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By:

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.

Aviation Besieged

Updated: Oct 25, 2024

Aviation Besieged

A wave of hoax bomb threats has plunged India’s aviation industry into chaos, forcing flight diversions, delays, and heightened security measures. The surge has disrupted nearly 100 flights over the past week alone, leaving passengers stranded, airports on high alert, and airlines scrambling to mitigate financial losses. Last week’s chilling incident, in which a Mumbai-Chicago Air India flight was diverted to the icy isolation of Iqaluit, a remote city in Canada, starkly captured the reality of these disruptions.


Passengers were stranded for over 18 hours in freezing conditions before being ferried to their destination by a Canadian Air Force plane. While the threat turned out to be false, the financial and logistical damage was significant. With other similar hoaxes targeting Indian airlines, the aviation sector now faces a mounting crisis that is taking a heavy toll on operational efficiency and passenger confidence. The deluge of threats is unprecedented. In just one week, over 90 bomb threats were reported, forcing multiple flights to divert, cancel, or return to their point of origin. These threats peaked even as Indian airlines carried a record-breaking 484,263 passengers on 14 October. The process of dealing with these threats, which includes deploying fighter jets to escort planes and conducting exhaustive searches of aircraft, cargo, and luggage, often stretches into hours, leaving both passengers and airlines grappling with long delays.


The financial fallout is significant. Airlines, already grappling with rising fuel costs, are forced to reroute planes, dump fuel, and accommodate stranded passengers. Air India alone reportedly lost over Rs. 30 million in one incident, including the cost of fuel, grounding of the aircraft, and arranging alternative transportation. This burden, combined with post-pandemic recovery challenges, adds another layer of pressure to an industry still struggling to regain its footing.


Hoax bomb threats are not new to the aviation industry, but the current spike in India is particularly troubling. Between 2014 and 2017, there were 120 recorded bomb hoaxes at Indian airports, with Delhi and Mumbai bearing the brunt. However, the recent scale and frequency of these incidents are unprecedented, and the cost of inaction is becoming unsustainable. The recurring nature of these threats raises serious concerns about the robustness of India’s aviation security framework.


The surge in hoaxes has been largely facilitated by anonymous social media accounts, complicating efforts to identify and prosecute perpetrators. Indian authorities have enlisted the help of social media platforms like X to trace the origin of the threats, but their efforts have been hampered by the use of VPNs and dark web networks. So far, investigations have made little progress, save for the arrest of a minor who issued threats in a petty personal vendetta. The question remains: are these isolated incidents, or is there a larger, coordinated effort at play? Failure to act swiftly could erode confidence in India’s aviation sector, which, with over 3,000 daily flights and 150 operational airports, is a crucial driver of economic growth.

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