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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.

Varsity Turmoil

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Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and other elite Indian academic institutions increasingly find themselves in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. So-called ideological battles waged in the campuses of such varsities needlessly deepen social divides. JNU’s recent scuffle during a University Governing Body Meeting (UGBM), where students from leftist groups clashed with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members over alleged derogatory remarks about Lord Ram, reveal a pattern across elite institutes where a narrow ideological stance often dictates what can or cannot be voiced on campus.


The ABVP, the student wing affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), issued a scathing condemnation, accusing leftist students of attempting to stoke communal disharmony by disrespecting Hindu religious icons with a deliberate attempt to provoke.


The Ramjanmabhoomi dispute, centering on the birthplace of Lord Ram and the contested site in Ayodhya, has been one of India’s most politically charged issues for decades. Left-leaning academics, many of whom have had their haunts in JNU, have played a highly contentious role in this narrative, often distorting and selectively interpreting historical evidence and, in some cases, casting doubt on Hindu claims to the site.


Earlier in March this year, the campus has witnessed slogans from leftist students calling for liberation from ‘Brahmanism,’ for supporting Palestine and raising contentious statements critical of the government. Videos had circulated showing students chanting, “Mile Phule-Kanshi Ram, Hawa Mein Ud Gaye Jai Shri Ram”—a slogan hearkening back to the early 1990s when the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance directly confronted Hindu nationalist slogans. In the backdrop of these chants lies the shadow of past controversies, such as the infamous 2016 protests in which slogans like “Bharat tere tukde honge” (India will be broken up) had resonated through JNU’s halls.


Why does an institution ostensibly devoted to scholarly pursuit indulge in polarizing rhetoric?


Established in the 1960s, JNU was conceived as an experimental institution - a cradle for progressive ideas that could challenge orthodoxy. Yet over time, leftist ideologies came to dominate the campus ethos. Today, many student bodies continue to believe that JNU’s role is to serve as the voice of dissent, unafraid to confront mainstream political currents. For some on campus, slogans critiquing Hindu nationalism are seen not as anti-Hindu but as anti-majoritarian, challenging a religious-political nexus viewed as a threat to India’s secularism.


JNU has produced generations of activists and scholars who see themselves as challengers of the mainstream but often fail to recognize the downright impracticality and ideological blind spots in their approach.


Their campus rhetoric hardly produces any constructive debate.

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