Domestic consumption is a key pillar of India’s economy and a key contributor to GDP growth. It is driven by households’ situation of earning and by the spending choices that they make. Yet in India, we have very little household-level data and insight on earning, and even though we have some on spending and savings, there is no integrated data or integrated insight on the linkages between how India earns, spends, saves, lives, thinks, accesses public goods and infrastructure.
We also have a lot of ‘single point’ average estimates usually derived from macro-economic supply sided data. However, there is a lot of heterogeneity in Indian households and an ‘average’ is not worth much insight, especially when macro-economic data or supply side data is used to describe and analyse India’s consumer economy or citizen environment. The challenge therefore is to come up with an integrated model that factors in income data, product ownership data, demographics related information, psychographics, expenditure and savings data etc. to create a holistic, reliable and a multi-dimensional profile of today’s Indian consumer at a desirable micro level.
Income, Consumption, Savings, Investments, Borrowing & Debt, Assets, etc., Quantum, patterns, changes over time; P&L and Balance Sheet of households
Detailed occupation mapping, patterns within households, nature of “formality”, time utilisation (disguised unemployment)
Amenities, ownership of durables, nature of housing, access to public goods and welfare, Health status and expenditure and use (patterns) to sources of health care; Comprehensive Development Index
Financial inclusion, digital profile and usage, banking and digital payments behaviours, old age, financial security, social inclusion, Social mobility – intergeneration and over time.
Basic amenities, DBT, quality, access, and use; welfare programs, impact.
Classification by lifestyle (LS) - youth, adult, women, old age…
Public opinion on direction of change of state of the nation, performance of the economy, governance, corruption, law and order, and other contemporary issues of national interest; priority expectation from current government going forward; performance rating of state and central government; perceived impact of panchayati raj; etc.
