AJ and Associates Trivandrum - Blog

 A few years ago, during the Kerala floods, I kept seeing the same phrase in reports and news articles. It was described as a “once in a century” flood.  It made me think. I thought if there are incidents that might happen once in a century, then there might be more such things if i look back. The last hundred years must also have had their own share of events. Out of simple curiosity, I started looking back. I not only looked for natural disasters, crisis etc but also economic events. Since we were nearing the 2020s back then, the 1920s naturally came into my focus.  I came to know that 1920s were called as 'The Roaring Twenties'. The Roaring Twenties were a period of strong economic growth and optimism, especially in the United States, with effects felt across the world. New industries were emerging, technology was advancing quickly, and stock markets were rising. Many ordinary people began investing for the first time. There was a general belief that prosperity had ...

The Kerala Police provides a tenant verification service through their online citizen service portals -  THUNA  website and the Pol-App mobile application. The service is essentially a background verification that checks whether the person in question has any criminal record or pending case in police databases. Landlords can request a Certificate of Non-Involvement in Offences (NIO) for this purpose. To use the service, applicants shall create an account on THUNA or Pol-App, fill in the details of the prospective tenant, upload identity and address documents, and pay the prescribed government fee. The request is then processed by the local police station through what they call the iCOPS  (internal core policing system ) a platform they use internally. After verification, an officially issued certificate is provided to the applicant. This service can be used for employee verification and domestic help verification as well Official link:   https://thuna.keralapoli...

I mostly use my own vehicle. I spend hours on the road almost every day. And while driving offers freedom, it also comes with its share of problems-traffic, parking stress, rising fuel costs etc. Recently i decided to take a look at the present four wheeler market conditions. It is drifting away from simple, practical cars to bulky SUVs. Taxes on these machines are high. Ethanol blending in fuel is concerning.  After all this time on the road, one thing became clear to me : cars are not the solution. As the time passes , the city will become more crowded and this will become evident to more people. I imagine a future Trivandrum, a few years from now, where clean, well-maintained transportation modes such as buses (AC and non-AC, both public and private ) run on time. Not overcrowded. A proper real-time app that shows where the bus is, when it will reach your stop, maybe even lets you book a seat. Add Metro, Uber, Rapido, autos, and taxis into that mix, and vehicle ownership starts ...

As someone born and brought up here and someone who now earns a living doing commercial real estate in Trivandrum , I will admit upfront, I am biased. But I am also someone who tries to keep his eyes and ears open. I travel the city, speak to people on the ground, keep an eye on the relevant news, watch how neighborhoods change, how deals unfold. And what I sense now is this, we are at the beginning of something that generations before us could only dream of. I have been watching Trivandrum with curiosity for years. I know it reasonably well. For the longest time, it felt like a city caught between its past and its potential. Beautiful, calm, a bit laid back and not fully awake. That’s changing slowly, quietly, but definitely. I am not writing this as an urban planner, a policy expert, or someone with access to insider knowledge. I am just a common man, with both feet on the ground, trying to piece together what I see and feel around me. So this is just a common man’s perspective. If y...

The recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam is deeply disturbing. The fact that innocent civilians, tourists, lost their lives is heartbreaking. This incident doesn’t feel like a random act of violence. To me, it looks like a calculated attempt to provoke a response from the Indian government. From what I have read, this was a low-cost, high-impact attack targeting unarmed, unsuspecting tourists. It will take normalcy from Kashmir and break local tourist based economy.  Such a tactic might be meant to create fear, anger, and emotional reactions. The attackers could be local radicals, or they might be proxies being used by someone else to achieve a bigger agenda. Which brings us to the question: Who’s behind this? The answer you will hear is: Pakistan. But Pakistan is not one unified voice. Unlike India, where the armed forces work under the civil government, in Pakistan, the military often runs a parallel power structure. What the civilian leaders want and what the military does m...

We work with hundreds of business owners and new entrepreneurs every year. We get to hear many ideas, plans and vision. Most of them are bold.  But here are some not so cool businesses that has the potential to make money.  1) A cost effective and scientific solution to get rid of food waste and other garbage from homes. The present waste collection and disposal system is a let down in most places. We need more efficient and environment friendly solutions.  2) A chain of clean, well maintained toilets and refreshment stops across the state. 3) Healthy food that tastes like junk food. There is money to be made in hard to solve boring problems of the society. If you are a business owner looking for space to establish your next venture - contact us and we can discuss your requirement in detail.