the socio-psychological segmentation of Denim preference in India : Youth consumer segmentation

Socio-Psychology and consumer behavior : India

I nsight young14 - socio psychology and consumer behavior in india from Kaustav Sengupta

The ‘FUN Generation’ : Youth in India

An overdose of entertainment, never-ending wave of highly emotional advertisement and media campaigns are moulding this generation as a group of youngsters that always wants to remain ‘high’ and seeks fun out of anything / everything. This Friday, I went to watch the Bollywood movie Barfi, and was shocked to see the reaction of many youth (15years to 28years) who were laughing, making catcalls even when an autistic girl on screen was not able to pronounce the name! They were trying hard to squeeze fun out of every reel!

The socio-cyber life of youth is always exciting! The made up and blown-up news in cyber world spreads faster than the real. The news can be as simple as the nudity of a Prince or the topless image of a Princess, who’s not even worthwhile to look at! The certain embarrassment (as perceived) at the other end brings in ‘thrill’ (and fun) to the viewer. The dopamine rush prolongs and youth tries hard to find similar experience out of anything (from the news of mob molestation to the reality shows). The anti-corruption movement was another form of ‘adventure’ with which one wanted to associate to ‘like’ and ‘talk’about it so they remains ‘cool’ and 'authentic' among peers. The mobile cam was on as well as Facebook updates. ‘Fun’ factor was obvious, almost similar to rock music fest ‘woodstock’!

The cumulative luring of ‘provocative media’ : Yahoo’s ‘raunchy’ propaganda

In India, Yahoo had 39.9 million unique visitors in June and invariably most of the users were young Indians (15 to 25years of age). Recently, I am observing that yahoo has taken a strategy to promote raunchy and misleading news items to popularize their website. The news items are strategically positioned and timed in such a way that the moment one wants to log in to the mail, he / she has to ‘see’ (and unconsciously read) the luring news. One such news is given below.

 

The propaganda that Yahoo has taken is not only fatal to a young Indian (teenage mind and curiosity) but also to the whole nation. I am not sure about the long term vision of this strategy that global internet giants like Yahoo are taking but definitely it is going to effect the social mindset and moral habit of the largest democracy in the world. The above news “I had sex for money” will lure many teenagers with a perception that ‘having sex for money is cool’ and one can come to the front page of Yahoo just because she was doing it and now twitting too!

 

The moral ethics of Yahoo has gone to drain in the name of ‘business’ that they are expecting to churn out of this developing nation, even if that is achieved at the cost of cultural damage.

Social media behavior among youth in India : a review

in a previous report quoted in my post on "multiple user accounts at social networking site" mentioned the 'fatigue' among youth from social media. Here's another report published at comscore found that Google Sites ranked as the top destination in June 2012 reaching nearly 95 percent of the online population, while social networking reigned as the top online activity accounting for 25.2 percent of all online minutes!
The study – conducted by ComScore in June 2012 – exposes the accessible and engagement habits of Indian Internet users. While the Google Sites leads the list of top online destination in India with 94.8% reach, Facebook stands quite close behind with 83.4%. More than 57 million unique visitors accessed Google sites in June 2012 compare to Facebook’s 50.8 million. Among Indian brands, Times Internet sites took leads with 20.5 million reach beating its close competitors Network 18 and Rediff.com with significant margin.Yahoo and Microsoft Sites are comparatively less attractive among Indian internet users. While Yahoo Sites gained attention from 39.9 million unique visitors in June, Microsoft Sites reduced to only 29.3 million unique visitors. The report mentioned, Indian Internet users are more connected and engaged with social media titan than Google Sites. Each Indian Internet user spent around 224 minutes in June compare to 155 minutes over Google Sites. Social Media has emerged as the most preferred among users as it consumes more than 25% of total internet time spent. Surprisingly, Search and Email grabbed only 8.1% and 3.2% of total internet time respectively – losing the attention among Indian Internet users.In last few years, Google has been the most preferred and responsive destination for advertisers and marketers. However, the trend seems to shifting towards social networking sites, especially towards Facebook. For advertisers, the most valuable aspect in digital marketing the amount of time users stay engaged with any site and Social Media clearly leads here with 25% of online time consumption. Facebook has emerged as a clear winner over Google where Indian Internet users are spending more time than any other online property. In India, Google Android is the leading Smartphone OS and Facebook has serious take on it. While 93% of Android users in India are accessing social media from their phone, Facebook is equally recording high response from Google’s Android than any other mobile device currently available in 3^rd biggest Internet country in the world.

