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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.

Family Farce

Once again, Bihar’s most storied political family has traded governance for melodrama. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) founded by Lalu Prasad Yadav ostensibly to fight for social justice, has become less a political outfit and more a family-run reality show. The latest episode stars Lalu’s mercurial elder son, Tej Pratap Yadav, who was dramatically expelled by his father from both party and family for the grievous crime of publicly declaring love with another woman.


“Disregard for moral values weakens our struggle for social justice,” Lalu posted on X (formerly Twitter) after expelling his wayward son. That Lalu Prasad, convicted fodder scamster and longtime purveyor of Bihar’s worst excesses, should lecture anyone on moral values is a bit like Oscar Wilde teaching temperance or Donald Trump conducting a seminar on marital fidelity.


Tej Pratap, never one to be tethered by logic or discretion (he once compared himself to Krishna and his brother Tejashwi to Arjuna), claimed his account was hacked. One is left wondering if this was a personal crisis or an audition for the next Ekta Kapoor serial. His girlfriend apparently materialised from twelve years of secrecy, just in time to detonate his father’s electoral prospects as Bihar heads into a keenly-contested poll.


For seasoned watchers of Indian dynasties, this is not a fall from grace but gravitational inevitability. The Nehru-Gandhi family do palace intrigue with a veneer of Nehruvian gravitas. The Yadavs of Bihar offer something earthier: a blend of Lear, Bal Thackeray and the Real Housewives of Pataliputra. Rabri Devi, the former chief minister and mother of the errant Tej, appears resigned. Like Goneril and Regan in reverse, she watches as her family devours itself.


Meanwhile, Tejashwi Yadav, the anointed heir and Lalu’s most plausible political investment, has played the dutiful brother while keeping an arm’s length from the wreckage. It appears Tej Pratap’s recent attempt to float a parallel ideological group called the ‘Dharmanirpeksha Sevak Sangh’ was the final straw. Not content with flouting marital vows, he was now flirting with heresy. Worse, his theatrics risked diverting attention from the RJD’s one great asset: the illusion of unity.


The irony is that the Yadav family has become what they once claimed to fight - dynastic, unaccountable, mired in corruption and farcically out of touch. The ruling BJP and JD(U) must be enjoying the spectacle with popcorn in hand.


This saga exposes the deep rot within the RJD. Lalu’s brothers-in-law, Sadhu Yadav and Subhash Yadav, have defected. Rabri is little more than a shadow. Tejashwi, while competent, is weighed down by the baggage of family loyalty.


One cannot build social justice on a foundation of family theatrics and moral hypocrisy. As always with the Yadavs, the line between satire and reportage is perilously thin. As the state gears up for assembly elections, Lalu, who once rode to power promising social justice, feels the need to clarify his family’s moral compass. But this time, he may find the voters simply bored.

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