Highlights: Day 1 of 4th GIREM leadership summit, Goa [September 30, 2011]

Goa, September 29, 2011: The Fourth edition of GIREM, the flagship Urban Planning and Real Estate Leadership Summit, was inaugurated today amongst some of the Key Industry Stalwarts and bureaucrats from across India. The conference, starting today will be held till October 1st at the Zuri White Sands, GOA.
‘WINING THE DECADE’ is the focal theme of GIREM this year. The THREE-daylong event will witness Key strategists, urban planners, industry experts, and top bureaucrats converge to brainstorm on how to deal with the myriad issues that confront urban planning. About 300 delegates from across India will be attending the third Summit of GIREM.
GIREM is supported by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) as Knowledge Partner; Ernst and Young as Awards Process Knowledge Partner; GenReal Property Advisors and Facility Management Zone as Associate Partners; IPI B2B as Global Partner; CREDAI as Industry Partner; ACE Update as Media Partner.
“GIREM is positioned strategically to be able to influence people, governments, corporations and organizations, to work collectively to change the discrepancy and lethargy that exist in the way we operate, exchange ideas and collaboratively put it into practice”, said Mr. Shyam Sundar S. Pani, President – GIREM.
“Post liberalisation, as India ushers in the next decade of progress and development, there are innumerable challenges and hurdles that will be faced. With India poised at the centre stage of the world’s attention and with opportunities galore, we need to leverage this inherent advantage to win the decade, and this is where GIREM will come onto the forefront to be the change agent “, said Mr. Sundar.
The Focus of the Summit is to bring all the stakeholders on one platform to share opinions and expectations and to come up with a plan for the future of India which is both sustainable and efficient”, added Mr. Sundar.
Over the last three years, the event has emerged as the number one platform which brings together the Corporate End Users of office, commercial & retail, Developers, Architects, Consultants, Policy Makers, Investors to interact through its various sessions.
Speaking on the occasion Sridhar Raghavendra, Associate VP &Lead – Facilities & Admin Global, Mphasis HP said, “GIREM is a one-of-a-kind summit series that aims to give much-needed impetus to the Indian Realty Industry via a thorough assessment of the trends and challenges we are witnessing today. The uniqueness of the Summit has always been the innovativeness that the summit has brought to the table every year providing the much needed momentum to shrug the rustiness and passiveness prevalent in the real estate industry in India. GIREM focuses on the real issues and challenges in Urban Development that our country faces today. The 3-day summit will provide a suitable platform for industry players to congregate, confer and discuss the most vital issues the sector and the nation face”
The  Leadership Talk and Business Connect will make GIREM 2011 noticeably different from any urban development and Realty events—richer in content, broader in scope, and more relevant to the entire realty industry.
Some of the key speakers include Kamal Nath, Union Cabinet Minister of Urban Development, Deepender Singh Hooda, Member of Parliament, Rohtak, Haryana, Avinash Vashistha, Chairman and Managing Director, Accenture India, Dr. Santosh Babu. IAS, IT Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu, Dr.  Vivek Mansingh, President, Collaborations and Communications Group, CISCO,  Arun Nanda, Non-Executive Director, Mahindra Life space Developers Ltd, Dr. Guillaume Massard, Phd, Geneva, Dr. Jean-David Gerber, Institute of Lausanne University, Ravi Raman, Director, InfraHedge Services India, Kalpesh Maroo, Partner, BMR Advisors, Ricardo Mateu, Partner, Fosters + Partners, Dr. Pawan G. Agrawal, CEO, Mumbai Dabbawalas Association.