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At 95, standing erect with a military mien to his over six-feet-tall frame, DLF Chairman emeritus Kushal Pal Singh packs a lot in a day. He says he never gets tired. The man who played a big part in transforming Gurugram (or Gurgaon) from a rustic suburb into a gleaming business capital celebrated his birthday earlier this month by launching his life-lessons filled book, Why the Heck Not?, co-authored with Aparna Jain.
“You get tired only when you don’t have a vision, or passion, and you are not enjoying what you are doing,” he says. Singh, whose luxurious enclaves, especially DLF Phase 5 in Gurugram, have allowed pockets of India to live as well as any developed economy, is fiercely optimistic about India’s progress to become the third largest economy in the world. “Whatever the forecasts people are making, that it will take five or six years, my gut feeling is we’ll beat the forecasts,” he says, asserting that entrepreneurs in India will take the country forward.
“The tragedy is that I’m 95. I wish I was younger, I would have participated. It is a fascinating time for India,” he says.
We are meeting the real estate doyen at his elegantly appointed “air-purified” home in Lutyens Delhi, where a smart dashboard shows indoor AQI of 13 versus the 407 outdoors. While his book packs juicy anecdotes from his life and has his “blueprints for success”, we can’t resist asking a few “what if” questions.
In the book, Singh has talked about how, in his formative years, England held him captive — the parties, the tennis, the polo and a girlfriend, and it was a hard decision for him to give up his aeronautical engineering studies to join the Indian Army as a cavalry officer.
What would your life have been if you had not returned from England, we ask.
“I would have been dead by 70, leading the indolent life of the aristocratic class,” he retorts. What prompted him to return to India, he says, is that he weighed the options and allowed his head to rule over his heart.
“In my life, it has always been head over heart. When you are at a crossroads, the heart tells you differently, the head tells you differently. If you follow your head, you will succeed. With emotions, you cannot succeed. The ability to separate head from heart, and remove biases, is key.”
Real turnaround
The story of how Singh took over his father-in-law’s struggling firm, turned it around and transformed urban real estate infrastructure is legendary. As is the way he played a part in GE coming in and the BPO boom that ensued. But is he satisfied with the Gurugram he has created?
“Firstly, I pioneered and coined the term ‘knowledge city’. There were only industrial cities or residential cities... I worked very hard with the government. I made them understand that a knowledge city would attract people who are very well-educated, entrepreneurial and talented, and who will grow businesses, hire labour and people.”
“Today, Gurgaon is already contributing 60-70 per cent of the tax revenues of Haryana state. Most of the Fortune 500 companies are there. Today, would you believe that the per capita medical facility for Indian cities is the highest in Gurgaone? There were no medical facilities earlier. Medanta came with my intervention. Today, the best medical beds, schools, malls, offices, golf courses and restaurants are in Gurgaon. It has become the capital for a rich lifestyle,” he stresses.
It’s called the Millennial City for that reason, we tell him.
“Well, that is used by the media frankly, but for me it is Knowledge City. Am I fully satisfied with Gurgaon? No. If you go inside Phase Five in DLF, it is an oasis of prosperity, good roads, green spaces, beautiful buildings. I wanted the same everywhere in Gurgaon. But developing it became two-steps forward, one step back. What is lacking is the supporting infrastructure, which unfortunately can only be provided by the government.”
Ask Singh about DLF’s recent luxury developments (Camellias, Dahlias), which sold out within days, and he says, “We are amazed ourselves because our dealers never take cash. So the person is bringing a ₹50 crore cheque, which means this is money people are making legitimately. So growth is taking place in the country but one has to ensure that the purchasing power likewise increases for the middle and lower income people and they can afford good homes.”
Surprisingly, Singh bats for demonetisation, calling it a good move. Ask him why, and he says that it led to payments going digital and more tax compliance.
Passing the baton
In 2017, Singh divided his assets among his three children, ensuring succession planning. In 2020, his son Rajiv became Chairman. Is he happy with the way the company is doing under Rajiv?
“He has improved it. I am frankly very proud of Rajiv,” says Singh. More so, he says, because his son has progressive ideas. He shares an incident. Six or seven years ago, when Singh was in England, a building caught fire there and investigations revealed it was due to the cladding material on the building’s façade. Promptly England changed the regulation for it. Singh describes how, although there were no regulatory changes in India, Rajiv took it upon himself to get all the cladding material changed. “His approach is very forward-looking,” says Singh.
Throughout the book, from the various stories recounted, three facets of Singh stand out — his patience to deal with bureaucracy, archaic regulations and stubborn tenants; a strong moral and ethical fibre; and his candour, fearlessly recounting incidents involving politicians.
“I speak up because I am clean,” asserts Singh.
Finally, we cannot resist asking why Singh did not get into politics even though he had the chance. “I was asked several times and could have been elected unopposed,” agrees Singh but says he followed his father-in-law’s advice not to mix business with politics but always have good political friends.
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