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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.

Waterlogged Dreams

It took just one night of rain to drown the government’s credibility. As the first heavy showers of an exceptionally early monsoon lashed Mumbai, the city’s much-touted infrastructure crumbled like papier-mâché in a storm. Roads caved in, metro stations turned into ponds, and the so-called ‘world-class’ coastal road was reduced to a congested canal. What was unveiled with fanfare in recent months lay soaked, battered and exposed. The Mahayuti government, which has spent more time cutting ribbons than plugging leaks, stands humiliated.


The early arrival of the monsoon had been predicted by meteorologists. Yet the ruling coalition, bloated with promises and high on photo-ops, seemed wholly unprepared for it. Lakhs of commuters were stranded, airport schedules thrown into disarray and the city’s overburdened rail and road networks ground to a halt. For the ‘Maximum City,’ this was maximum dysfunction.


The biggest embarrassment was the inundation of the newly inaugurated underground Metro Line 3. Meant to ease congestion and elevate commuting standards, the ‘Aqua Line’ instead lived up to its moniker in the most unfortunate way as passengers waded through muddy floodwaters at Worli station. Viral videos on social media showed waterfalls pouring into the platforms. Officials blamed a collapsed retaining wall near the Acharya Atre Chowk station. But their disclaimers - that the flooded sections were not yet open to the public, and that water seeped in from a utility trench - only added insult to injury. Why was a vital part of the metro’s waterproofing compromised before the monsoon even began in earnest?


The Mahayuti regime has bet heavily on showpiece projects, be they coastal roads, metro tunnels, expressways. The BMC-built coastal road, which was already being pitched as Mumbai’s answer to Marine Drive 2.0, became a channel for waterlogging, with parts of it submerged and traffic severely disrupted. That it faltered within weeks of its opening reflects not the wrath of nature, but the hubris of planners who ignored it. At Kemps Corner, a vital link in South Mumbai’s elite residential quarters, a section of the road simply collapsed. It triggered chaos in an area where land prices rival Manhattan’s.


The officialdom had assured the public that the city was ‘fully prepared’ for the monsoon, with drainage systems cleaned, flood-response teams activated and infrastructure ready to withstand the worst. Yet, the first showers were enough to wreak havoc on metros, delay trains and snarl flights. The collapse of the Worli station’s retaining wall is a metaphor for a government whose public relations veneer cannot withstand a few hours of rain.


Mumbai’s monsoon flooding is a legacy problem. But Monday’s debacle underscores that the current government has done little to fix it despite controlling vast financial and administrative resources. If Mumbai’s transformation is to be more than a glossy PowerPoint pitch, accountability must follow failure. Otherwise, waterlogged metro stations and collapsed roads will keep returning every time as indictments of criminally poor planning, drowning not just concrete and tarmac, but public trust.

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