About INgene blog : First ever Indian Youth trend Insights blog

About INgene : First ever Indian Youth trend Insights blog:
This blog explores the detailed characteristics of Young-India and explains the finer & crucial differences they have with their global peers. The blog also establishes the theory of “adopted differentiation” (Copyright Kaustav SG,2007) and how the Indian & Inglodian youth are using this as a tool to differentiate themselves from the “aam aadmi” (mass population of India) to establish their new found identity.

The term youth refers to persons who are no longer children and not yet adults. Used colloquially, however the term generally refers to a broader, more ambiguous field of reference- from the physically adolescent to those in their late twenties.
Though superficially the youth all over the world exhibits similar [degree of] attitude, [traits of] interests & [deliverance of] opinion but a detailed observation reveals the finer differential characteristics which are crucial and often ignored while targeting this group as a valued consumer base. India is one of the youngest countries in the world with 60% of its population less then 24 years of age and is charted as the most prospective destination for the retail investment in the A. T. Kearney’s Global Retail Opportunity Report, 2007. With the first ever non-socialistic generation’s thriving aspiration & new found money power combined with steadily growing GDP, bubbling IT industry and increasing list of confident young entrepreneurs, the scenario appears very lucrative for the global and local retailers to target the “Youngisthan” (young-India). But, the secret remains in the understanding of the finer AIOs of this generation. The Indian youth segment roughly estimates close to 250million (between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five) and can be broadly divided (socio-psychologically) into three categories: the Bharatiyas, the Indians & the Inglodians (copyright Kaustav SG 2008). The Bharatiyas estimating 67% of the young population lives in the rural (R1, R2 to R4 SEC) areas with least influence of globalization, high traditional values. They are least economically privileged, most family oriented Bollywood influenced generation. The Indians constitute 31.5% (A, B,C, D & E SEC) and have moderate global influence. They are well aware of the global trends but rooted to the Indian family values, customs and ethos. The Inglodians are basically the creamy layers (A1,A SEC) and marginal (1.5% or roughly three million) in number though they are strongly growing (70% growth rate). Inglodians are affluent and consume most of the trendy & luxury items. They are internet savvy & the believers of global-village (a place where there is no difference between east & west, developing & developed countries etc.), highly influenced by the western music, food, fashion & culture yet Indian at heart.








Wednesday, September 1, 2010

the "desi quest" is growing

as I have stated earlier, the "self confidence level" of "being desi" is growing rapidly among the youth of India and following the clue, a range of products are appearing with "indianized" features (...the new insignia for Rupee/ Indian currency is also one of these products; or else, why the hell the GOI will wake up to get a face for Indian currency after 60 years of independence!)...the Casio calculator with Indian comma marker and the Pine mobile with Hindi and Muslim Calendars are the latest add-ons in "desi quest" of youth in India.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Way to go, Kaustav!

I've been traveling around India for a long time now and been noticing youth's illogical aspiration towards western "culture". C'mon guys, you have your own great culture! The proto-culture, I'd say. And now you're trading it off for the right to be the subject of the fake one!! Reminds me of Alice Walker's Everyday Use.That's not gonna end well.

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I would have thought the 'desi' quest is an ongoing process rather than a trend. It is merely following the age old dictum, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The moment any section of society pushes the society in a direction, some other section will oppose it!

If you have noted this desi 'trend' among some people, then it is evidence that there has been a (or, there is still a) anti-desi (aka. westernisation, globalisation) push by some members of society.