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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.

Measured Authority

In his first pronouncement since taking the oath as India’s 52nd Chief Justice, Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai has made his presence felt with surgical precision. The Supreme Court led by CJI Gavai struck down a decades-old land transfer by the Maharashtra government, declaring it illegal. The case, long marred by allegations of corruption, centres around forest land in Pune transferred in 1998 to private developers under dubious circumstances. Now, with this judgment, the land must return to its rightful custodian, the forest department.


The Bench minced no words in attributing blame, pointing to the alarming speed with which the land’s use was altered. In India’s notoriously slow and opaque system, where even clear violations of environmental and land-use law are often papered over, the judgment is a stark rebuke.


CJI Gavai’s debut verdict is a clear declaration of his intent. For a system that frequently bows to the pressures of powerful interests, his intervention reminds the establishment that the law still has teeth. A Buddhist and the son of a Republican Party of India stalwart, Justice Gavai is only the second Dalit to helm the apex court. That he began his tenure by holding the powerful to account is significant in more ways than one.


Deeply shaped by the egalitarian ideals of B.R. Ambedkar, Gavai has long been known for his constitutional scholarship and practical jurisprudence. His legal journey - from government pleader in Nagpur to the Bombay High Court and then the Supreme Court - has been devoid of fanfare, yet rich in substance. Despite having authored nearly 300 judgments, his reputation is not for grandstanding but for clarity and precision. He was part of the Bench that upheld the government’s controversial demonetisation policy in 2016, as well as the one that recently dismantled the opaque electoral bonds scheme. His record signals a jurist who neither slavishly upholds state power nor recklessly subverts it, but examines each case on its constitutional merits.


Forest land has often been the currency in India’s political economy, quietly traded to cement patronage networks. The 1998 decision by the Maharashtra government is but one among hundreds across states where environmental safeguards were flouted under political pressure or bureaucratic collusion. The message from the top bench now is that such impunity will no longer be tolerated.


Justice Gavai’s background only adds weight to this message. His father, R.S. Gavai, was not just a parliamentarian and governor, but a lifelong voice for the marginalised. That legacy now echoes in the highest echelons of India’s judiciary. Prominent voices in the legal fraternity have already lauded the Chief Justice as being pragmatic and results-oriented. His first judgment lives up to that billing.


With just over six months in office, CJI Gavai has limited time but ample opportunity. If his opening salvo is any guide, India may be in for a phase of principled pragmatism where legality is reasserted not with flourish, but with firmness.

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