Rural Momentum |
India’s consumption map is being redrawn, and this time the most decisive strokes are coming from its villages. A detailed look at household ownership of durable goods over the past decade reveals a transformation far deeper than the standard narrative of “aspirational India.” Rural households are not merely catching up with urban lifestyles, they are reshaping the contours of demand in ways that will define India’s economic trajectory over the next decade. Nowhere is this shift clearer than in motor-vehicle ownership. A rise from 19 per cent of rural households in 2011-12 to 59 per cent in 2023-24 is not a routine upgrade; it marks a structural change.
Better rural roads, aggressive retail credit, and dispersed non-farm jobs have created the conditions for mobility to become a necessity rather than a luxury. While urban ownership has grown too, the narrowing of the gap signals an important convergence: the village is no longer an........