the new Indian middle class

Filed in archive Global Economy on July 5, 2004

Kurt mails in this good article from Business 2.0 about India's burgeoning middle class. It cites Gurgaon, south of New Delhi, where my ex-company contributed good money to the development of the shopping suburb :).

"On a typical afternoon, 26-year-old Shruti Sharma heads with friends to Gurgaon, a New Delhi suburb that's also a shopper's paradise. The malls here are vertical versions of their U.S. counterparts: five-story high-tech bazaars with multiplex cinemas, ice cream parlors, escalators, parking lots, even Muzak (smarmy versions of Bollywood disco hits). Outside it's so hot the asphalt is melting -- talk about Indian summer -- but inside, shoppers stroll in air-conditioned bliss past a Pizza Hut, a Subway, a Benetton, and a TGI Friday's. Sharma volunteers that her favorite brands are, in no particular order, Nike (NKE), Nokia (NOK), McDonald's (MCD), and Levi's. "Buying habits are changing," she says with a shy smile. "Nothing less than a brand name like Nike or adidas will do."