IIM-A to 'help conserve' agricultural land for corporates, launches agri land price index

By Jag Jivan*
In a surprise move, the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has launched what it calls “India’s first ever Agri Land Price Index” in collaboration with SfarmsIndia in order to help conserve agricultural land into real estate. To be hosted by the Misra Centre for Financial Markets and Economy at IIM-A, India’s premier global management institute hopes to provide ‘quality controlled’ data of prices of agricultural land across the country to corporates.
SFarmsIndia is an agri-land discovery platform, seeking to connect prospective buyers and sellers, claiming to be “one of the very few platforms in India focusing exclusively on agricultural land listings.” It is said to contain 25,000 registered buyers and sellers, offering more than 7,000 land listings.
IIM-A, which formally launched its Agri Land Price Index at the institute, suggests, one main reason it collaborated with SFarmsIndia is, it has been “successful in eliminating middlemen, bringing in price transparency and expanding the prospect set for the rural sellers. With 15% month-on-month growth in listings, with presence in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh, SFarmsIndia is expanding to more states and “product offerings” (APCs & Food Park Lands, Small Farms, etc).
Called IIMA-SFarmsIndia Agri Land Price Index (ISALPI), says an IIM-A source, it will record and present ‘quality controlled’ data of prices of agricultural land across the country. “This index is particularly important in terms of benchmarking land prices in rural and semi-urban areas. In such a case, the index will serve as a reliable source that will signal potential conversion of agricultural land into real estate”, the source says.
Stating that to develop an index for land parcels is a complex task because of visible price differences in different listings caused by a slew of factors including the market wide supply-demand factors, IIM-A says, “The Misra Centre for Financial Markets and Economy at IIMA, under which this index is being launched, will be hosting this index on its official website.”

The index would benefit not just the real estate developers but also policy makers, local governments, environmentalists, investors and financiers

Announcing the decision at the formal meet, Prof Errol D’Souza, director, IIMA, said, one reason why the top business institute decided to go in for indexing land pricing is, “With just over 200 million hectares, India houses just 2% of the world’s cropped land; but feeds over 15% of the world’s population.” However, recently, he added, there is a “surge in entrepreneurial interest in agri land and allied professions... We believe it is the right time to launch such an index for India.”
The IIM-A source claimed, the index would benefit not just the real estate developers but other stakeholders also, including policy makers, local governments, environmentalists, investors and financiers. "For instance, the index can be used by local governments to compensate the people who lose land for highway expansion.”
Project lead and associate professor of Real Estate Finance at IIMA, Dr Prashant Das, said, “Investors could use this information to assess the historical risk and return in the past and predict these metrics for the future to decide on their investment positions. Fund managers and producers could use this information to broadly benchmark their own performance. Financiers and insurers could use this information to assess the risk in the company related to the asset class reflected in the index.”

---

*Freelance writer

Comments

Beyond India-China borders: Economic links expand, political gaps persist

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* Despite growing trade between India and China, a persistent trust deficit continues to shape their bilateral relationship. Expanding economic engagement has not fully resolved political differences, many of which stem from historical legacies as well as contemporary geopolitical concerns. Border disputes—often traced to colonial-era arrangements—remain a significant obstacle to deeper cooperation, while differing strategic alignments in global affairs add further complexity.

Gujarat cadre to HDFC: When bureaucratic style hits corporate walls

By Rajiv Shah I was a little amused by the abrupt March 17, 2026 resignation of Atanu Chakraborty —a Gujarat cadre IAS officer of the 1985 batch who retired from the government in 2020—as chairman of HDFC Bank . Much of what may have led to his decision to quit this ostensibly high post—actually a non-executive, part-time role—is by now well known. I followed most of it online with considerable interest, partly because I had interacted with him umpteen times during my stint as The Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar from 1997 to 2012.

Operation Epic Fury: Making America great at the world’s expense?

By N.S. Venkataraman* The decades-long enmity between Iran and Israel is well-documented, but historically, their direct confrontations have been brief, constrained by the logistical and economic limitations of sustained warfare. The current conflict in the Middle East, however, marks a radical and dangerous departure from this pattern.

India has been getting its economic growth wrong for two decades, say top economists

By Jag Jivan* India's official GDP figures have misrepresented the trajectory of the world's fifth-largest economy for the better part of two decades, according to a major new working paper published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). It finds that India overstated annual growth by up to two percentage points after 2011 — and understated it during the boom years of the 2000s.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

'Tax the top': Nationwide protests demand action as 1% control 40% of India’s wealth

By A Representative Civil rights groups across the country observed the martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh on March 23, as people from diverse backgrounds united to raise their voices against growing economic inequality. The mobilisations marked the launch of a nationwide campaign against inequality, running from March 23 to April 14 (Ambedkar Jayanti), under the banner of the “Tax The Top” campaign.

Fair prices, fresh produce: Vegetable market opens in Rajasthan tribal village

By Vikas Meshram* On 18 March 2026, the tribal village of Sajjangarh in southern Rajasthan witnessed the grand and dignified inauguration of a new vegetable market (mandi). Established through the tireless joint efforts of the Krushi Avam Adivasi Swaraj Sangathan (Bhilkuaan) and Vaagdhara, under the active leadership of the Gram Panchayat of Sajjangarh, the market is being hailed as a cornerstone for local self-governance, self-reliance, and a sustainable rural economy.

Ex-IAS Atanu Chakraborty and a tale of two different Gujarat vision documents

By Rajiv Shah The likely appointment of Atanu Chakraborty as HDFC Bank chairman interested me for several reasons, but above all because I have interacted with him closely during my more than 14 year stint in Gandhinagar for the “Times of India”. One of the few decent Gujarat cadre bureaucrats, Chakraborty, belonging to the 1985 IAS batch, at least till I covered Sachivalaya was surely above controversies. He loved to remain faceless, never desired publicity, was professional to the core, and never indulged in loose talk. When he neared retirement, which happened in April 2020, first there were rumours in Sachivalaya that he would be appointed SEBI chairman, and then there was talk he would be chairman (or was it CEO?) of Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) City (a dream project of Narendra Modi as Gujarat chief minister, which as Prime Minister Modi wants to promote, come what may). But, for some strange reasons, and I don’t know why, none of this happened, despite the fact...

Search This Blog