The interesting contradiction of insights are arising due to the misunderstanding of 'usage' of social network. As mentioned earlier in my previous article, the youth in India are having multiple accounts to stay connected at social networks. It can be a growing trend due to affinity towards 'split persona' and easy 'mutation' behavior among youth. India, being a diversified multi-layered society encourages individuals to mutate according to the social environment (in regards to dressing, attitude, having, interest and opinion). 

In this song sequence of "Delhi 6" Bollywood movie its realistically shown on how the youth 'mutates' according to the social environment. The heroine of the movie changes the dress to appear 'different and contemporary' which might not be 'recorded' in a conventional 'survey' if any organization do the same on dressing styles / dressing behavior among youth in India (cause, she will never tell in the survey that she wears 'western dresses' !).

Mob molestation and moral policing - an expression of anguish over the social disparity: youth insights in India

Molestation and mass attack on ‘youth of higher socio-economic class’ is becoming a prevalent trend in Indian urban cities which is unsially coined as ‘social stigma’. Though the blame is on ‘social perverts and mob behavior’ but the real cause remains somewhere else.

The varied economic and socio-psychological difference between the “have” and “have not” in India are widening faster with the rapid wealth accumulation among the ‘creamy layers’. As per an article published in India Today (dated. Oct. 23rd, 2011) “India is shining for only a select few. The impressive economic growth of our country has brought smiles on the faces of the rich and the powerful even as the rest suffer in distress and drudgery. This was revealed by the human development report (HDR) released by Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia”. The report also stated “In India, the distribution of assets is extremely unequal, with the top 5 per cent of the households possessing 38 per cent of the total assets and the bottom 60 per cent of households owning a mere 13 per cent. The disparity is more glaring in the urban areas where 60 per cent of the households at the bottom own just 10 per cent of the assets. It is not just the gaping income inequality that is alarming. The difference in the consumption expenditure between the rich and poor households has also increased both in rural and urban areas between 1993-94 and 2004-05. The report paints a grim picture on the poverty front. It clearly states that despite the economy growing at 6 per cent this is not enough to reduce poverty in the country. In fact, the rate of decline in poverty in India is not in sync with the high rate of economic growth, which is evident from the fact that the number of poor people in the country has barely fallen over a 30-year period. In 1973-74, the number of poor in India stood at 332 million. The figure remained the same in the next decade, registering a marginal decline in 1993- 94 (320 million) and witnessing a stagnancy in again 2004-05, the report states.”

80% of your likely income is determined at birth by your citizenship and the income class of your parents, says Milanovic, an economist at the World Bank’s Development Research Group. With intelligence, hard work and luck, you can move up in your country’s income distribution, but it may do little to improve your ranking among the almost 7 billion people in the world unless your country, too, forges ahead. Sometimes, if constrained by access to education and income mobility, you can’t even pull ahead in your own country. That, in a nutshell, is the story behind global inequality. And, at a time when the incomes of the world’s top 1.75% earners exceed those of the bottom 77%, it raises all sorts of questions, such as the role of development, international migration and the global equality of opportunity, says Milanovic, one of the world’s leading experts on inequality.

The Right to Education Act in India, passed in 2009, mandates that private schools set aside 25% of admissions for low-income, underprivileged and disabled students. This act, though ensures that the children of varied class / socio-economic status study together but it doesn’t ensure that there will not be any ‘frustration’ among those kids from low-income group seating in the same class with higher income group and understanding that their parents are actually ‘poor’!  The article published at The Wall Street Journal  presents the case of Sri Ram school in Delhi. “Yet the most notable results so far are frustration and disappointment as the separations that define Indian society—between rich and poor, employer and servant, English-speaker and Hindi-speaker—are upended. This has led even some supporters of the experiment to conclude that the chasm between the top and bottom of Indian society is too great to overcome…Shri Ram itself is challenging the law in the Supreme Court, arguing in part that the government exceeded its authority in imposing the quotas. "We have a social obligation to bridge the gap between rich and poor," says Manju Bharat Ram, Shri Ram's founder. "But sometimes the gap is just too wide."… Some parents, having encouraged their household staff to enroll their children, are also grappling with a profound change in the nature of their relationship with their servants. The article quoted Ms. Sharma, the 51-year-old principal, who felt this jolt herself two years ago when Chan Kumari, a floor-mopper in her home, enrolled her son, Vipin, at Shri Ram. That's when the school first adopted a similar quota for underprivileged kids under a local Delhi law, increasing it to 25% this year, when the federal Right to Education Act took effect. "I was horrified. A parent in my school, mopping my floors—I just couldn't handle it," says Ms. Sharma. "I can't sit across the table from someone who sweeps my floors."

