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THE
NEW ECONOMY: OPINION POLL
The
Spending
'Flaunt
it' is the new mantra of the spend, spend, spend class. Consumerism goes
legit as choices increase.
In
the psyche of the Indian middle class, economic reform has been the biggest
landmark, believes Pavan Verma, bureaucrat and author of The Great Indian
Middle Class.
"When
we were growing up," says Manish Ahluwalia, who owns a travel agency,
"it was just considered bad form to blow up a lot of money. When
I started earning, my father would become very upset with the things I
bought. But now he's learned to chill and accepts it as a way of life."
The 1990s bid adieu to Nehruvian fabianism and almost overnight the consumer
classes embraced a smorgasbord of goodies, from cornflakes to cars. "The
most significant trend of the past 10 years has been the sheer choice
available to consumers," says Professor I. Natarajan, chief economist
with NCAER.
In terms
of priority, we still spend in the same order-groceries, other household
expenses (utilities, staff salaries), house rent, eating out, entertaining
and club expenditure, and medical expenses.
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THE
SPENDING
CTVs top the shopping list today. In 1990, it was the electric
iron.
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families owning consumer products across five cities |
However,
grocery expenditure
has come down in all the metros even though it remains the single
largest item on the family's monthly bill. This could perhaps be because
of the change in quality and variety of what we eat. For instance, consumption
of packaged atta instead of grains like bajra and jowar, a variety of
breads from French to brown, smoked salmon and Brie cheese. Expenditure
on house rent, on the other hand, has gone up, both because rents are
higher and also because people now live in fancier dwellings-two bedrooms
instead of one-that cost more.
In terms
of consumer durables,
the hot items include washing machines and motorbikes. Cash has remained
the preferred mode of payment. Cash-rich Delhiites seemed most averse
to flashing their credit cards. Amongst the respondents who purchased
colour TVs, 93 per cent chose to pay by cash. In Kolkata, on the other
hand, 31 per cent bought their colour TVs on credit.
Overall,
people are taking more holidays. In 1990, 31 per cent
took more than three vacations a year, today it is 36 per cent. In Kolkata,
however, the figure has dipped sharply. Only 9 per cent now take more
than three vacations a year, as opposed to 19 per cent 10 years ago. But
people are visiting family and hometowns rather than tourist spots. A
decade ago, 56 per cent of the respondents said they visited their families;
today it's 65 per cent. Nationally, there's been a drop in the number
of vacations to tourist destinations: from 42 per cent in 1990 to only
34 per cent in 2000.
In the coming
years, the respondents are likely to spend most on the education of children.
As many as 63 per cent of respondents saw this as a big-ticket expense
item; a decade ago, 70 per cent placed it at the top of anticipated expenses.
Finally,
we asked the respondents about their houses. The highest number of respondents
who lived in rented homes are
in Bangalore. In Delhi, the number of people living in rented homes has
fallen whereas in Mumbai those who have purchased their own homes has
decreased.
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