“Oh,
it’s my apple iPhone that helped me reach here, you know! Its direction sense
is much better than mine! Btw, which levels of angry birds have you cleared;
somehow I just can’t get my hands off it.” “I am not into it right now, have
registered for a marathon, got a new pair of Nike shoes too! Come; let’s grab a
bite form McDonald. A burger and coke would be enough to give me a high. And dude,
did you see that swanky stall where a bunch of young chicks are giving guys a shave and distributing free samples from Gillette.”
“Ha, ha, I don’t have time for all that now; need to rush and google up to
complete my assignment on some random rivalry between IBM & Microsoft
termed -The soft rivalry!”
That could have passed off as a conversation
between any two bubbly teenagers in the corridors of a plush suburban mall in San Francisco, or in its sister city 8700 miles across the
globe, Bangalore,
which had a minor unnoticeable shudder when it was re-identified as Bengaluru.
The reality does sink in, post protectionism,
the economic liberalization & global economy has borne its first fruits.
The top 10 brands of the USA
figure not only in India’s
‘Most admired brands’ list but have become an integral part of life &
conversations for a vast population. So does that mean that we are not way too
far behind the average USA;
that we might actually catch up with them in a decade or so?
With these thoughts filled in my mind, I was
sipping a cup of tea when my 38 year old maid dropped a utensil with a cling in
the kitchen. “didi, sorry” she shrieked from inside. That reminded me that I
had to attend her daughter’s baby showers. I had visited their humble dwelling
once. They had a color television, a refrigerator & a couple of
motor-bikes and not one but 6 mobile phones - the basic featured non-smart
mobile phones that delivered on the basic promise of ‘communication’ perfectly.
Their rented house was spacious enough for me to stage a dance performance. Her
daughter had just then returned from a Hindi movie that she had gone to with
her friends from graduate college. Her son was getting ready to visit the
internet centre in the next street for the monthly browsing session. In those
twenty minutes that I spent there, he blurted out his ambition to work for a
call centre and earn as much money as possible possibly twenty times. My maid
was cribbing to me about how her life-long savings was eaten up in a treatment
of her brother. “I spent all my monthly salary in eating & educating my
children. What was left was set aside as savings to be given away as dowry for
my daughter. Do you even expect me to spend thousands of money monthly in
insuring the 6 members of the family in anticipation??”
Looks
like it is not an easy task -we still have a good distance to cover up, maybe a
couple of more decades than what I expected initially, but I guess soon , we
will catch up with the US & be at par with them in lifestyle.
I decided to get this out of my mind &
take a leisurely walk along the Wadala
Bridge that would take me
to the shopping streets of Dadar. As I ambled along pointlessly, my vision
rested upon the tattered road-side make-shift yet permanent structures which
formed the homes for at least 100 million Indians. These are not peculiar to
Mumbai though they are famed in the maximum city. A peep into their lifestyle
and one would immediately laud their skilful space management. Surprised I was
to see a Dish antenna decorating the household and a high-quality color television,
the only article that adorned the otherwise barren living room which I realized
would double up as a bedroom in the nights. I zoomed out and took the focus to
a little towards the left, a man stood there soaked bathing. A little more
disruption, further left, and on a cot popularly known as charpai, was laid an
aged woman relaxing, breathing in the not-so-fresh air. Ladders for
staircase, double floored structures decked with balconies made of corrugated
tin sheets, dubious sanitary conditions, and huddles of uncouth muddled people
smeared the ‘ground-line’.
Perhaps we aren’t even close to scaling the
Everest. As long as we don’t get caught mid-way in the ‘death zone’, we should
be fine.
 |
| India - A true Diversity |
Estimates by various committees, from World
Bank to Indian Planning commission put the number of Indians below poverty line
(living below $1.25 PPP) at anywhere between 28% to sometimes even more than
37% . Assuming India’s
ever growing population is at a standstill at 1.2 billion, at least 400 million
Indians are deprived of basic necessities, spending only around Rs 500 per
month on all bare essentials food, fuel, light, clothing and footwear. Well,
putting it all in context, the size of deprived Indians by itself is a 1.3*USA
(population of 312 million).
Let us make perspectives clearer
by comparing apples with apples and not with oranges, papaya, banana or
anything else.
A lot has been said about the
evolution of the Indian middle class and the potential of the Indian consumer
market in the long term. Let us take a look at how they fare today in
comparison with the current economy status of the USA. When I say current, I actually
mean at any point in time +/- 5 years from today.
There are a few important things
that we need to interpret from the above ‘Quality of Living’ charts: Some
obvious but important ones:
- The total population of India
is at 1.2 billion is 4 times the total population of USA which
is currently at 312 million
- There are more number of super rich Indians than
Americans. So, here I am talking about the Business honchos Ambanis ,
Tatas, Birlas , the Bollywood artists, the controversial politicians and others
who have amassed wealth to the tune of $ 500,000. They form 1% of the entire
country’s population in both the cases.
- Though there are 5 categories in both the
countries, the definition of their household income is slightly different
in both cases. In PPP terms (Purchasing Power Parity), The Indian working
class will earn close to $ 6000 less than their counterparts in the USA;
similarly, the Indian lower middle class would earn approximately $ 11,000
less than their counterparts in the other part of the world. So essentially,
the Indian population gets to eat, buy less than what their equals/ with
whom they are compared to in the USA get to do.
- While 50% of Americans earn over $ 30,000 a year, 78%
of Indians earn less than $ 24,000 a year.
- But still there are 250 million Indians earning
over $ 60,000 a year compared to 150 million Americans earning over $
75,000 a year
This concludes to a singular
point according to me; on an average India is far behind and its quality
of living has to be improved dramatically but this definitely doesn’t offset the
sheer strength of number of High Net Worth individuals. India does not have a particular quality of
living but several; India
is thriving in several centuries at the same time and that too in perfect
harmony.
A stroll across any city of this
country would prove this point; one would bump into at least 4 categories of
barbers thriving simultaneously and making fine profitable business within
their boundaries. The Nomadic barbers, who move around with their kit. Their
shops are generally set under a shady tree or crossroads of a market/ station. A
Dilapidated cloth supported by bamboo shoots serves as a shop. There is usually
a big mirror and an ancient rickety chair on which his client is seated. Then
there are these ‘Barber Shops’ which are shops with no doors which means that
the talent and skill of the artists (barbers) are at a display for the general
public’s attention & admiration. There
are two barbers working away to glory simultaneously. Typically the shops have a
huge mirror and two cushioned rotating chairs for their customers. A radio can
be seen blasting away regional songs in the background. The third type is what
is called the ‘Hair Cutting Salons’. The names of these salons would have been
borrowed from the famous Bollywood actors like Shah Rukh or Amitabh or regional
actors like Rajinikanth, with their names royally misspelled in various ways to
avoid copyright infringement. The name boards would also have stylized images
of these actors too. A ‘welcome board’ hung on the glass door are characteristic
of these salons. A head barber who employs a couple of other barbers and
trainee-apprentices owns these shops. Rotating wheel chairs dons these salons
too. The whirling of fans interferes with the music being played in these
enclosures. Then, on top of the ladder are
the unisex salons or the male-only salons which have cool hair stylists imported
from around the country hanging around. They are definitely air-conditioned and
have mild English music floating around. Services from pedicure and manicure to
hair re-bonding are provided Entertainment is on top priority with in house
snooker pools and bunches of magazines. All of these salons thrive concurrently
and attract adequate customers to keep the owners amused throughout the day. That
is distinctive of India,
a country that lives in numerous centuries at the same time.
