A luxury retirement village of NRI Patels doubles up as tax heaven, writes Manish Macwan
It’s a village unlike any other in India. Spread over an area of roughly five sq km its well-planned roads and prosperous houses speak of luxury and lifestyle no other rural hamlet can boast of. It’s far from any of the big metro cities. Yet, it has more banks than local grocery shops. And more stock brokers than a Delhi or Mumbai urban village can dream of.
In the last few years its population has risen from 15,000 to 25,000 yet the village remains what it is. But there is no shortage of necessary infrastructure and facilities. Everything is organized and in order. Not a single building is more than three stories high. Not a single shop or house is haphazardly constructed. Electricity and water is available round the clock. There is a modern English school and a ground that can accommodate the entire village on special occasions. A health centre and a grand temple. In short, its possible to mistake the place for a developed city block not a village.
Welcome to Madhapar Nava Vaas – situated on Bhujiyo Dungar (Bhujiyo hill) roughly 4 km off the Bhuj-Anjar road – an incomparable document of Leva Patel’s industriousness and economic success. The Leva Patels trace their origin to Saurashtra claiming that they migrated to Kutch some four hundred years ago. In the 1800s the oceanic trade provided opportunities in East Africa. Some of them went there as merchants, others as masons and carpenters or indentured labour to lay railway lines and work on plantations.
With passage of time a sizeable community of Patels settled in Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania), Somalia, Uganda, Congo and Rwanda. In the 1960s they moved again, taking their businesses to United Kingdom, Arab Emirates and the US.
Many of them kept close contact with their extended families and ancestral villages. Like Madhapar. But it was only in the early 1990s that Leva Patels took more active interest in ancestral land and started settling in what is now known as Madhapar Nava Vyas (lit., New Settlement) on the outskirts of the older village. In many ways it’s a ‘NRI retirement village’ – with 60 per cent of its populace above the age of 50.
There is an old age home here. It’s called ‘Apnu Ghar’ (Our Home) and includes a club. Spread over half-an acre it houses 17 inmates – all Leva Patel NRIs. These are the people that already own houses in the village but left to fend for themselves by children living in other lands, have chosen to live together as a community. Every evening they gather at the Sardar Patel Play Ground – to play games, walk or just swap stories with anyone wishing to listen.
Madhapar Nava Vaas has 17 banks. Nearly all regional, private and national banks have a branch here. Some years back, before the global economic recession hit the Patel businesses, it boasted of the largest amount of cash deposited by a village. In 2005 the banks reported that nearly 2,000 crore had been deposited by the NRIs in its coffers.
It is said that per capital income is not less than 13 lakh per annum. Says Bhavesh Parekh owner of a jewellery shop, “There must be a minimum of Rs 20 lakh per head in the banks.” Banks here face a unique situation while deposits are high there is not much that it lends. Says a manager of a PSU bank, “Last year we received Rs. 77 crore as deposit but we succeeded disbursing only Rs. 5 crore as loan.” It would look as if Patels prefer to put their earnings in Indian banks.
There is not a single day that a deposit is made in one bank or another. It is estimated that around Rs 10-15 crore is deposited as FDs annually by Patels that continue to reside in London, East Africa, Canada or the Middle East. “People are in the habit of saving here,” offers Parekh helpfully.
They spend& some of this money on building facilities in the village. Property prices are high and land not that easy to come by. A realty agent, on condition of anonymity says, “The current rate of land is around Rs. 35,000 per square metre and continues to rise.’’
A former officer with Axis bank, who now runs an electronics retail shop Vijay Rabadiya explains, “The NRIs here are not only prosperous but have a strong spending power. Most of them are interested in branded items.”
There is no shortage of high-end flat-screen TVs, washing machines or refrigerators in this village, since every house has an NRI member.
In 1990 when Joravarsinh Jadeja was elected for the first time for the post of Sarpanch (village head), the Panchayat office was a mud house. Six years down the line, the Panchayat office wears a modern look. It has comfortable AC rooms to sit in and state-of-the-art administrative machinery including computers.
Jadeja served as a supervisor at the Al Naser Arabian company in Oman before shifting back home. He says, “In our village everybody is like me. We have returned to our native land to serve.”
Interestingly, the 2001 earthquake that devastated nearby Bhuj did not affect Madhapur adversely. But the government nonetheless deposited Rs 2,000 crore for reconstruction with the Madhapar Postal Department. “No one has claimed it till date,” says Jadeja.
Could there be a more affluent village in India? We doubt.
Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Planman Technologies is Leaders in educational publishing solutions
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM
IIPM Mumbai Campus
IIPM - Admission Procedure
It’s a village unlike any other in India. Spread over an area of roughly five sq km its well-planned roads and prosperous houses speak of luxury and lifestyle no other rural hamlet can boast of. It’s far from any of the big metro cities. Yet, it has more banks than local grocery shops. And more stock brokers than a Delhi or Mumbai urban village can dream of.
In the last few years its population has risen from 15,000 to 25,000 yet the village remains what it is. But there is no shortage of necessary infrastructure and facilities. Everything is organized and in order. Not a single building is more than three stories high. Not a single shop or house is haphazardly constructed. Electricity and water is available round the clock. There is a modern English school and a ground that can accommodate the entire village on special occasions. A health centre and a grand temple. In short, its possible to mistake the place for a developed city block not a village.
Welcome to Madhapar Nava Vaas – situated on Bhujiyo Dungar (Bhujiyo hill) roughly 4 km off the Bhuj-Anjar road – an incomparable document of Leva Patel’s industriousness and economic success. The Leva Patels trace their origin to Saurashtra claiming that they migrated to Kutch some four hundred years ago. In the 1800s the oceanic trade provided opportunities in East Africa. Some of them went there as merchants, others as masons and carpenters or indentured labour to lay railway lines and work on plantations.
With passage of time a sizeable community of Patels settled in Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania), Somalia, Uganda, Congo and Rwanda. In the 1960s they moved again, taking their businesses to United Kingdom, Arab Emirates and the US.
Many of them kept close contact with their extended families and ancestral villages. Like Madhapar. But it was only in the early 1990s that Leva Patels took more active interest in ancestral land and started settling in what is now known as Madhapar Nava Vyas (lit., New Settlement) on the outskirts of the older village. In many ways it’s a ‘NRI retirement village’ – with 60 per cent of its populace above the age of 50.
There is an old age home here. It’s called ‘Apnu Ghar’ (Our Home) and includes a club. Spread over half-an acre it houses 17 inmates – all Leva Patel NRIs. These are the people that already own houses in the village but left to fend for themselves by children living in other lands, have chosen to live together as a community. Every evening they gather at the Sardar Patel Play Ground – to play games, walk or just swap stories with anyone wishing to listen.
Madhapar Nava Vaas has 17 banks. Nearly all regional, private and national banks have a branch here. Some years back, before the global economic recession hit the Patel businesses, it boasted of the largest amount of cash deposited by a village. In 2005 the banks reported that nearly 2,000 crore had been deposited by the NRIs in its coffers.
It is said that per capital income is not less than 13 lakh per annum. Says Bhavesh Parekh owner of a jewellery shop, “There must be a minimum of Rs 20 lakh per head in the banks.” Banks here face a unique situation while deposits are high there is not much that it lends. Says a manager of a PSU bank, “Last year we received Rs. 77 crore as deposit but we succeeded disbursing only Rs. 5 crore as loan.” It would look as if Patels prefer to put their earnings in Indian banks.
There is not a single day that a deposit is made in one bank or another. It is estimated that around Rs 10-15 crore is deposited as FDs annually by Patels that continue to reside in London, East Africa, Canada or the Middle East. “People are in the habit of saving here,” offers Parekh helpfully.
They spend& some of this money on building facilities in the village. Property prices are high and land not that easy to come by. A realty agent, on condition of anonymity says, “The current rate of land is around Rs. 35,000 per square metre and continues to rise.’’
A former officer with Axis bank, who now runs an electronics retail shop Vijay Rabadiya explains, “The NRIs here are not only prosperous but have a strong spending power. Most of them are interested in branded items.”
There is no shortage of high-end flat-screen TVs, washing machines or refrigerators in this village, since every house has an NRI member.
In 1990 when Joravarsinh Jadeja was elected for the first time for the post of Sarpanch (village head), the Panchayat office was a mud house. Six years down the line, the Panchayat office wears a modern look. It has comfortable AC rooms to sit in and state-of-the-art administrative machinery including computers.
Jadeja served as a supervisor at the Al Naser Arabian company in Oman before shifting back home. He says, “In our village everybody is like me. We have returned to our native land to serve.”
Interestingly, the 2001 earthquake that devastated nearby Bhuj did not affect Madhapur adversely. But the government nonetheless deposited Rs 2,000 crore for reconstruction with the Madhapar Postal Department. “No one has claimed it till date,” says Jadeja.
Could there be a more affluent village in India? We doubt.
Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Planman Technologies is Leaders in educational publishing solutions
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM
IIPM Mumbai Campus
IIPM - Admission Procedure
