MUMBAI: The crime branch has arrested a Vile Parle–based builder in connection with an alleged land-grabbing fraud involving forged powers of attorney, fake bank accounts and the fraudulent transfer of possession rights over a prime land parcel in Dahisar.The property cell of the crime branch arrested Kalpesh Kanubhai Shah, director of Puja Land and Premises Pvt Ltd, for his alleged role in a conspiracy to acquire possession rights over around 16,288.3 sq metres of land using fabricated documents.Shah was produced before the Esplanade Court, which remanded him to seven days of police custody.The alleged fraud came to light after the Bombay high court, while hearing a civil dispute between Sheikh Construction and Romell Housing, observed that two documents bore the same registration number.A subsequent verification by the joint sub-registrar’s office, Borivali, allegedly confirmed that an irrevocable power of attorney dated May 25, 2010, was forged and did not exist in official records.Police alleged that Shah, along with co-accused Prakash Chandra Dubey, knowingly relied on the forged power of attorney to execute and register transfer deeds, enabling Puja Land and Premises Pvt Ltd to obtain possession rights over the disputed land.The probe has also revealed that fake bank accounts in the names of “Kausar Nooruddin Sheikh” and “Sheikh Construction” were opened at a Mira Road bank branch to route funds linked to the transaction.Investigators claim Shah and Dubey transferred substantial sums into these accounts before the execution of the disputed documents, despite there being no legitimate sale agreement with the original landowner, KN Sheikh.During the investigation, police examined financial transactions involving co-accused Sameera Aslam Khan, who allegedly admitted to receiving Rs 29.47 lakh, including Rs 9.5 lakh in cash through bearer cheques, and paying Rs 4.5 lakh to a person identified as Kiran Ghavnalkar for preparing the forged power of attorney.Investigators further alleged that Sajid Sheikh operated the fake Sheikh Construction account through which funds were withdrawn.Police said the land belonged to KN Sheikh, who was unwilling to sell or transfer the property. They alleged that his divorced wife, Sultana Sheikh, was used to create forged general and irrevocable powers of attorney to falsely show that Sheikh had authorised her to deal with the land.Using these documents, Sultana allegedly executed transfer deeds in favour of Puja Land and Premises Pvt. Ltd., whose directors included Shah and Dubey.The crime branch has already arrested Sultana Sheikh, Sameera Khan, Sajid Sheikh, Prakash Dubey and Kiran Ghavnalkar, and filed a chargesheet against them under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, 2023, and the Registration Act, 1908.Police said a supplementary chargesheet will name Shah, other wanted accused and additional persons identified during the probe.Investigators said Shah’s custodial interrogation is necessary to trace the original forged documents, examine the money trail, identify other beneficiaries of the alleged conspiracy and recover records linked to the disputed land transactions.Police have alleged that Shah was aware the power of attorney was forged but proceeded with the execution and registration of the transfer documents.

Mumbai remains India’s least affordable housing market, with homebuyers dedicating 69% of income to loan repayments, despite monetary easing (AI-generated image used for representational purposes)

