In their own words

The Odisha Developers' Federation was formed by developers who had reached the same conclusion separately: that an industry asking the public for its trust must first be willing to be checked.

That is a harder standard than it sounds. It means publishing our member register in full rather than describing it. It means listing our governing body by name. It means linking every project a member declares to the Authority's own record of it, so that a claim can be tested rather than taken on faith. We would rather be a smaller body that can be held to its word than a larger one that cannot.

Odisha's real estate sector is at a point where the decisions taken now — on how land is converted, how plans are approved, how apartments are registered and handed over — will shape what this State's cities look like for a generation. The Federation intends to be a serious voice in those decisions: not a lobby asking for indulgence, but an industry body arguing for clarity, for certainty of timelines, and for rules that a compliant developer can actually follow.

To our members: the standard we have set is one we are all held to, including me. To homebuyers: if a member of this Federation falls short of it, we want to hear from you.

The Office of the Secretary is where the Federation's day-to-day work happens: the register, the correspondence with Government, the representations we make and the answers we chase.

An association is only as good as the record it keeps and the follow-through behind it. That is the thinking behind this portal. Our member register is published in full, with registration numbers, so that anyone can check a claim of membership. Every representation we have made to Government is listed with the department it went to and where it currently stands — including the ones still unanswered. A homebuyer can look up a developer without knowing anybody.

None of that is remarkable. It is simply what an association ought to do, and we have found that doing it plainly is the most persuasive argument we can make about the kind of body this is.

The Secretariat is the single point of contact for the Federation. Whether you are a member, a department of Government, a journalist or a homebuyer with a concern, write to us and it will be dealt with.

When this body of developers decided in 2025 to part ways with the national structure it had worked under, it was not a decision anyone took lightly. Long associations are not ended over a disagreement.

But a parallel body had been formed mischievously, and the leadership that ought to have settled the matter showed no interest in doing so. The dispute was consuming energy that belonged to our businesses and to the people who buy homes from us. The members concluded, unanimously, that they would rather constitute something of their own than continue in a structure that could not keep its own house in order.

We did not leave in order to build something smaller. We left in order to build something answerable — an association that puts its ethics ahead of its size, and is willing to be judged on that.

What has been built since has gone further than I expected in its first year. My hope for the Federation is simple: that the people who come to run it hold the standard at least as firmly as those who set it.