Metro cities get stingy, emerging cities splurge

The dynamics of purchasing power of an average Indian are changing fast with big metros, like Delhi and Mumbai, losing out to smaller cities like Gurgaon, Pune and Kochi. Chetan Chauhan reports. Mixed bag: spending habits

Updated on: Jul 7, 2013, 02:28:19 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The dynamics of purchasing power of an average Indian are changing fast with big metros losing out to smaller cities.

The latest data on per capita consumption in the last few years shows that upcoming towns like Gurgaon, Pune and Kochi have thumped Delhi and Mumbai on the consumption pattern.

In 2012, the per capita spending in urban Haryana was Rs. 3,817 per month as compared to Rs. 3,298 in Delhi. Likewise, in Kerala is better than Delhi at Rs. 3,408. The per capita expenditure of these two states is slightly more than that of Mumbai.

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) measures monthly expenditure on per capita food and non-food items such as intoxicants, clothing and education.

The 2011-12 survey took into account a person’s expenditure on as many as 2,000 items, including air fare, internet and mobile phones.

But, the survey did not include a person’s expenditure on buying a car, home, holidaying or repayment of loan. Even though the survey covers over one lakh households across India, many experts point out sample size limitation as an issue of concern.

In 2004-05, among the states, the per capita expenditure in urban areas was highest for Delhi, followed by Kerala and Maharashtra. Haryana was at the fifth position with monthly per capita expenditure being Rs. 1,050.

The next few years of economic boom and the UPA government’s focus shifting from main cities to new urban centres and the rural India resulted in income levels increasing outside the main cities. It showed its impact on the people’s spending habits in upcoming towns and cities.

By 2006-07, Delhi lost its top slot and urban centres in Kerala had earned the position of having the highest per capita expenditure in urban areas.

But the new threat was emerging from upcoming towns in Haryana and Maharashtra, where spending power was increasing at a fast pace.

In 2011- 2012, the average spending of an urbanite in Haryana increased threefold to Rs. 3,817, thus earning the distinction of having the highest per capita expenditure for any state in the country.

“Most of the neo-rich now live in towns like Gurgaon, Faridabad and Panckhula as traditional cities like Delhi and Chandigarh don’t have space to accommodate people who have money,” said an official of national statistical commission.

And if the present trend continues, the per capita expenditure in urban areas in Delhi would be less than Himachal Pradesh, where spending has witnessed almost a fourfold increase between 2004 and 2011.

The 2012 survey also said that for average urban Indian, 42.6% of the value of household consumption was accounted for by food, including 9% by beverages and processed food, 7% by milk and its products, and less than 7% by cereals.

Education accounted for nearly 7%, while fuel, clothing (including footwear) and conveyance each accounted for about 6½%.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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