Donald Trump and India
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
Views on India, Pakistan and China
The Times of India
See graphic.
Investments in India to impact US foreign policy?
This report was published well before Mr Trump’s election as the President of the USA
Donald Trump's investments in India to impact US foreign policy: Report, PTI | Sep 15, 2016
Trump's overseas investments may impact US foreign policy, Newsweek said.
Interests of Trump Organization and US foreign policy are starker in India.
Trump's investment in India may make him take a hard line against Pakistan.
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump's investments in real estate overseas, including in Indian cities of Pune and Gurgaon+ , could have implications on America's foreign policy if the Republican presidential nominee wins the elections+ and occupies the White House next January, a major US weekly said.
In its cover story on Trump's investments in properties overseas, the Newsweek said that as the Republican National Convention+ was about to get underway in July, the Trump Organization declared it was planning a massive expansion in the South Asian country.
"That is a chilling example of the many looming conflicts of interest in a Trump presidency," the weekly noted.
"If he plays tough with India, will the government assume it has to clear the way for projects in that 'aggressive pipeline' and kill the investigations involving Trump's Pune partners? And if Trump takes a hard line with Pakistan, will it be for America's strategic interests or to appease Indian government officials who might jeopardize his profits from Trump Towers Pune?" the weekly asked.
According to the weekly, several Indian political leaders including from the both BJP and the Congress have established close relationship with the Trump family as a result of its real estate investment in Pune and Gurgaon .
In India, the conflicts between the interests of the Trump Organization and American foreign policy are starker, Newsweek said.
Trump signed an agreement in 2011 with an Indian property developer called Rohan Lifescapes that wanted to construct a 65-storey building with his name on it. Leading the talks for Rohan was Kalpesh Mehta, a director of the company who would later become the exclusive representative of Trump's businesses in India, the weekly said.
However, government regulatory hurdles soon impeded the project, the cover story said adding that Donald Trump Jr flew to India to plead with Prithviraj Chavan, chief minister of Maharashtra, asking that he remove the hurdles. But Chavan refused to make an exception for the Trump Organization.
"It would be extremely difficult for a foreign politician to make that call if he were speaking to the son of the president of the United States," Newsweek said.
"Last month, scandal erupted over the development, called Trump Towers Pune, after the state government and local police started looking into discrepancies in the land records suggesting that the land on which the building was constructed may not have been legally obtained by Panchshil," it said.
The Indian company says no rules or laws were broken, but if government officials conclude otherwise, the project's future will be in jeopardy — and create a problem that Indian politicians eager to please an American president might have to resolve, Newsweek observed.
Through the Pune deal, the weekly said the Trump Organization has developed close ties to India's Nationalist Congress Party.
The relevant excerpts from the Newsweek story
In India, the conflicts between the interests of the Trump Organization and American foreign policy are starker. Trump signed an agreement in 2011 with an Indian property developer called Rohan Lifescapes that wanted to construct a 65-story building with his name on it. Leading the talks for Rohan was Kalpesh Mehta, a director of the company who would later become the exclusive representative of Trump’s businesses in India.
However, government regulatory hurdles soon impeded the project. According to a former Trump official who spoke on condition of anonymity, Donald Trump Jr. flew to India to plead with Prithviraj Chavan, chief minister of Maharashtra, a state in Western India, asking that he remove the hurdles, but the powerful politician refused to make an exception for the Trump Organization. It would be extremely difficult for a foreign politician to make that call if he were speaking to the son of the president of the United States.The Mumbai deal with Rohan fell apart in 2013, but a new branding deal (Trump Tower Mumbai) was struck with the Lodha Group, a major Indian developer.
By that time, Trump had an Indian project underway in the city of Pune with a large developer called Panchshil Realty that agreed to pay millions for use of the Trump brand on two 22-floor towers. His new partner, Atul Chordia of Panchshil, appeared awed in public statements about his association with the famous Trump name and feted Trump with a special dinner attended by actors, industrialists, socialites and even a former Miss Universe.
