The New Boom

Better Off Than Dad

Services Sector: Growth Engine

Faces: Adventure Capitalists

Adapters: Tradition Meets Technology

Industry: Being Indian

Careers: Techies Line Up For Jobs Online

The Scindias: Will Power
The contentious will of Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia virtually disinherits her only son Madhavrao Scindia. This controversy threatens to mar the reputation and respectability of one of India's best- known and highly regarded royal families.

Gujarat: Shaky Regime
Confronted with a monumental disaster, the Gujarat Government is at the centre of relief operations. Was its reaction timely and efficient? Could more lives have been saved?

And Greed Hits Home
More than anything, it was corruption that killed people in Gujarat as buildings constructed by getting around norms came crashing down.

Public Sector: Shotgun Exit
First large PSU where workers agreed to leave the company.

THE NEW ECONOMY: OPINION POLL

Better Off Than Dad

Back when we were 10 years younger and Big Bull Harshad Mehta was still an unfallen god, the Babri Masjid still an unfallen structure, life was different. On the flip side, the IT revolution was still to come, the global economy was still an idea on paper, we still drove antiquated cars and ate cornflakes with black specks floating on the surface. That was life in pre-New Economy.

All that seems so far away. Today, practically every village in India offers long-distance dialling and Uncle Chipps with equal nonchalance. Salaries have gone through the roof. From automobiles to mobiles there's plenty to buy. Investment options have increased and we're better off than our dads. Or are we? India Today commissioned
ORG-MARG to conduct a poll in Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai to unearth major trends in the
middle class in the 1990s. Two sets of people were interviewed: the 30-35-year age group was questioned about the year 2000 and the 40-45-year age group was asked about the year 1990 to get a comparative base. NAMITA BHANDARE reports.

The Earning

The 1990s saw tremendous growth in incomes which show no signs of slowing down in the future

Rima Kapoor recalls her first job in 1990. Fresh from the US with a master's degree in communications, she thought she would be snapped up. She was. But back then salaries were conservative. "When my boss-to-be said I'd be paid Rs 5,000, I thought it was a king's ransom," she laughs. Today, candidates with her qualification would start at twice the amount, at the very least, she adds.

In 1990, the poll findings show, only 6 per cent of respondents earned over Rs 15,000. Today, it's over 11 per cent. In a citywise break-up, Delhi has the fastest income growth, followed by Chennai and Mumbai (see box). With the exception of Mumbai, the number of people earning at the lower end (household income Rs 1,000-Rs 7,000) has fallen; those with incomes upward of Rs 7,000 are on the increase.

START-UP SUCCESS: Taab Siddiqu, 34, and Adil Hassan, 40. She's an MBA, the daughter of academicians, he's an engineer, the son of an industrial consultant. Together they launched Harvest Gold in 1993 "because you couldn't get good bread". The company's turnover last year: Rs 40 crore.

Household incomes are poised to explode, predicts Professor S.L. Rao, former director-general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and among the pioneers of consumer demographic surveys in India. For instance, he says lower-middle and middle-income households (those with an annual income of Rs 22,501 to Rs 70,000) will constitute 59.9 per cent of the population in another five years, while those in the upper-income brackets (upwards of Rs 70,000) will comprise 22.3 per cent of the population.

Where is this prosperity coming from? Two primary sources, says Rao. The first is the possible annual average GDP growth (in real terms) of 6.43 per cent up to 2006-2007. The second, a significant shift of people from rural to urban areas. However, even in rural areas, Rao anticipates a dramatic increase in middle-income households from 8.4 million in 1994-95 to 14.8 million by 2006.

The number of households with only one earning member has fallen over the last 10 years. Those with two and three earning members are up from 33 to 39 per cent. The increase in the number of working people is most dramatic at 12 per cent amongst professionals.

New professions from medical transcription to web designing have resulted in greater earning potential. The way we work has changed too, with more people working out of their homes. Result? Many of them do more than one job. Also, government service-once the holy grail of livelihoods -doesn't hold the same charm. There's a greater entrepreneurial spirit.

Harvest Gold's Adil Hassan, for instance, is an engineer who switched to making bread with an investment of Rs 1 crore because his wife told him she couldn't find decent bread in Delhi. Today, the couple-his wife Taab Siddiqi is an MBA-heads a company with Rs 40 crore turnover and have diversified into related products like hamburger buns.

MetroScape
Random Readings
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra would rather be "accurate" in his latest undertaking, a book of Kabir's poetry in English, even if he says "Kabir's greatest hits may not have been written by him at all".
more...

Looking Glass

Kolkata: Restaurant

Bangalore:
Art Exhibition

New Delhi: Play

Who says Indian theatre is dying? Playwrights--both veteran and budding--in the country had a chance to interact with those from the Royal Court Theatre, London, at its first residency workshop in Bangalore recently.
It was a fortnight
of enrichment, concludes Principal Correspondent Stephen David in Despatches.

"I was very much against the idea of India," says William Dalrymple, author, The City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi. In conversation with INDIA TODAY's Sonia Faleiro, he talks about his old girlfriend, Delhi and his "enormously exciting" next book, The White Moghuls in Interviews.