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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.

Forensic experts baffled over the victim's death causes

By Quaid Najmi

 


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Mumbai: At least three well-known forensic specialists with decades of autopsies under their belts have raised questions over the death of a 28-year-old celeb manager after her family expressed fresh doubts on the probe and pointed fingers at a politician and a couple of Bollywood actors.

 

Referring to certain images of the victim – who died after falling from the 14th floor of a residential building in Malad on June 8-9, 2020, an ex-government medico Dr. V. Take said if the photos of the victim were authentic, “then, there is something very fishy”.

 

“It is very much evident that there is something amiss about the whole case. Apparently, no proper autopsy was conducted, or there could be an attempt to hush up things,” said Dr. Take, with around 300 post-mortems to his credit.

 

He said it is hard to swallow – from the purported photos in public domain – that the female victim did not suffer any head injuries despite falling from a height of at least 120-feet.

 

“It is unbelievable how the victim’s face is bereft of any facial injury, or tell-tale signs after such a steep fall, her face on the funeral pyre had no wrappings around her skull indicating that it was probably not examined internally, which is contrary to SOPs of an autopsy,” Dr. Take added.

 

Dr. Vishal Surwade, a Professor of Forensic Sciences with a prominent private medical college in Indore, with a 1000-plus autopsies in his CV, feels that after a fall from even a couple of floors, there are definitely head injuries, both internal-external which must be examined by opening the skull, but in this victim, there are more questions than answers.

 

As per reports after her death, the girl’s post-mortem was conducted around two days after her plunge to death, when rigor mortis may have suppressed some crucial biological/chemical markers, Dr. Surwade pointed out.

 

On the reports that her body was found some 25 feet away from the building, Dr. Take wonders how a body falling vertically could virtually ‘fly’ and landed so far away, whether there was a huge sound then, any screams from the victim, or verifying her friends’ claim that when they raced down, she was still ‘alive’ and they rushed her to hospital where she succumbed.

 

While highlighting the doubts, all the experts are flummoxed as to why the victim’s family – which had publicly accepted the findings earlier – wants to reopen the case after so many years.

 

They speculated, whether there were pressures then, or some compulsions now, if any fresh evidence has come to their hands, there are sinister attempts to either implicate/extricate someone, given the multiple names that have cropped in the high-profile case that came to be linked with death of a prominent actor Sushant Singh Rajput that happened five days later.

 

Commenting as many aspects of the case have just come into the open now, the specialist medico trio averred that “there’s something more than visible” but remained optimistic that the mystery may be unravelled and the gnawing doubts erased soon to ensure justice for the victim.

 

BOX-ITEM:


Peek into the Autopsy Theatre

Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s Deputy Municipal Commissioner Dr. Kailas Gaikwad – with 3000 post-mortems to his credit - explained how, during autopsy, the team cuts the skin, breaks or saws the skull with a hacksaw blade, removes and examines the brain, later places it back, covers and sutures the skin/scalp.

 

“The autopsy is usually carried out before rigor mortis sets in within hours of death. The blood keeps oozing so the head is cleaned, wrapped in polythene and cloth,” Dr. Gaikwad told The Perfect Voice.

 

However, in most cases of unnatural or suspected foul play, the autopsies are conducted late and so the blood oozing may be minimal or nil, he said.

 

Later, the body is washed, dried and handed over, and barring cases of dome/scalp injuries, the head is usually kept open, as now is shown in the celeb manager victim’s case.

 

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