Last month, scandal erupted over the development, called Trump Towers Pune, after the state government and local police started looking into discrepancies in the land records suggesting that the land on which the building was constructed may not have been legally obtained by Panchshil. The Indian company says no rules or laws were broken, but if government officials conclude otherwise, the project’s future will be in jeopardy—and create a problem that Indian politicians eager to please an American president might have to resolve.
Through the Pune deal, the Trump Organization has developed close ties to India’s Nationalist Congress Party—a centrist political organization that stands for democratic secularism and is led by Sharad Pawar, an ally of the Chordia family that owns Panchshil—but that would be of little help in this investigation. Political power in India rests largely with the ruling Hindu nationlist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress, a secular nationalist party that led controlled the central government for nearly 50 years. (However, Trump is very popular with the Hindu Sena, a far-right radical nationalist group that sees his anti-Muslim stance as a sign he would take an aggressive stand against Pakistan. When Trump turned 70 in June, members of that organization threw a birthday party for the man they called “the savior of humanity.”)
A billboard for the luxury residential apartment complex Trump Tower Mumbai tries to lure in buyers by using the Trump name. Trump’s company hopes to invest aggressively in India, and critics wonder if an investigation into one of his major developments there will be dropped if he’s elected.
Even as Trump was on the campaign trail, the Trump Organization struck another deal in India that drew the Republican nominee closer to another political group there. In April, the company inked an agreement with Ireo, a private real estate equity business based in the Indian city of Gurgaon. The company, which has more than 500 investors in the fund that will be paying the Trump Organization, is headed by Madhukar Tulsi, a prominent real estate executive in India. In 2010, Tulsi’s home and the offices of Ireo were raided as part of a sweeping corruption inquiry related to the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi.
According to one Indian business executive, government investigators believed that Ireo had close ties with a prominent Indian politician—Sudhanshu Mittal, then a senior member of the BJP—who was suspected in playing a role in rerouting money earned from Commonwealth Games contracts through tax havens into Ireo’s real estate projects. A senior official with Ireo, Tulsi is a relative of Mittal’s. No charges were ever brought in the case, but the investigation did reveal the close political ties between a prominent Indian political party and a company that is now a Trump partner.
[Correction: The story has been changed to recognize the fact that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is currently in power and has been a powerful force for many years. The story referred to the BJP as the second largest party in India; it is now the largest and the story has been changed to reflect that fact. The story also referred to Sudhanshu Mittal as the former leader of the BJP; he was a senior member and the story has been changed to reflect that fact.]
No doubt, few Indian political groups hoping to establish close ties to a possible future American president could have missed the recent statements from the Trump family that its company wanted to do more deals in their country. As the Republican National Convention was about to get underway in July, the Trump Organization declared it was planning a massive expansion in the South Asian country.
“We are very bullish on India and plan to build a pan-India development footprint for Trump-branded residential and office projects,’’ Donald Trump Jr. told the Hindustan Times. “We have a very aggressive pipeline in the north and east, and look forward to the announcement of several exciting new projects in the months ahead.”That is a chilling example of the many looming conflicts of interest in a Trump presidency.
If he plays tough with India, will the government assume it has to clear the way for projects in that “aggressive pipeline” and kill the investigations involving Trump’s Pune partners? And if Trump takes a hard line with Pakistan, will it be for America’s strategic interests or to appease Indian government officials who might jeopardize his profits from Trump Towers Pune?
Business in India
Trump towers in India
Trump towers in India realty bazaar Nov 10 2016 : The Times of India
Uber Luxe Addresses In NCR, Mumbai, Pune; Watch This Space
US President-elect Donald Trump has a foot print in Mumbai, Delhi and Pune where he has lent his name to upscale commercial and residential projects.
In most of the projects that the organisation develops in joint development or joint venture, it merely lends its brand name and charges a certain percentage of revenue as fees (but does not pay for the development).
The Lodha Group is developing an uber luxe 75-storey residential project, Trump Tower, in Mumbai in collaboration with Trump Organization, which is promoted by Trump, the property tycoon turned-president elect of the United States.
