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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Festive Surge

India’s bazaars have glittered this Diwali with the unmistakable glow of consumer confidence. The country’s festive sales crossed a staggering Rs. 6 lakh crore with goods alone accounting for Rs. 5.4 lakh crore and services contributing Rs. 65,000 crore. More remarkable still, the bulk of this spending flowed through India’s traditional markets rather than e-commerce platforms. After years of economic caution and digital dominance, Indians are once again shopping in person and buying local....

Festive Surge

India’s bazaars have glittered this Diwali with the unmistakable glow of consumer confidence. The country’s festive sales crossed a staggering Rs. 6 lakh crore with goods alone accounting for Rs. 5.4 lakh crore and services contributing Rs. 65,000 crore. More remarkable still, the bulk of this spending flowed through India’s traditional markets rather than e-commerce platforms. After years of economic caution and digital dominance, Indians are once again shopping in person and buying local. This reversal owes much to policy. The recent rationalisation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which trimmed rates across categories from garments to home furnishings, has given consumption a timely push. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s September rate cuts, combined with income tax relief and easing interest rates, have strengthened household budgets just as inflation softened. The middle class, long squeezed between rising costs and stagnant wages, has found reason to spend again. Retailers report that shoppers filled their bags with everything from lab-grown diamonds and casual wear to consumer durables and décor, blurring the line between necessity and indulgence. The effect has been broad-based. According to Crisil Ratings, 40 organised apparel retailers, who together generate roughly a third of the sector’s revenue, could see growth of 13–14 percent this financial year, aided by a 200-basis-point bump from GST cuts alone. Small traders too have flourished. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) estimates that 85 percent of total festive trade came from non-corporate and traditional markets, a robust comeback for brick-and-mortar retail that had been under siege from online rivals. This surge signals a subtle but significant cultural shift. The “Vocal for Local” and “Swadeshi Diwali” campaigns struck a patriotic chord, with consumers reportedly preferring Indian-made products to imported ones. Demand for Chinese goods fell sharply, while sales of Indian-manufactured products rose by a quarter over last year. For the first time in years, “buying Indian” has become both an act of economic participation and of national pride. The sectoral spread of this boom underlines its breadth. Groceries and fast-moving consumer goods accounted for 12 percent of the total, gold and jewellery 10 percent, and electronics 8 percent. Even traditionally modest categories like home furnishings, décor and confectionery recorded double-digit growth. In the smaller towns that anchor India’s consumption story, traders say stable prices and improved affordability kept registers ringing late into the festive weekend. Yet, much of this buoyancy rests on a fragile equilibrium. Inflation remains contained, and interest rates have been eased, but both could tighten again. Sustaining this spurt will require continued fiscal prudence and regulatory clarity, especially as digital commerce continues to expand its reach. Yet for now, the signs are auspicious. After years of subdued demand and inflationary unease, India’s shoppers appear to have rediscovered their appetite for consumption and their faith in domestic enterprise. The result is not only a record-breaking Diwali, but a reaffirmation of the local marketplace as the heartbeat of India’s economy.

Another Thackeray Son Rises

Updated: Oct 25, 2024

Amit Thackeray

Amit Thackeray, son of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Chief Raj Thackeray, has finally entered the electoral politics. His father announced his name as the party candidate from the Mahim assembly constituency in Mumbai on Wednesday.


It was in the year 2020 that Amit was formally inducted in the party that his father founded. Within two years he was made the chief of the youth wing of the party. Being the son of the supreme leader of the party, the respect and the aura come to him naturally. But, more than that he is a very patient listener and lends an ear to the party workers. He also mingles a lot among the grass root workers of the party, by which he has been able to form a base for himself.


Amit has an impressive personality and his public presence is assuring. Though his public speaking skills have not been tested much as yet, he is effective in smaller meetings and guides the party cadres carefully. Due to these organizational skills, he was made to tour the whole of Maharashtra as the youth wing chief of the party and he gathered cadres and built the youth wing of the party in most of the places across Maharashtra, tell his associates and party workers.


Amit is married to fashion designer Mitali Borude and the couple is blessed with a son. Amit knew Mitali through his sister Urvashi who runs a joint venture named ‘The Rack’ with Mitali in Bandra. Amit and Mitali came closer during his serious illness a few years back. She lent him great support and helped him come out of the trauma. They tied knot in 2019.


After being launched in the politics and given the responsibility of the youth wing, he was being groomed since past few years for the municipal polls. For the MNS, the municipal polls had been more significant. However, since those elections haven’t taken place, he was asked to conduct meetings of the party workers across the state ahead of Lok Sabha elections a few months back. At the last moment his party decided to lend unconditional support to PM Modi and Amit had to withdrew his plans to contest parliamentary election.


His name was also doing rounds ahead of the assembly polls in a similar fashion. Speculations were rife that he might contest from Worli assembly segment from where his cousin Aaditya Thackeray is the sitting MLA. With Raj Thackeray naming Amit as the party candidate for Mahim all those speculations have been proven wrong. Amit will face Shiv Sena’s sitting MLA Sada Sarvankar and Shiv Sena’s (UBT) zonal chief Mahesh Sawant in the poll fray.


Mahim assembly constituency is a Marathi stronghold and senior MNS leader Nitin Sardesai had represented the constituency in Maharashtra assembly between 2009 and 2014. Shiv Sena’s Sadanand S. Sarvankar won the constituency in 2014 and 2019. He is currently with CM Eknath Shinde and the three term MLA is expected to contest again contest the seat and brace for a tough fight vis-a-vis a Thackeray ‘heir’ jumping into the fray.

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