The changing trends of lifestyles in India

The lifestyle and buying trend in India has undergone a pragmatic shift in the last 20 years or so. It is not just urban India which has ushered in the change, but also rural India, where technology has transformed the lives almost completely. This immense change in the lifestyle of the Indian man, has been brought about due to the single decision to open up to International trade, and undertake policies which could be called as the Liberation Privatization and Globalization model, that had been ushered by the present Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, the finance minister in 1991.

India, with its huge population and consumer oriented policies, soon became the destination of choice for the global investors. Soon, India was introduced to fizz cans from global majors like Pepsi and Coke besides a huge list of articles from the West. This, along with rising per capita income brought about a change in the spending pattern of the middle class Indian, both in the rural and urban areas. Television shows, which had been blockbuster hits in the West, are found to be telecast in Indian homes in their ‘desi’ avatar. There has been a shift towards the free flowing nature of lifestyle which is practiced in the west.

Yes it is apparent that a paradigm shift is taking place in consumer behavior in India with a confident growing middle class asserting itself– this is a shame as this is eroding the pure culture, which once was the pride of Indians with the delusional aspects of a debased and spiritually empty Western model. India has been exposed to the full blow of western culture, so much so, that today, children are shy or unwilling to touch the feet of their elders, which used to be an involuntary action in times gone by!

This may seem innocent to those who are concerned solely with making profit. But, in order to make a sustainable, holistic and rooted progress in India, which will be able to realize the projected 30 year boom, it will require sensitivity to cultural idiom. If this subtle, yet extremely vital metaphysical notion is understood by those who are responsible for progress in India, it will certainly result in permanence of all round progress and not progress in fits and starts as is seen today. Western capitalism is near dead and the admittedly paradoxical new wave of Indian social(ist) capitalism has begun and this alone can propel India to the very top of economic prowess.