Donald Trump visited Mumbai in August 2014 to inaugurate Trump Tower at Worli. The skyscraper has reached up to the 40th floor and 60% of the apartments have been sold, Lodha said.
Kalpesh Mehta of Tribeca, Trump's India partner, told TOI: “India probably has the highest number of Trump-branded real estate projects outside of North America. Trump has five ongoing deals in India with a gross development value of about $1.5 billion.“
Sales have commenced on two projects with one of those projects already delivered.Mehta said three more projects are likely to be launched in 2017. The Trump Tower, Mumbai, is part of Lodha's 17.5-acre development called `The Park in Worli'.
The apartments are priced between Rs 8 crore and Rs 10 crore. The 23-storey twin skyscrapers in east Pune were the first Trump project in India.
Bollywood's father-son duo Rishi and Ranbir Kapoor have bought two apartments (costing around Rs 15 crore each) there.
In the NCR, Trump Organization has tied up with real estate private equity firm IREO to build an office tower in Gurgaon, on the premier Golf Course Extension Road.
Suing Kotak Mahindra’s Trump Card
Abhinav Garg, Don once sued bank in Delhi HC, trumped, Nov 08 2016 : The Times of India
Got His Way Via Settlement After 3-Yr Legal Battle
[Around 2010] Delhi high court had its tryst with Trump when he filed a suit of trademark infringement and demanded hefty damages.Court records show Trump's suit lingered on for roughly three years and ended in a settlement, robbing the judges a chance to test the merits of Trump's legal case in an Indian court, and deliver a verdict.
Donald J Trump's grouse was against Kotak Mahindra Bank for launching a credit card called Trump, a move that he saw as violation of his trademark. In the suit filed in the Delhi HC, Trump's lawyers demanded that the bank be immediately restrained from issuing credit cards of this name and claimed “statutory and equitable rights over the trademark TRUMP“.
They challenged the bank's decision to sell “Kotak Trump Card' as part of its credit card business. But the HC refused to grant any interim relief to Trump and as the case meandered on, several judges heard the dispute.
Interestingly , after the case meandered on for some time, both Trump and Kotak Mahindra indicated their willingless to give settlement a shot to resolve the disputes between them. The HC then appointed a mediator and sent their dispute to the Delhi high court mediation cell.
“The parties submit that they would be willing to sit across the table and explore the possibility of a settlement by recourse to mediation. In view of the above, it is directed that the parties through their authorised representative shall appear in the Delhi high court mediation and conciliation centre on 25th February , 2011at 4.30 pm,“ one of the HC orders said.
Senior advocate Sudhanshu Batra was then appointed mediator by the HC and he tried to resolve the case. Batra told TOI, “Trump was very categorical that the name TRUMP can't be used at all. But because of absence of his physical presence the case couldn't be taken to its logical conclusion in mediation.“ While he refused to go into the specifics of the negotiations citing confidentiality , Batra hinted Trump's inflexibile stand didn't exactly help matters.
Even though the HC had allowed mediation to be conducted through tele-conferencing, none of the laywers associated with the case remember Trump being present in the video conferences to take up the issue.
With mediation efforts failing to break the impasse the case again reached the judges and it was only in 2013 that talk of out of court settlement gained momentum. Court records show that in August 2013 the HC warned Trump and Kotak Mahindra if they fail to settle by October, the court will frame issues and adjudicate.
It was finally in the fag end of October 2013 that a settlement was agreed upon.Later, the bank renamed the Trump Card and launched a fresh brand.
How Bengaluru won & lost Trump Tower
If it wasn't for Ajmal Kasab and his pack of fidayeens that laid siege to Mumbai on November 26, 2008, a 47-floor Trump Tower would have probably dominated Bengaluru's cityscape, right here from Residency Road. A four-member delegation of senior officials from The Trump Organisation was on its way to Mumbai to meet with a Bengaluru-based real estate marketing consultant when international media started beaming footages of the Mumbai terror attack.