The ‘dikhawa’ of wealth as a growing need of exhibitionism of one’s belonging is rapid among the younger population of ‘creamy layers’. Saldanha (2002) articulated well in his article “MUSIC, SPACE, IDENTITY:GEOGRAPHIES OF YOUTH CULTURE IN BANGALORE” : “By driving away from parents and school, the car provides the possibility of creating own space and time. The car is fetishized, specially by boys, who integrate the technics and aesthetics of the thing into their sexual culturesince the car stereo has been widely available, driving around became driving on a soundtrack. In the car, you play music for friends. It can be played louder than at home, and loud music urges the driver to speed up, and speeding up makes the outside seem even more hectic. In the car, you can smoke and drink and make out. For the wealthy youth of Bangalore, driving around is a very urban, very modern, very non-Indian matter.. In Indian cities, motor vehicles symbolize  strong  classiŽcations  of  social  groups. Rich youth have enough time and money to enjoy driving around – petrol is relatively costly. Rich youth can afford a bribe when any problems should arise with the cops. Rich youth give a cultural (as opposed to functional) meaning to these rides through what they do inside the car: playing Western pop, gossiping, flirting, preparing themselves for the evening out. They don’t just go somewhere… Driving around in a cooled ivory tower. A solipsistic inside that coheres when you  know that  because  you’re there, you’re  eluding something. Often, young Bangaloreans skip school, homework, tuition or family get-togethers to go for a ride. And thus, at least phenomenologically, the conspicuous consumption of the car creates a break-away from everything that the old India stands for: poverty, chaos, ignorance, useless education, duty, fanaticism, collectivism, sexual segregation, sluggishness and the absence of style… The  pleasure  of being looked at interacted with the pleasure of dancing. Sexy clothes are pretty pointless if you don’t let yourself be admired from all sides while dancing. Hence the comparison was made quite quickly, both by myself and by the participants, between the Whitefield pool party and the MTV programme The Grind. The Grindis basically a collection of good-looking youths in swimwear, dancing suggestively in a summer setting, all trying  their  best to attract the camera  lens. Only, in Whitefield there wasn’t any camera. There were  peepers, though. Over the surrounding  walls, poor  workers from  neighbouring  farms  were  watching  the  party  bustle. An  interesting, perverse form of exhibitionism/voyeurism came into  being. The global youth knew  very  well  that  they  were  being  watched, that  these  local  others  had probably never heard such loud pop music, never seen so much liquor and tight tops  together  before. They  knew  that  every  three  free-of-charge  vodkas  they drank added up to the weekly salary of the peeping Toms behind the wall. But they feigned an indifference for the fascination they produced amongst the lower classes, just as they do when they drive around. They feigned, because they were thoroughly aware of the visibility of their Western fashion, music, behaviour and wealth. To a certain  extent this  visibility  is  inevitable  in a modern  space  like Bangalore. And  provoking  culture  shock  can  be  fun  for  both  sides. Yet, the workings of power in this situation are undeniable. There was, in Whitefield, an ambiguous balance between exhibitionism and voyeurism, a delicate consensus on the rationality of power; the poor devils could also have been rudely chased away…”

