Tara Singh Vachani breaks new ground with her debut venture: A community for the elderly in Dehradun
Tara Singh Vachani
CEO, Antara Senior Living
Age: 26
Education: Majored in politics and South Asian studies at the National University of Singapore
How she is changing the way the company works: Leading Max India’s venture into the senior living space
T ara Singh Vachani, 26, has seen the ups and downs of business from very close quarters. Consider that when she was growing up, her father Analjit Singh was building the formidable Max India empire. But even that could not prepare her for the disappointment in 2012, when she set about implementing her dream project.
Not that Vachani hadn’t done her homework. Right from the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey in 2010 as CEO of Antara Senior Living (a subsidiary of Max India), she travelled extensively, researched and brainstormed on what she thought was the first-of-its-kind initiative in the nascent senior living sector in India—a ‘community’ for the elderly in Dehradun.
But when Vachani approached local authorities for the necessary clearances, she was stumped. Her project fell into none of the categories for which licences were allocated. “There was no concept called senior living in India. And when it came to residential housing, there was no specific provision for this,” she says. A licence could be issued under the residential housing category, but that would critically alter the design and layout of the community, including the requirement of 1,200 slots for car parking when just about 250 were needed.
Despite the setback, Vachani didn’t lose heart. Between countless visits to government offices where she sipped pots of tea, Vachani and her team reworked the plan. “I made six presentations, 30 pages each, lobbied and engaged with the secretariat,” she says. She got a break when the chief town planner suggested that the licence could be given in the category of ‘community service’. It was a godsend. Among other things, this brought down the number of required parking slots to 880.
“Apart from improving my Hindi, I learnt what to say and what not to say. I learnt how not to be defensive when others are not going to see your vision,” she says.
By early 2013, Antara’s first project was passed by the state government, clearing the decks for construction. If everything goes according to plan, the 20-acre community for elders in Dehradun will open its door to 200 guests in 2016. By then, the company would have made a capital investment of Rs 500 crore.
Remarkably, it is expected to break even on the first day itself. “The model is such that we would recover the investment through long-term leases on the houses in the community,” says Vachani. Ranging from Rs 2 crore to Rs 7 crore, each of the houses comes with customised services. Household chores—from laundry to maintenance of cars—would be handled by well-trained staff. The community also includes a wellness centre with nurses and doctors.
It might be a bit too early to celebrate the success of the project but for Vachani, takeaways from the experience transcend all profit margins.
While there have been previous attempts to offer services specific to senior citizens in India, none came close to Vachani’s vision. “Many of the initiatives in the space have been from real estate companies. For many, it is a marketing spin—the most glaring shortcoming is in the service aspect of these offerings,” says Sumeet Bhalla, director, business development, Antara. Vachani was sure that by filling the gap, she had a strong business case for a profitable venture.
“I’m delighted,” says Analjit Singh when asked about his daughter’s performance. “Tara is not formally trained in business management. By all means, this is her first job. Yet she has shown the tenacity, rigour and discipline to plan and execute a business idea,” says Singh, who also chairs Antara’s board. Vachani reports to Rahul Khosla, managing director of Max India, who says, “The best thing about her is that she is humble. Tara is ready to acknowledge that she might not know everything and is open to listening and learning.”
FROM A FLY ON THE WALL TO CEO
(This story appears in the 28 November, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)