Terrified by the visuals, and by the news that Hotel Oberoi -- where they were booked in during the stay -- was also attacked, the delegation immediately cancelled the plan and returned.
Donald Trump might have adopted the most aggressive stance against terrorism on poll podiums, but his organisation reportedly developed cold feet after 26/11 attack. It was only after a couple of years that it started reconsidering investing in Indian real estate that finally led to the two Trump Projects in Mumbai and Pune.
The Bengaluru project was one of the top priorities of Ivanka Trump, Trump's daughter and executive vice-president of The Trump Organisation, back in 2008, before it was shelved.
"The team had reached London and was about to board a connecting flight to Mumbai when they started receiving news about the attack. Initially, they were not convinced that India could have the skill and scope to have skyscrapers matching the stature of Trump Towers. So, we were to survey some high-rises in Mumbai before heading to Bengaluru. The footage, plus the fact that they were booked in Oberoi hotel on the same dates as the attack, all worked against us. They feared that a Trump tower would be a potential target. It took almost five years for them to enter the Indian market and ironically that too in Mumbai," said Amit Bagaria, founding chairman and CEO, Asipac Projects Pvt Ltd, the real estate expert the delegation was set to meet in 2008.
THE PLAN
Speaking to Bangalore Mirror, Bagaria pointed out that the Trump delegation formally informed them that they were not in a position to go ahead with the project in February 2009. The project was being discussed and conceptualised under the working title Bangalore 47, since it was supposed to be a 47-storeyed serviced apartment tower with a restaurant, a rooftop swimming pool and other amenities, on the Brigade Road- Residency Road interjection opposite the Opera House.
The total cost of the project back in 2008 was estimated to be around Rs 140 crore and the plot size was around one acre and process was underway to relocate some commercial operations on the plot.
"Initially, The Trump Organisation was inclined towards Mumbai, but after multiple meetings with Ivanka Trump, they zeroed in on Bengaluru -- the emerging city in South India. There were two Bengaluru-based employees in The Trump Organisation in New York and they also pitched in for their city.
"The organisation seems to take serious note of the suggestions and recommendations of its employees," Bagaria added.
During the New York meetings with Ivanka, Bagaria and city-based architect Tom Thomas, finalised an initial blueprint of the building. Bagaria also recollected that while Ivanka gave them a tour of some of the floors on Trump HQ, they bumped into Donald Trump while coming out of the elevator with a couple of his employees.
"Ivanka introduced us as the team from India in connection with the Bengaluru project and he gave us a firm handshake and wished us luck," he said.
Contrary to the political views of her father on issues of 'colour', Ivanka had told them that they wanted the building to be in black as it would enhance it as standout structure in the city.
Ambitious like her father, though, she was clear that the Trump Tower should be the highest building in the city and should be the biggest landmark.
"We had to convince her that black will not work in India because it is considered an unlucky colour. The Trumps had specific demand which said that the marketing brochures of their projects to the doormats and bathroom tiles used in the interiors be directly approved by them," said Bagaria.
The organisation generally entrusts the interior decor to Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA), a global giant in the sector involved in shaping the interiors of Mukesh Ambani's residential skyscraper, Antilla, in Mumbai.
In 2011, The Trump Organisation tried to enter into Mumbai real estate with a major project developer in Mumbai by taking over a tenant-occupied project, but it came to a cropper since a 65-year-old lady refused to vacate premises despite a one-and-half-year-long legal battle.
Bagaria said it was only later they successfully signed a deal with Lodha Group for the Trump Tower in Mumbai.
Speaking to Bangalore Mirror, Rajatha Shivkumar, owner of the plot where the Bengaluru Trump Tower would have come up, confirmed that the project was almost finalised before it fell through more than five years ago.
The parties involved in the project also indicated that arrangements were in place for getting all mandatory clearances for the project from the government and civic authorities. Apart from Asipac Projects, another city-based property consultant firm, Synergy Property Development Services, was involved in the shelved Bengaluru 47 Trump Tower project.