MUMBAI: Even after a cumulative 125 basis points of monetary easing and lower home loan rates, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has retained its position as India’s least affordable residential market, with a typical homebuyer required to spend 69% of household income on monthly loan repayments, according to Knight Frank India’s latest Affordability Index.The report shows that MMR remains well above the 50% affordability benchmark, the level beyond which banks are generally reluctant to underwrite housing loans. Among the country’s eight major residential markets, only MMR and the National Capital Region (NCR) continue to breach this threshold, while the remaining six cities remain within affordable limits.The findings highlight that, for Mumbai’s homebuyers, falling borrowing costs have not been enough to offset the impact of high property prices. Knight Frank said affordability gains achieved through lower interest rates have largely been neutralised by sustained price appreciation in the country’s costliest housing market.The index measures the proportion of a household’s monthly income required to pay equated monthly instalments (EMIs) on an average home. For H1 2026, MMR’s affordability ratio stood unchanged at 69%, while NCR worsened slightly to 67% from 66% in 2025.In contrast, Ahmedabad emerged as the country’s most affordable housing market, with an EMI-to-income ratio of 23%, followed by Kolkata (25%), Pune (28%) and Chennai (29%). Bengaluru stood at 35%, while Hyderabad recorded 41%, all comfortably within the affordability threshold.The report notes that affordability across India’s residential markets remains broadly supportive because of the cumulative benefit of lower borrowing costs following the Reserve Bank of India’s 125-basis-point rate cuts before the current pause in the easing cycle.However, rising residential prices have moderated those gains in several markets.Knight Frank’s affordability data also shows how sharply MMR differs from other cities. While Pune’s affordability improved from 57% in 2016 to 28% in H1 2026, and Chennai’s fell from 55% to 29% over the same period, Mumbai’s ratio has remained stubbornly high despite improving from 77% in 2016.Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director, Knight Frank India, said housing affordability continues to be a key driver of residential demand.While lower interest rates have supported buyers, rising property prices have moderated affordability gains. He said healthy employment, stable incomes and supportive financing conditions continue to underpin demand, but sustained income growth would be crucial for improving affordability over the long term.The report said the RBI’s decision to keep the policy repo rate unchanged at 5.25% in its February and June 2026 monetary policy meetings indicates that rate stability is likely in the near term. Although geopolitical uncertainties and inflation risks remain, the cumulative impact of earlier rate cuts is expected to continue supporting housing demand across most major cities.

MUMBAI: Even as Mumbai braces for another season of record electricity consumption, one of the city’s biggest power security upgrades has quietly gone operational—one that experts say could fundamentally reduce the risk of transmission bottlenecks rather than simply add more electricity.While public attention has largely focused on increasing power generation, the bigger challenge for Mumbai is now moving electricity into the city. Industry executives say the Mumbai Urja Marg Ltd (MUML) transmission project has increased Mumbai’s ability to import over 2,000 MW of electricity—equivalent to nearly half of the city’s peak requirement—by creating a new high-capacity transmission corridor linking the metropolis to the national grid.The development assumes significance because Mumbai’s own power generation capacity has remained limited, making the city increasingly dependent on importing electricity from outside Maharashtra as demand rises due to rapid urbanisation, metro rail expansion, electric vehicles, airports and data centres.A less-reported angle is that the project does not merely add transmission lines but revives critical infrastructure that had remained underutilised for more than a decade. The project operationalised the 400/220-kV Navi Mumbai GIS substation, which had remained dormant since 2012, by integrating it with the Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS). This creates an additional entry point for electricity into Mumbai while easing pressure on heavily loaded substations such as Kalwa and Kharghar.Energy experts say this improves operational flexibility for grid managers during periods of exceptionally high demand or when maintenance shuts down parts of the network. The project also highlights how Mumbai’s electricity planning is shifting from creating generation assets to strengthening transmission infrastructure.“India’s urban power challenge is increasingly becoming one of transmission readiness rather than generation capacity. Cities need resilient transmission corridors capable of importing large volumes of electricity whenever required,” said Pratik Agarwal, Chairman of Resonia Ltd.The approximately 100-km corridor traverses some of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region’s most difficult terrain, including dense urban settlements, highways, railway lines, metro corridors, forests and rocky hills across Thane, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Ambernath, Panvel and Navi Mumbai.Another relatively unexplored aspect of the project is the engineering approach adopted to minimise disruption in congested Mumbai neighbourhoods. Instead of conventional lattice towers requiring larger footprints, developers deployed ultra-narrow-base towers and monopoles that could be erected within narrow road margins. In forested stretches around Haji Malang and Raigad, helicopter-assisted stringing was used to transport equipment and lay conductors, reducing the need for heavy machinery and limiting ecological disturbance.Industry officials said the project also broke a nearly 12-year execution deadlock after overcoming complex right-of-way issues involving multiple government agencies and local stakeholders.Beyond improving reliability, the strengthened transmission network is expected to facilitate larger inflows of renewable energy generated in Gujarat, Rajasthan and other western states through the national transmission grid. That could gradually reduce dependence on local fossil-fuel-based generation while supporting Mumbai’s growing electricity demand.The project has been developed under the tariff-based competitive bidding framework on a Build-Own-Operate-Maintain model with an estimated investment of about USD 300-400 million.Power planners say such transmission investments are becoming increasingly important as Mumbai prepares for new electricity-intensive infrastructure, including the Navi Mumbai International Airport, expanding Metro corridors, high-speed rail connectivity and large data centres.

