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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.

The Vanishing Green Cover

Vanishing Green Cover

This rapid development and widespread urban sprawl have drastically depleted green cover leading to habitat loss, pollution and significantly impacting the quality of life. In spite of this gloomy reality, the section of people including many political party leaders who support the felling of trees at Aarey Colony to make way for a Metro car shed claim that Aarey is not a forest. The Maharashtra government had told the Bombay High Court that Aarey Colony could not be declared a forest just because of its greenery. Adivasis who have been cultivating land there are helplessly making feeble attempts to oppose this.


In the middle of the city lies Aarey, an urban oasis that serves as a green lung for a city suffocating under the weight of its own development. It is also a sanctuary to an array of wildlife, some of it rare and vulnerable.


A portion of Aarey was declared a reserved forest in 2020, after years of collective struggle and protests. Just outside, the city’s first underground metro has started rolling in the first week of October.

Inside the ecologically sensitive zone, spread across 25 acres, is the barricaded enclosure of the Metro 3 car shed. It is almost ready, and shockingly silent. Nine metro rakes are parked in the shed.


An office building is positioned to one side, another building at one end, and yet another for the maintenance of the trains and their smooth operation. All that’s left are minor fixtures.


Interestingly, the green signal has been given by the Commissioner of Metro Railway Safety. The final permission needed for this metro link to be flagged off.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already inaugurated Phase One of Metro 3, from Aarey to the Bandra Kurla Complex very recently. There’s a dense patch of trees at the heart of the car shed. This plot has not been needed yet, say Metro officials, although there’s no saying when the axe could fall.

The inauguration of Metro 3 is a hint of the things to come in the light. Presently everything has come to standstill. It’s a lull before the storm.


There are plans for a remote forest, and, around it, more construction. There is conflict brewing – administrators talk of high-rises and infrastructure.


The tribals who stay in the padas are helplessly looking at the prevailing situation. The land, now developed, was a part of their lives and livelihood. It’s where the indigenous inhabitants used to forage for plants, herbs, roots, vegetables and fruit.


A stream flowed through it, now diverted by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL), and replaced with an extensive drainage line. The metro car shed rose from the ashes of a long-drawn-out movement led by environmentalists and citizens. Though they could not stop the car shed from being built in this green zone.

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