11/13/2026 / The House of Shubhashish
When people talk about a country’s progress, they usually point to big numbers such as economic growth or the number of new highways and buildings coming up. For most families, however, progress is something they experience in their everyday lives. It is reflected in the kind of home they live in and the neighbourhood where their children grow up. As these improve, families also feel more confident about planning for their future.
This raises an important question about what it really takes to build a better India.
Mr. J. K. Jajoo, Founder and Chairman of Sā - The House of Shubhashish, a part of JK Jajoo Venturs, explores this question in a special edition of Forbes India titled “Building a Stronger India: How Real Estate Can Support the Country’s Next Growth Chapter.” In the piece, he looks at the responsibility that comes with being part of an industry that is helping to shape the country’s future.
Drawing on more than four decades in business, Mr. Jajoo believes that commercial success alone is not enough. In his view, businesses should grow along with the country and stay mindful of the responsibilities that come with that growth.
His perspective calls for a more thoughtful conversation about development. Building a better India is not only about how much we build. It also depends on whether quality housing reaches more people and whether projects are planned with care. Just as importantly, it means honouring the trust that families place in a developer when they choose to buy a home.
A city may be smaller in size, but that does not make the ambitions of the people who live there any smaller. This idea sits at the heart of Mr. Jajoo’s case for taking quality development beyond the big metropolitan markets. He makes the point clearly in the feature.
“A customer in an emerging city does not aspire to a lower standard of housing simply because the city is smaller.”
His observation questions a common way of looking at Indian real estate. Developers often group cities by their size or by how mature their property markets are, and that can be useful for business planning. The problem begins when such labels become a reason to offer people in those cities a lower standard of living.
Well-designed homes and reliable security should not be privileges reserved for a few metropolitan addresses. Families in other cities deserve usable open spaces and good service just as much, and responsible developers should aim to provide them wherever they build.
The numbers suggest that this conversation is well timed. According to Crisil Intelligence’s 2026 Housing Hotspots analysis, residential demand across ten selected Tier-II cities, including Jaipur and Indore, grew at a compound annual rate of 14% between FY2021 and FY2026. The report also pointed to a growing preference for larger and premium homes, although it noted that affordability and market conditions vary from one city to another.
Rising demand on its own, however, does not guarantee better cities. The real task is to meet that demand with better planning instead of simply adding more homes.
This is why Mr. Jajoo stresses the need to understand each city on its own terms. In his view, good development comes from combining local knowledge with higher standards in how projects are planned and built, and in how customers are looked after once they move in.
Jaipur does not need to become another Mumbai, and Indore does not need to copy Bengaluru. A well-planned community should suit the climate of the place where it is built and the way people there like to live.
The goal, then, is to make quality something people can expect in every city while allowing each place to keep its own character.
Taking quality to more cities also brings up a practical concern. As a company’s operations grow larger and more complex, it has to find ways of keeping its standards from slipping.
Personal attention still matters a great deal. As a business grows, however, its teams also need good systems that help them work together and spot problems early, so that decisions are based on accurate information.
In the Forbes India feature, Mr. Jajoo explains how technology can bring greater visibility and discipline to the way a company works. He refers to enterprise platforms and customer relationship systems along with real-time reporting, and names SAP and Salesforce as two systems that support a more connected way of working at Sā - The House of Shubhashish.
“For me, technology does not replace relationships or judgement. It strengthens them,” Mr. Jajoo said.
Mr. Jajoo believes sustainability should be at the core of development. Instead of looking at projects only over the next 10 or 15 years, he wants to build communities that stay relevant and efficient for generations, possibly over a span of 100 to 200 years.
Also Read: Can Your Home Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Without Changing Your Lifestyle?
A goal like this changes the questions developers ask at the planning stage. It is no longer enough to think about how a project will look when it is completed. Developers also have to consider how efficiently it will use resources over the years and whether it will still work well for residents as their needs change.
Technology can help a company manage complexity, and long-term planning can guide how it uses resources. Neither of them, however, can replace trust, which matters more than both.
Mr. Jajoo traces this belief back to 1983, when he first started out as an entrepreneur. In the feature, he recalls the principle that guided him in those early years.
“we value relationships, forever.”
In real estate, this belief comes with a special responsibility. Homebuyers often put years of savings into a home and place their trust in a developer long before they can see the finished product. Mr. Jajoo links this responsibility to construction quality and timely delivery, as well as to transparency and good service.
For a developer, possession marks a milestone in the project. For a family, it is the start of everyday life in their new home. This is when they begin using the facilities regularly and find out whether the promises made at the time of purchase hold true in daily living. A good relationship with customers should therefore continue well after the keys have been handed over.
Trust also grows through small, everyday interactions. A clear answer to a question or an honest explanation of what to expect may seem minor compared with the scale of a large development. Yet these are the moments when people decide whether a company really means what it says.
Seen this way, a legacy is measured less by the number of projects linked to a name and more by the strength of the relationships it keeps over the years.
This gives deeper meaning to the philosophy of Sā - The House of Shubhashish, “Every Legacy Has An Address.” An address becomes meaningful over time because of the lives people build there and the trust they place in the company that created it. Any business can talk about its ambitions, but its legacy depends on how it conducts itself year after year.
In the Forbes India feature, Mr. Jajoo’s answer to what it takes to build a better India comes down to a set of responsibilities that need to work together. Quality has to reach beyond the metros, and technology has to be used with a clear purpose. Developers also need to plan with future generations in mind and treat the trust of their customers as a lasting obligation.
When the industry takes these responsibilities seriously, the benefits go well beyond individual projects. Cities grow in a more planned way, and families get homes that continue to serve them well for many years after they move in.
To learn more about Mr. Jajoo’s views on how real estate can support India’s growth, read the full feature on Forbes India’s special edition (Oct, 2026).
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