Mumbai’s urbanites are embracing furniture revival, transforming old pieces into cherished heirlooms. Professionals from diverse fields are flocking to workshops, driven by emotional connections to ancestral furniture and a desire for sustainable self-expression. This trend goes beyond mere restoration, allowing individuals to personalize new items, making them uniquely their own. Even celebrities are joining in, highlighting the growing cultural significance of upcycling.

In a city that never stops moving, where the new perpetually elbows out the old, an unlikely counter-current is gathering momentum. From Tardeo to Thane, from Ghatkopar to Goregaon, Mumbaikars are pausing, to look more carefully at the furniture they already own, at the pieces gathering dust in corners or teetering on the edge of being discarded. And increasingly, they are choosing to revive them.Furniture upcycling, refurbishing, and recycling, once the domain of hobbyists and the thrifty, has gone decidedly mainstream in Mumbai. Day-long workshops are filling up weeks in advance. Instructors report waiting lists. And the participants are not who you might expect: they are lawyers, biotech researchers, finance professionals, actors, and designers, busy, urban, aspirational Mumbaikars who are making a deliberate choice to slow down and reimagine what they already have.

MORE THAN A TREND: THE EMOTIONAL PULL OF OLD WOODAsk anyone who has attended a furniture upcycling workshop why they came, and you will almost always get an answer that goes beyond aesthetics or economics. Somewhere in the story is a piece of furniture with a history – a grandmother’s trunk, a grandfather’s writing desk, a mother-in-law’s steel almirah – and a reluctance to let it go.Mayushri Dalal, who works with a finance company in Lower Parel and commutes from Thane, puts it plainly. “I have a very old cupboard that has been passed on for generations. My grandmother’s grandmother owned it. And I want to hold on to this piece; the quality of wood is really great, despite it being more than 100 years old. I wanted to upcycle it, recreate a new look with it. I wanted to pass it on to my next generation.” For Mayushri, workshops are not just about learning a craft. They are about gaining the confidence and the knowledge to be a responsible custodian of something irreplaceable. “At workshops like these, you get to know the process, the step-by-step details of how to go about it,” she says.This emotional dimension is something that furniture makeover artist and educator, Aashna Monga, encounters regularly. Ashana, who holds a PhD in biotechnology and is one of the city’s advocates for furniture revival says, “I have people who come in with requests to restore older furniture that they have an emotional connection to, and breathe new life into old cupboards, chairs, trunks and vintage wooden pieces instead of discarding them.” Ashna herself has lived that experience. “My mother-in-law had a 53-year-old almirah, the common steel ones that were part of every home in those days. I refurbished that almirah and gave her a surprise. She loved it.” Ashna’s passion for sustainability deepened while working on her doctoral research. “People today are eco-conscious and, in their own way, want to do something about it. The fact is that there is an increasing number of residents who are turning to furniture revival. I have seen an increase in demand for such workshops.”