Incidentally, till date most of the ‘mass molestation’ cases in India took place outside the bars / pubs or in some places that can be noted as ‘places of socio-economic discrimination’ (ie. rave party houses, resorts, gardens, malls etc.)! In one of the recent incidents that occurred at Guahat a 17-year-old girl, who is pursuing studies in fashion designing in the national capital, was attacked when she was returning home after celebrating the birthday of her friend, a teenaged girl, at a bar. The girl was subjected to assault and molestation for nearly half an hour before being rescued by some passers-by. The similar incidents occur every year in the capital during the “new year bash” (mostly outside, after the party gets over and drunk girls wait for the drive home).  In one such incident at Gurgaon a young girl was allegedly molested by a group of New Year revellers. The police had to resort to lathicharge to prevent the group of 25-30 people from harassing the girl outside a pub, media reports said.  While the ‘creamy layers’ were celebrating inside the clubs, at M.G. Road, in public space the ‘mass’ started celebrating “new year”. Windscreens of more than two dozen cars were smashed, hooligans danced atop cars and traffic was held up, before some policemen baton-charged the crowd. The victim stated “I was horrified to see boys touching me and passing derogatory comments. They were many of them and they lifted me up. They were taking me away but the police saved me that night or I would not have been alive today,” she said. An eyewitness, Rajesh Kumar, said, “They were touching her initially and ended up tearing her clothes. They were passing lewd remarks in the middle of the road. I was shocked to see what could happen on Gurgaon roads.”

The anguish is majorly among the fastest growing middle class and lower middle class. Them, who is in the duality of lifestyle due to the rapid economic growth,.

The so called ‘extremist’ religious-political groups such as “Ram Sene’ are also attacking the places of socio-economic discrimination in the name of ‘purification’ of the society as ‘moral policing’.  These political parties understood that the fastest way to gain popularity among the ‘have not’ in India is the social bashing against ‘have’ in the name of moral policing.

The mass molestation and planned moral policing in India are varied ways to take ‘revenge’ and express anguish against the ‘other’ socio-economic class.

Read more :

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704083904576337373758647478.html

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~saldanha/published_files/saldanha%20cs.pdf

http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/DEL-new-year-girl-molested-police-lathicharge-revellers-2700099.html

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Haryana/Molestation-victim-recalls-horror-vows-never-to-return/Article1-790358.aspx

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/article3806392.ece

http://www.hindustantimes.com/photos-news/photo-story-news/NewYearrevellersfacemolestation/Article4.aspx

http://www.indianexpress.com/fullcoverage/mangalore-pub-attack/191/

The 'Multipls accounts' in Social networking sites : Youth trend in India

In a report citing the survey conducted by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) stated that the youngsters in urban India have started experiencing social media fatigue, logging on less frequently to social networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Orkut, Linkedin, Myspace, Friendster, Hi5 and BigAdda than when they initially signed up, according to a survey. About 55 per cent of all respondents across these cities said they have consciously reduced time spent on social media websites and are no longer as active and enthusiastic about their favourite social networks as when they had signed up. Nearly 30 per cent of these said they have deactivated or deleted their accounts and profiles from these websites and it is no longer a craze among them, while most of the remaining users said they have started maintaining a low profile on social networks as their privacy is being breached.

  If the report is believed, then the downfall of popularity of the social networking could have been termed as ‘ SNS fatigue’ among youth due to various reasons including ‘breach of privacy”. But, according to the qualitative research by INgene (conducted via personal interviews in 3 metro cities of India) there’s another ‘social wave’ of having ‘multiple accounts’ in SNS. The youth are clustering friends, family members and ‘new found strangers’ according to the ‘closeness’ (especially among young females). Various accounts are used to keep the interaction mode controlled (hence, the transparency of identity). Even, sharing the photos is ‘controlled’ via multiple accounts. Even in the display image actual photos are not uploaded (can be a photo of a celebrity whom the youth adores or a nice flower!) always unless it’s a ‘personal’ account. The ‘[anonymous accounts’ are used to ‘understand’ a stranger, before indicating him / her about the ‘actual’ account.

Many offices have banned the use of Social networking sites hence the SNS mobile apps are more in use.

Moreover, as I have mentioned in my earlier report, the ‘adopted differentiation’ is visible even in the use of Social Networking sites where the ‘niche’ sites (the beta version of Zucker) are becoming more popular than the mass (ie. Orkut, Facebook, Bigadda etc.).

