Update 12

Here’s wishing all ISM members a happy new year and a happy 50th Birthday. As you may be aware, we successfully held the Extraordinary General Meeting on the 18 of December 2010, and at that meeting we passed the following important constitutional and byelaw amendments.

A new class of membership has been created known as Associate Member of ISM or AISM. Persons who are eligible to become Associates are Non-Malaysian surveyors who wish to be part of our Institution. Such members will not have the right to vote nor stand for any office in ISM, but can use the letters after their name and can avail themselves of all facilities and services of ISM.

Broadly, under this Internationalisation of ISM project, we are looking to invite surveyors in ASEAN, India, China, Pakistan and Middle East as our primary target for membership. Surveyors outside the identified area are also welcome. Our Council will be meeting shortly to decide the criteria and modality for suitable qualifications and the application process.

We also changed the name of the Property Consultancy & Surveying Division to the Property Management, Valuation and Estate Agency Surveying Division (PMVS, instead of PCVS).

The third important change was that we have finally managed to reduce the quorum required of the constitutional changes from 1/3 to 1/6 of the membership.

There were also other minor changes and most of this related to previous attempts to change the constitution, but were not accomplished, due to lack of the 1/3 of quorum.

The changes will take effect after approval from the Registrar of Societies.

Going forward we have in the forefront of our agenda the publication of the 50th year Commerative Book. We hope to finalise publication and launch it, ceremoniously, in January 2011 – the first event of our 50 Year Celebration.

We will also be publishing shortly, the calendar of events for the 50 Year events, so that members will be fully aware of all the projects.

Once again Happy New Year and Happy 50th Birthday!

Update 11

ISM India Technical Tour – November 2010


The ISM delegation comprising about 55 persons (Councillors, members, ISM Staff - some with family) arrived New Delhi on 19 November, and on the morning of 20 November a few of us met a delegation of about 10 from the Institution of Surveyors, India (ISI). The delegation from ISI was led by Mr K.S.Kharb who is a Past President of the Institution (The current President, Mr Gautam Kumar Bysack, was also present). We were informed that among all surveying organisations in India, only the ISI had some form of recognition from the Government thus far. Under the Wealth Tax Act (now largely defunct), mainly Engineers, Architects and Town Planners were recognised as Valuers and most banks still use those registered under the Wealth Tax Act as their panel Valuers. We were to later discover more about the pre-eminence of Civil Engineers as basic qualification to become Valuers. The ISI however conducts examinations in each of the Surveying Divisions and currently has a membership of 3,500 and branches in Kolkata, Mumbai and Bangalore. There are no University degree courses as yet in India for the Surveying profession and apart from the examinations set by the ISI the Sardar Patel University (set up by Mr Kirit Bhudbathi on a fairly small scale) offers a master’s degree course in valuation and plant and machinery whilst the Shivaji University in Kohlapur which offers distance learning courses in valuation. A third University, Annamalai University, is planning a valuation course in Chennai. This means great opportunity for Malaysian universities to provide or assist in surveying education in India. Quantity Surveyors are mainly involved in “contracts management and arbitration”.

The ISI group estimated that there is a shortage of about 35,000 Quantity Surveyors, 10,000 Valuers and 5,000 Land Surveyors. They informed us about a Valuers Bill in the making and a Valuation Standards Manual by the Bankers Association. The Land Surveyors in the group were particularly interested in hydrographic surveying and said that they would like some interaction with ISM on this area. There is an All India Council for Technical Education under the Ministry of Human Resources.

They came prepared with a Memorandum of Understanding between ISM and ISI. We informed that that we will table the draft at our Council Meeting and revert to them.

Later, on 20 November we left, in two coaches, for Agra to visit the Seventh Wonder of the World, the Taj Mahal. Since much information on the Taj Mahal can be had from the internet i shall not add my own opinions except to say that to visit New Delhi and not see the Taj Mahal is certainly something that is not done. The journey back and forth and involving an overnight stay is not an easy one, especially for a large group. Due to traffic jams and stoppages we took about 7 hours to reach Agra.


On 22 November, a large delegation of about 25 from ISM met Mr Jaikant Singh (Director) of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Entry to the Ministry not only involved a long bus journey through heavy traffic but also extremely strict security checks. For almost an hour we were on the roadside while our Indian guide went in and out to secure permission for entry. The meeting itself, later, was cordial and informative. The Ministry is in the process of formulating a Valuers Bill but after much discussion we discovered that the Bill is mainly focussed on Business Valuations rather than Real Estate Valuations. Mr Jaikant did seem to want to know more from us as to the need to include rules for real estate Valuers in the bill and we ought to follow up on this. We will. Datin Faridah made a presentation on INSPEN’s training and education programmes and this was well received. We could follow up on this as well. We were not permitted to take photographs.


That afternoon we met a seven person delegation from the National Housing Bank which is wholly owned by the Reserve Bank of India. The delegation was led by Mr N Udaya Kumar, the Deputy General Manager. They are a similar organisation like CAGAMAS Berhad in Malaysia. They were quite interested in discussing house price issues, indices and training and education. They reinforced some of the information we had from our two previous meetings. Datin Faridah again presented INSPEN’s training and education programmes. We were also informed about a Manual of Valuation Standards that has been drafted by the Association of Banks and they would like us to provide inputs as well and later on do collaborative work on training. An interesting point raised during our discussion was their interest in Reverse Mortgage Loans which are loans against residential properties owned by senior citizens.


The lender of the loan makes periodic payments to the senior citizen during their remaining life time. The senior citizen does not have to repay any principal or interest to the lender during their life time as long as they are in occupation of the property. On the death of the senior citizen or upon him or her leaving the house permanently, the loan along with accumulated interest is settled through the sale of the house. For this scheme to work no doubt valuations and periodic updates are critical and thus their added interest in Valuation Standards.


On 23 November we left for Mumbai. On arrival in Mumbai the first stop, on the way to the hotel, was in front of Dato Shahrukh Khan’s house!

On 24 November we had had three meetings. In the morning a small delegation left to meet with The Securities and Exchange Board of India or SEBI. It was in new building with state-of-the art conference room and facilities. We were given a briefing that covered the regulatory architecture in the securities market in India, The scope and functions of SEBI and an overview of the Indian Capital Markets. What stuck us was that unlike in Malaysia they did not vet (pre or post) Valuers reports. Generally they looked to the Accountants who in turn were held responsible for Valuers reports and valuation accuracy. We did highlight that difference to them and we can see possibilities for engagement with them on this issue as well as in Standards, education and training. We also discussed REITs and Real Estate Derivatives and not our scope for future interaction. Datin Faridah did her usual presentation in INSPEN and it was well received.

In the afternoon, we met a large delegation from the Practising Valuers Association of India (PVAI) and immediately after that Mr Kirit Bhudbathi who is a well-known Indian Valuer who is very familiar to many Malaysian Valuers as he has visited Malaysia many times and presented CPD talks, presented seminar papers and is an authority on plant and machinery valuations. He was the founder of the Sardar Patel University and many Valuers from the JPPH have attended courses there.

The technical parts of the tour ended with these meetings and some went on for the third leg of the tour, a visit to Goa. In the above narrative I have not included many social aspects of the tour and the shopping trip and this I leave to others who went on the tour to add on. Comments are welcome.

We will be following up with the parties we met and we hope to continue dialogue and interaction with them.