From People to Consumers: The Indian Consumption boom

India's unprecedented growth in terms of auto-sales, telecom sector growth(I mean the number of subscribers), technological shifts(from 2G to 3G, BWA, etc.) & many other such areas of boom signify that the "domestic demand" of our consumers is expanding a lot given the fact that poverty & unemployment still exist and a large share of population remains agrarian. Thus, the entire credit shall go to the "middle-class" consumers who are fast turning the Indian Population into actively spending entities, isn't it? Lets take a look at how figures speak this thing for us:

> Indian telecom sector is the fastest growing sector in the world with a growth rate of 45%, with more than 200million subscribers(still counting). A decade ago, having a mobile was itself a cumbersome process, today we find the root-class too, using it for "expanding their business".

> Auto-sales too are progressing quite well, with the sales of passenger cars showing healthy numbers. Domestic sales growth is 12.8%, a very good number indeed. By 2012, India will overtake Germany & Japan in sales volume.

> Telecom sector contributes to around 5-6% of the total GDP of India.

> The I.I.P.(Index of Industrial Production) numbers too are showing up-trends, with the core-sectors growing by an average 14-18%(don't remember the exact numbers).

> Various FMCGs are observing huge spending by consumers thus increasing the size of the economy, not only this, even the rural consumers are now uplifting themselves from poverty through various Government schemes such as the N.R.E.G.A. This means a whole new class of consumer is being formed.

> As C.K. Prahlad had stressed in his book"The Bottom of the Pyramid", the rural genre of consumers in developing nations especially in India & China present a huge market. This seems true at least in India as consumption patterns are improving drastically there too, with the emergence of better facilities(such as banking services, etc.) there too.

I see India transforming herself from a people-filled nation to a consumers-filled nation. Future holds great opportunities for better products & innovations, in order to satisfy the constantly growing numbers of spenders. Do express your views as comments to the post.