Emerging socio psychological trend among young girls in India

The alternative ways of recognition gaining is becoming popular : http://www.desiclub.com/community/culture/culture_article.cfm?id=511
http://www.masaladance.com/

Though the social resistance over changing gender role change is visible:

http://www.punemirror.in/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=4&contentid=201207142012071409285011394763061

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-18824367

Youth Fashion Trend Direction in India : Spring /Summer 2013

Youth fashion trend in India 2012 (men's hair style)

A look-book on the trend of facial hair styles among the young innovators of India:

Youth fashion trend in India 2012 (Men's hair styles) from Kaustav Sengupta

the trend in hiring youth : a mixed reaction

Keeping in mind the rapid down trend in global recruitment here's a report that was published at The Hindu newspaper :

The general downturn across many industrial sectors in India is influencing the hiring scenario but recruitment firms and jobsites predict that there will be an improvement in the hiring trends if the government implements some long due economic reforms.

The hiring activity in the past month has been a mixed bag according to the Naukri job speak index for June 2012. Sectors like construction, insurance, oil and gas and ITES are going slow on their hiring plans, but others like auto and pharma are hiring fresh talent. The IT sector, which is the largest employer of skilled workforce, has also shown a slowdown in hiring and lateral hiring across companies has almost stopped All this has led to the overall job speak index stabilising in the last few months. The Naukri Job Speak Index which is an indicator of online job demand moved up to 1,210 in June from 1,194 in May. Compared to June 2011 when the index was at 1,129, the hiring trends were better this year.

“Selective hiring is happening across most sectors now. However, the next few months will be challenging for the overall recruitment market in India,” says Hitesh Oberoi, Managing Director and CEO, Info Edge India.

Coming to a sector wise analysis of the hiring trends, most sectors are facing the effects of a slowdown and sectors like construction, ITES, oil and gas and insurance saw a 17%, 10%, 8% and 6% dip in hiring levels in June when compared to the same time a year ago. Software services, banking and pharma sectors have, however, seen their hiring levels pick up by 9%, 16% and 19% respectively in June this year compared to last year. The hiring trend for auto and the heavy machinery sector in June was similar to what it was last year. Hiring activity in the media sector has increased by 19% in June 2012 when compared to June 2011. Trends indicate that hiring is positive in sectors like education, healthcare, life sciences, pharmaceuticals etc. But hiring in sectors like telecom and some areas in financial services are down.

A functional area analysis of the report indicates that sales and business development professionals have seen a steady increase in demand in June by 29% compared to last year. Coming to other sectors, professionals in software services and production have seen a 6% and 4% increase in demand respectively, in June this year compared to June of last year. On the other side professionals in BPO and project management saw hiring levels go down by 12% during the same time period. Accounts and HR professionals have not seen any visible change in their recruitment levels when compared to last year.

A city wise analysis of the report indicates that except for Hyderabad which saw a dip in hiring levels by 5% in June compared to last year all the other cities have shown some increase in the hiring activity. Mumbai and Pune witnessed a 9% increase in the index while Delhi, Pune and Kolkata saw an increase between 3 to 6% during last month. However, compared to June last year the hiring in cities of Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune has come down this year.

Coming to hiring based on experience, professionals with several years of experience have seen an increase in demand by over 9% in June. However, freshers and those with four to seven years of experience have seen stable hiring levels in June this year compared to the same time period of last year.

The hiring scenario has been a mixed bag in June. Industries and recruitment firms believe things will be better in the coming months provided some long pending economic reforms are implemented

INgene survey on Addiction

If your are youth in Indian subcontinent, kindly perticipate in this nationwide survey to understand the motivation of addiction among young population :

Click here : trend in Addiction among Indian youth

Substance abuse and addiction : Youth in India

Among amid restrictions over the addictive substances in urban India and the abundance of medical shops (that provides medicines without a prescription), the youth are exploring and exploiting new materials such as Codenine and Vicks. Here’s a report published at Times Of India :

Priyam Panchal's parents found nothing amiss with the 16-year-old sleeping all day and staying awake at night, until the Malad girl slapped her father for stopping her from going out with friends. It was then that her shocked parents found over 40 empty bottles of cough syrup under her bed.

Priyam (name changed) was not suffering from any ailment that would require her to consume cough suppressants. Her parents remained in denial for over a month and delayed consulting an expert even as she became more abusive and violent. When they finally took her to a psychiatrist, she was diagnosed with codeine addiction, which was making her heavily dependent on cough syrup. The Panchals sent her to the Drug Abuse Information Rehabilitation and Research Centre in Kalyan, where Priyam is undergoing a nine-month therapy.

