Rama Bijapurkar

India's growth is powered by hard-working people and a rising 'Middle India';. This aspirational group needs financial enablement and infrastructure support to accelerate mobility and sustain growth

India's consumption story spans mass and class markets alike, with demand spread across regions and incomes, calling for better tracking of household cash flows rather than outdated binaries

A closer look at demand visibility, firm strategy, and the role of long-term FDI shows why private investment remains slow even in a strong economy

Our new infrastructure is a definite physical upgrade over the old, but it seems to come with its own challenges

Urban consumer perceptions on the economic situation are still in the negative zone, though getting progressively less negative from January 2025

Strengthening domestic consumption needs creative policies encouraging new economy business models that can develop and deepen India's mass markets comprising small consumers and small suppliers

A fragmented, fatigued population can't fuel economic growth the old way

Bulky feedback forms and tying up CEO bonus to net promoter scores is not customer centricity

In another narrative, since 2024 main street watchers have been flagging slower consumption growth

It is fundamentally bad governance to be on both the "buy" and "sell" sides at the same time

From doing away with some gender-friendly courtesies to choosing to be called Chairman, there's no one-size-fits-all way to serve the cause of feminism

How we've shifted from loving all things Western to embracing global, desi, and global desi vibes -- with fewer value judgments

Conflicting data, fragmented markets, and outdated metrics: Here's why reframing the narrative on India's consumption is essential to address the diverse realities of 2025

Our world rankings are, without question, a stunning achievement that calls for monumental pride

Evaluating corporate results through the lens of factors affecting consumer demand makes more sense than the reverse

Nation-building education is the govt's job. It should do it with the same might it used for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Aadhaar linking, Covid vaccination drive, and financial inclusion initiative

The idea that large companies need demand visibility to invest, so lower-income demand needs to be stimulated, does not hold water

There are two distinct political narratives in the country today--one giving voice to an "aspiring India" and the other to a "hopeless India". Both factions have their work cut out

Despite the fatigue of having to find work gigs , there is hopefulness and striving, and little anger

The ethnographic study findings suggest that politics is not on the radar of 18-21 year old Indians