On the eve of inauguration of ACREX India 2017, a Curtain Raiser was held at Le Meridien, New Delhi on February 22 in the presence of a large number of distinguished professionals from the industry. The theme was ‘Realonomics: New Direction for Real Estate in Changing Environment’. Carrier- Toshiba was the event partner. ACREX 2017 Chair Ashish Rakheja welcomed the delegates and thanked the partners for their support. He acknowledged the international guests present. ISHRAE President Sachin Maheshwari welcomed the participants. Arun Bhatia (MD, Climate Controls & Security, India, UTC) set the tone by introducing the concept of a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) world. Chirag Baijal (Director, Commercial Sales, Climate Controls & Security, India, UTC) made a presentation on ‘The Impact of Green Buildings on Cognitive Function’. The high point of the evening was a panel discussion on Realonomics. Neeraj Bansal of KPMG India was the moderator. The panelists were Arun Bhatia, Amit Oberoi from ColliersIndia, Abhin Abhichandani from STUP Consultants, Ishtiaque Ahmed from Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Velan C. from Tata Realty Infoparks, Deepak Uppal from Vatika Hotels and Virendra Gupta from CBRE. Awards were presented for contributions to ISHRAE activities. N. Sivasankaran, Chair, Honours & Awards Committee of ISHRAE, along with Sachin Maheshwari and Vishal Kapur, President-Elect, ISHRAE presented the awards. H. M. Jhangiani Journal Paper Awards were presented for the two best articles that appeared in the Journal during 2015. K. Raghavan of Johnson Controls and Kishore Kalghatgi, HVAC Consultant were the recipients. The event ended with a presentation on SEARCHO (a search tool for HVAC&R businesses developed by ISHRAE) by Nishant Gupta (National Secretary, ISHRAE) and Shami Bhardwaj (Chair, Marketing, ISHRAE), and a vote of thanks by Sajid Desai (CEO - N?rnberg Messe India).