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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.

BJP sweeps Haryana civic polls, Congress faces crushing defeat

  • PTI
  • Mar 12
  • 2 min read

Updated: Mar 13

BJP wins seven mayoral posts, leads in two more, as Congress struggles to regain ground


Haryana


Chandigarh: The BJP's mayoral candidates registered emphatic victories in seven municipal corporations in Haryana on Wednesday while its nominees were leading in two other civic bodies in the recently held elections.


The Congress, which was looking to turn around its electoral fortunes after suffering a defeat in the 2024 Assembly polls, had to bite the dust.


Polls to elect mayors and ward members in seven municipal corporations -- Gurugram, Manesar, Faridabad, Hisar, Rohtak, Karnal and Yamunanagar -- were held on March 2. The bypolls for the mayoral posts in Ambala and Sonipat and the elections for presidents and ward members in 21 municipal committees were also held that day.


For the Panipat Municipal Corporation, polling was held on March 9 to elect the mayor and 26 councillors.


According to the results and trends available for the mayoral posts, BJP candidates registered emphatic wins in Ambala, Faridabad, Gurugram, Hisar, Karnal, Rohtak and Sonipat, defeating their nearest Congress rivals.


The ruling party's candidates were in a comfortable lead in Yamunanagar and Panipat.


In Manesar, where municipal elections were held for the first time, Independent candidate Inderjeet Yadav won. She defeated her nearest BJP rival Sunder Lal by a margin of 2,293 votes.


In the outgoing municipal corporations, BJP had its mayors in eight of the 10 civic bodies.


Nikhil Madaan was the Sonipat mayor and a Congress leader. Ahead of the 2024 Assembly polls, he joined the BJP and won the Sonipat Assembly seat. In Ambala municipal corporation, Shakti Rani Sharma was the mayor as a Haryana Janchetna Party leader. She too joined the BJP ahead of the assembly polls and won the Kalka Assembly seat. The other municipal corporations where polling was held had BJP mayors.


The mayoral candidates who registered victories with big margins included the BJP's Faridabad nominee Parveen Joshi who won by over 3 lakh votes and Raj Rani from Gurugram who won by over 1.79 lakh votes.


Other notable winners included senior BJP leader Rajiv Jain who won from Sonipat and Renu Bala Gupta from Karnal.


Extensive arrangements have been made by the Haryana State Election Commission in coordination with the district administrations concerned to ensure smooth conduct of the counting process, officials said.


The civic polls dealt a blow to the Congress which saw workers and leaders in districts switching over to the BJP ahead of the elections.


The party state unit has, in the past, been faced with infighting and factionalism unlike the BJP, which has a well-organised and strong organisational structure at the grassroots level.


Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini recently exuded confidence that the BJP would win the civic polls, saying that work would be done three times faster after the formation of a "triple-engine" government, a reference to the saffron party being in power at the Centre, the state and the civic bodies.

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