THE WORKSHOP BOOM: LEARNING, BONDING, DESTRESSINGThe combination of skill-building, creativity, and community of these workshops is what keeps drawing people to these workshops in growing numbers. Ananya Gada from Ghatkopar is unequivocal about what they offer. “I love this form of painting. This is a passion that I have had for long. I feel DIY repainting sessions where you meet other people doing similar art works, feels very destressing and reassuring.”For Nanita Pant from Goregaon, it took a leap of faith just to walk through the door. “I don’t have an artistic bone in my body, so I assumed that a workshop about painting would not work for me,” she admits. “But after I came here, I realised this was going well. The instructors here are really helpful and encouraging.” That experience of discovering an unexpected capability, is part of what instructors like Mukesh Mandal work to create. “The easy-to-follow instructions bring out the creativity of participants,” he says. “The best thing about painting furniture is that mistakes are not prominent at all, and it always looks great when done.”NOT JUST RESTORATION: THE ART OF PERSONALISATIONWhile the romance of heritage furniture draws many to upcycling, not everyone arrives with a century-old heirloom in tow. For a growing segment of participants, the goal is something different: making the new feel uniquely theirs.Riya Kamwani from Mahim, who makes creative gift hampers and has a background in interior design, represents a refreshing perspective. “I am not someone who only wants to upcycle. In fact, I am someone who loves to buy new furniture and then personalise it and make it my own. Whatever furniture you buy from stores is usually common, but by painting it using various techniques that I have learnt at this workshop, I can make it unique. I want to revamp new furniture.” Kamwani’s approach speaks to a broader truth about why this movement has found such fertile ground in Mumbai: it is not about deprivation or making do with less. It is about self-expression, not just buying something, but transforming it into a reflection of who you are.Trisha Parikh, a freelance fashion designer from Tardeo, echoes this spirit. “This is my passion. While I don’t want to pursue it as a career, I am just doing it for my own home. I have upcycled many pieces and have converted stuff into usable furniture and home decor items.” And then there is Preeti Bhalerao, a lawyer from Wadala, who brings the same purposeful energy to the workshop that she brings to the courtroom. “I love art,” she says, “and I am looking forward to recreating my dining table using different techniques to upcycle furniture.“WHEN CELEBRITIES PULL UP A CHAIRPerhaps one of the most telling signs that furniture upcycling has arrived culturally is who else is turning up at these workshops. Gauri Pradhan Tejwani, the well-known television actress, recently spent a full day at a furniture painting workshop, and says she has no regrets. “I have never really had the time to do this. Today I finally took time off from work, especially for this day-long workshop to learn about furniture painting. I just couldn’t resist.” For Gauri, the workshop was also a natural extension of a long creative life. “For the last two decades I have been painting on porcelain and I always look for workshops like these. I will try to use all the techniques that I learnt at this workshop.”

Mumbai: Lakhs of women toiling in the agriculture sector in the state are seen as labourers and not farmers because the land on which they work is not in their name, but in the name of male relatives. On Thursday, the state assembly passed Maharashtra Women Farmers Empowerment Bill 2026, aimed at recognising women who are engaged in agriculture and allied activities as farmers irrespective of whether they own land.The Bill seeks to correct the historic exclusion of women farmers from credit welfare schemes which are available to land-owning farmers. “The requirement of land ownership as a pre-condition for benefits had rendered these inaccessible to many women farmers since only a small percentage own land,” the Bill states. The Bill provides for a Woman Farmer Certificate which will give them access to entitlements, benefits, subsidies, services, loans and markets. “This is the first such Bill in the country. Other states will soon follow our example,” said state agriculture minister Dattatreya Bharne. The Bill is the biggest initiative for women in the state after the Ladki Bahin scheme introduced in 2024.While the Bill was passed unanimously, several members of the Opposition said women farmers could not be empowered in reality until the state mandated that land should be in their names.“The govt is fooling women. It should pass a Bill mandating that 50% of farm land should be in the name of women,” said NCP SP leader Jayant Patil. However, Bharne said, “The aim of the Bill is not ownership but to give women the respect and identity as farmers. And allow them access to multiple facilities,” said Bharne.The Bill expands the scope of agriculture to include animal husbandry, poultry, bee-keeping, fishing, aquaculture, floriculture, horticulture, dairy farming and composting. Hence women working in these areas can apply for the farmer certificate.A woman farmer, according to the Bill, is any resident of Maharashtra who is involved in agriculture and includes landless labourers, operational holders and lessee cultivators. They have to be engaged in agriculture in the state for at least one season per year.Any woman who is over 18 years residing in the area of a village panchayat or nagar panchayat who is a farmer, is eligible to apply for the Woman Farmer Certificate.The term land includes trees and crop land, reservoirs or canals on the land for the purpose of farming and sites of farm buildings.The govt has proposed the creation of a women farmer database to maintain official records of women involved in agriculture. The legislation also proposes setting up a Maharashtra State Fund for Women Farmers to provide financial support and promote schemes focused on women engaged in agriculture.“The govt has also proposed the establishment of a Women Farmers Empowerment cell, Women Farmers Empowerment Council and a State Monitoring Committee. These bodies will oversee implementation of policies, coordinate with various departments and monitor the progress of programmes introduced for women farmers,” states the Bill.The Opposition said the state had introduced the Bill because its Ladki Bahin scheme had run out of steam. “The govt has dropped 80 lakh women from the Ladki Bahin scheme and it is not giving them gains any more. That’s why it has introduced this Bill,” said NCP SP’s Jayant Patil.