India Shining All Around
Posted : February 28, 2006 at 7:50 pm [IST]
As per a study by KSA Technopak, there are 1.6 million households with an earning of over Rs 45 lakh or more a year in India. (I don’t know if it is from the taxpayers’ declaration.) They are spending out as much as Rs 4 lakh a year on branded jewellery, clothing, digital accessories, time wear and cosmetics and skin care.
More interestingly, the number of these households will treble to 3 million in the next five years. I don’t know if I should feel happy or envy, as usually all old men do after their days of glory.
And see the four-deck Indian Affluent pyramid provided by the study.
1.Luxury households-1 million
2.Very Affluent- 6 to 7 million
3.Mid Affluent- 9 to 10 million, and
4.Upper Middle Class- 14 to 15 million
Is it not impressive? According to the KSA-Technopak study, this category has the potential to give rise to market worth Rs 65,000 crore and grow by 14 per cent.
Who all constitute these new-generation affluent? You visit a Mall anywhere in the country, be it Noida, Gurgaon and New Delhi or Salt Lake, Durgapur and Kolkata. You can the neo-rich class that include CEOs and other senior professionals in their thirties and early forties, new-age entrepreneurs in different businesses like technology, manufacturing, services, and small and medium retailers.
And then comes THE ECONOMIC Survey 2005-06.
India can accelerate its economic growth from the current 8 per cent level to a sustained 10 per cent per annum. The GDP growth, at 8.1 per cent, has exceeded expectations, fuelled by a 9 per cent-plus growth in manufacturing, strong growth in services and a turnaround in agriculture. Inflation is pegged at a modest 5 per cent for the year.
Indian agriculture has grown at 2.3 per cent in 2005-06 substantially higher than the 0.7 per cent growth in 2004-05. However, we have huge potential to further improve the productivity and yield. Food grain production in 2005-06 may touch 209 million tones against 204.6 m tones for last year. Emphasis has shifted to horticulture, floriculture, organic farming, genetic engineering, food processing, branding, storing and packaging. Poultry employs over two million people and India ranks among the top six egg producers, with an output of 45 billion eggs in 2004-05. And the country is confidently talking for better rural infrastructure-roads and electrification, irrigation, rural knowledge centres and food processing industries.
The increased savings rate from 26.5 per cent in 2002-03 to 29.1 percent in 2004-05 was due to the rise in public and corporate savings even though growth in household savings was less than that of the economy. According to the survey, the investment rate stood at 30.1 per cent during 2004-05 as against 27.2 per cent in 2003-04. The growth investment was fuelled by a spurt in private investment at 19.7 per cent. “A pickup in investment, reflecting the high business optimism also reinforces the confidence in growth outlook itself.”
Is not India Shining all around?
And a great budget presented today, that scored more than 8 on a scale of 10 from all stalwarts of India Inc. assures me that the shine will be lasting and will soon percolate to the faces of all Indians even those below poverty lines. FM says, he has used both ‘head and heart’ in preparing the budget.
- Indra
Category: Government Policy/Administration |
Leave a Comment