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UNDERSTANDING INDIAN MARKET AND CONSUMER

Essay
On
Personal Reflections On India
Change in last 60 years

Submitted To:-
Ms. Malvika Mago

Submitted By:-
Mohd. Aftab
Section C

IILM INSTITUTE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION


PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON INDIA – CHANGES IN LAST 60 YEARS
INTRODUCTION

India is a country with diversity in its culture, religions and ethics. The culture of India is more
than 5000 years old. India is a country where people of all the religions are living together. The
culture of every religion differs at different places all over the country. India has a very vast
history of its development. Under the rule of the British empire India did not change as it was
totally controlled by the British. At the time of independence many predicted that the country
would not survive because of the diversities in the culture, religion, languages but they were
proved wrong. Since independence a lot has changed, every sphere of Indian life has faced
transformation.

CULTURE

Culture is developed by beliefs, faith, practices, customs, way to live, art, intelligence, language,
food habits, and economy. Cultural growth gave identity to the societies named as Christian or
Muslim or Hindu or Jewish or Buddhist etc; have different cultures.

India is one of the most religiously diverse nations in the world, with some of the most deeply
religious societies and cultures. Religion still plays a central and definitive role in the life of most
of its people. The religion of 80% of the people is Hinduism. Islam is practiced by around 13%
of all Indians. Sikhism, Jainism and especially Buddhism are influential not only in India but
across the world. Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Judaism and the Bahai faith are also influential
but their numbers are smaller. Despite the strong role of religion in Indian life, atheism and
agnostics also have visible influence along with a self-ascribed tolerance to other people.

The culture of India as a whole changed slowly and gradually when the economy started
developing. The beliefs and customs of all the religions and societies of India were changing.
These changes were seen differently in the rural and urban areas. The urban area was growing at
a faster pace and they were changing their beliefs whereas the rural area was growing very
slowly and their beliefs did not change that much. The psychology of urban and rural area is very
different in every aspect. The lifestyle of rural and urban had a wide difference which is
decreased now by a minute percentage but still is the same. The consumption behavior is
different in rural and urban. In rural areas there are less choices for everything they buy, but in
urban areas we get a wide range of everything be it a daily use commodity or any other product.
The clothing is different in rural and urban. In rural areas still people wear cloths which are
followed in their culture but in urban areas people are moving more toward the western clothing.
A major part of the urban population is under the middle class category of the social economic
class and these people are working so they follow the corporate dressing which is western.

The family culture of India has also seen changes in this long span of time. Earlier people used to
live in joint families but now that has changed. Now more of nuclear families can be seen. So,
earlier decision was taken by the elder and now decision is not pressurized by anyone. People
buy whatever they like and hence spending pattern has changed. People now like to live freely
without the restrictions of a joint family. The marriages in earlier time used to be arranged where
the girl weds into a family and adjusts herself to the rituals, routine, but now more of love
marriages can be seen. Custom of respecting elders by touching their feet to seek their blessings
is now decreasing day by day. The values in Indians are there as they used to be but the customs
are not followed now. The ethnic charm of Indian culture is still living in all the parts of the
country due to diversity of the places.

The consumer buying behavior has changed totally from the independence to the current phase
of market. Earlier we had very less to choose now we see a new product, a new brand entering
the market in a very less time. Now marketing is used as a base to sell the products be it a fast
moving consumer good or a luxury car. People have moved from a normal market place to huge
shopping malls where everything is available. People now prefer to shop from malls where they
can have a different experience and feel the ambience. Consumer has totally changed from what
he used to be earlier. Now the consumer is aware of the product, he has vast knowledge and he
cannot be convinced easily to buy anything for any price. Now the choice is with the consumer
as there are many options available to him and he will buy whatever he feels like buying as
compared to the earlier situation where only one product used to be available and he had to buy
that only.

ECONOMY
Soon after the independence the process of rebuilding the economy started as at that time the
country was not in good position. The first five year plan for development of India was
implemented in 1952. Both agriculture and industrial sector were developing. The contribution
of agricultural sector in the GDP of the country is decreasing. It came down to 17% in 2007-08
from 32% in 1990-91. Due to the fact that India is based on agricultural sector it employees 52 %
of the total workforce and despite of a steady decline of its share in GDP, it is still the largest
economic sector and plays an important role in the development of the country. The poverty rate
has declined in the time.

The infrastructure development was in the hands of the public sector at the time of independence
and that sustained India from higher growth rate as India’s spending on power construction,
transportation, telecommunication and real estate was very low.

Education

A major part of the Indian population was not educated at the time of independence; therefore
the literacy rate was very low in the 50’s. Now the education India is taken to the next level and
the literacy rate has come up to 52% according to 1991 census. The literacy rate in urban
population is higher than the rural population because of the fact that the rural population is still
following the old customs. There were only 19 universities in India at the time of independence
as compared to 219 universities or institutions at university level in 1997. The government has
made education free for primary level which has contributed to the increase in literacy in India.

People from India have a high number of academicians and good knowledge of English because
of which a lot of companies now have come to India.

The Green Revolution

During the period of green revolution in India primarily the effort was to achieve food self-
sufficiency which was not successful. The population of India was increasing at a much faster
rate than the food production. The agriculture sector had a rapid change during the green
revolution as efforts were largely concentrated on expanding the farming area. The green
revolution changed the whole situation of the country. Due to green revolution plenty of jobs
were created for both agricultural and industrial sector. The creditworthiness of country
increased as India was able to payback all loans it took from world bank.

The change in the agriculture sector and its contribution to the GDP led to increase in the
purchasing power of the people of the rural areas but there buying behavior did not see that much
change as still there are very less choices available in rural areas for buying. If a consumer from
rural area has to buy a car he would buy a small car even if he has the purchasing power as his
buying behavior will be influenced by the rural customs. On the other hand the increasing GDP
has lead to increase in the per capita income and the purchasing power in urban area. The
individual from urban area will spend more and would buy brands rather than buying any other
product as he has got choices available to him.

Liberalization and Globalization

In the early nineties the steps taken for liberalization and globalization led to more sectors
opening for foreign direct investment. Foreign investors entered the telecom, roads, ports,
airports and other major sectors. By these steps India was able to step up its GDP. The import
and exports were affected because of the globalization and liberalization and it helped in
reducing the poverty.

Conclusion

As we can see from all the details that India is a developing country and is continuously growing
since years. It is sure that this growth will continue. The economy will keep on facing changes
in the coming time and so the income pattern will change side by side which will affect the
consumer buying behavior continuously. So the marketers need to study the changes deeply to
keep the track of the consumer behavior.

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