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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
How well rural consumption is doing is subjective. What isn’t subjective is how growing indebtedness, combined with stagnant income growth, is creating a tinderbox for households, banks and consumer companies that no one is talking about.
Editor's note: This is essential reading for anyone who is interested in the state of the Indian economy. Economists, CEOs and decision makers, make sure you don’t miss this. This story must also be read by anyone who uses the government’s narrative in their work to design strategies for selling a product or service, especially those catering to rural India.
A familiar phenomenon—debt-driven consumption—is unfolding in an unfamiliar place: rural India. For years, rising household debt and falling net financial savings were seen as a largely urban affliction. That distinction no longer holds. What was once an urban trend is now embedded in the countryside. And that is a problem.
“Indebtedness is rising,” says Prof. Arjun Jayadev, director at the Centre for the Study of the Indian Economy at Azim Premji University. Debt, he notes, can play a constructive role, but only under a crucial precondition: “Freeing up consumption through leverage is not necessarily a bad thing, but only if …
Colgate ties up with 100Days.co to scale Palmolive online. But the long overlooked brand may need more than a digital push.
The FMCG major acquired the maker of Ching’s Secret to make the most of its high margins, but things didn’t go to plan. Two years and a few lessons later, TCPL is trying to change that.
Reliance Consumer Products is relying on aggressive pricing in the hope that its staples brand will become a household name. But such tactics can go only so far.
