easily be a yearandahalf away how is it going to affect real estate and your businessit will affect every business real estate has always been affected earlier it was never in a position which in a country like india it should have been in all over the world real estate means urban infrastructure construction this is the number one economic driver because it employs the largest number of skilled and unskilled people and it has a big multiplier effect on gdp so for a country of indias size demographically it is the most important activity apart from agriculturein india unfortunately it has not yet occupied the place of eminence it should you see the migration of people look at the face of migrants with bags on their heads there are pregnant women walking miles to go home because theyre not satisfied with where they are working their living conditions are in a horrible mess they live in abject poverty they are living in subhuman condition in slums all that is a result of urban infrastructure failure if you dont give a home with good living standards to these workers they will revolt because today there is television in every nook and corner they see others are living so wellhow do you fix thisplease take this recognition to the highest level in the government weve gone wrong some great things have happened in india but in urban infrastructure we have failed you need to provide for proper settlement of migrant workers proper housing proper facilities and transportation link to the area where there is economic activity this calls for a massive investment whether it is 10 or 20 of gdp unless this