De-addiction experts say Priyam's case is neither isolated nor surprising. Codeine addiction, or rather a trend northeastern states are infamous for, has suddenly caught the fancy of adolescents in the city. An essential ingredient in cough syrup, codeine's prolonged use can lead to addiction. Experts say 6-15% of those enrolling in de-addiction programmes in the city have a history of codeine or cough syrup addiction.

"The addiction hits those aged 13-14; the ratio of female addicts is more," said Dr Yusuf Merchant, president, DAIRRC. The observation was shared by other rehabilitation centres in the city, where authorities said four out of the 10 addicts are teenage girls.

Fr Joseph Pereira, founder, Kripa Foundation, a rehabilitation centre for those affected by chemical dependency, said codeine addiction was affecting a "silent and hidden majority". He said, "Young boys are into designer drugs, but for girls, cough syrups are the easiest to access and cheapest to use."

Some centres also receive housewives as codeine addicts. In February, a south Mumbai hospital treated a 32-year-old mother of two from Gamdevi. She was taken to the hospital with complaints of drowsiness, lethargy and extreme mood swings. "After tests costing about Rs 40,000, a doctor suspected that her problem was elsewhere. The woman confessed to the addiction only after four-five counselling sessions, citing lack of attention from her husband as the reason," said a doctor. "The woman admitted to buying cough syrups in bulk."

Counsellor Jatish Shah, who was attached to Masina Hospital's alcohol and drug rehabilitation centre, said the facility may have treated 400 patients over eight years. "Codeine addiction leaves no traces like smell. The number of housewives addicted to it could be shockingly large."

The FDA has started raiding chemist shops to find unexplained sales of cough syrup. It cancelled licences of 40 who sold over 1,500 bottles without bills or prescriptions. JJ Hospital professor of psychiatry Dr Yusuf Matcheswalla said some earn Rs 40,000-50,000 from selling the syrups and called the problem "alarming".

child workers in India : new ways of exploitation by retail giants

Corporate conspiracy to recruit children for various strenuous jobs is now becoming an evident trend in India that needs social awarness and protest. The corporates and retail giants are using child works through curtained channels and layered recruitment process to protect the brand persona.

Here’s a report published in The Hindu newspaper today:

School dropouts cycling long hours in the heat to promote a product seek less strenuous job

  Not many would have taken note of these children riding tricycles fitted with triangular banners offering ‘free’ lenses to students on behalf of a private company. And fewer still would have noticed that they are child workers. For Vinayagam, Nirmal and Gouthaman, all school dropouts, this is no hobby. It is a long ride, too. “We start at 9 a.m. from Mambalam and go to Adyar, Kotturpuram, Alwarpet, and Nandanam. At 7 p.m., we come back to office to surrender the cycles and take a bus back home,” says Gouthaman, barely 11 and a class VI dropout. Vinayagam, claiming to be 17, says Gouthaman can’t work like the others, but still insists on joining them at work. “We have been sticking posters, carrying load and running errands for smaller companies. But this is the first time a big company has taken us in,” he says. Their assignment started on Monday and they have been promised Rs. 300 a day. They hope to be paid on Saturday. All are residents of S. M. Nagar on Pallavan Salai, and there are at least 30 other children who take up such jobs. Rajendra Kumar, who takes care of these children and arranges jobs for them, says, “No amount of persuasion seems to convince them to go to school. Some of them have also taken to stealing.” Nirmal, son of a mason, often goes to Tindivanam, Villupuram and Puducherry for work and also cycles the ‘marketing vehicle’ for selling saris in T. Nagar during festival seasons. “This time, a man on a bike is following us to ensure we don’t rest. He got us tea when we rode really fast and covered more areas. But it is difficult to keep riding without breaks.”

The company whose product they are advertising, Lawrence & Mayo, said it had no clue that children were hired. It was unfortunate that the advertising agency had done it without informing the company. Personnel from one of the ad agencies said: “We only wanted to help them with books or paying their tuition fees.” However, the children say they have not been going to school for the past one year. “We want to work, not ride cycles in heat. It makes me faint after a while. Can you please arrange a factory job for us, where can pack goods or work sitting in one place,” asks Nirmal.

A Labour Department official said since ‘cycling to advertise a product’ was a new form of exploitation that does not come under the term ‘hazardous work’ it was difficult to take action. However, many children from poor families might not have physical abilities appropriate to their age, and hiring them for jobs such as this is dangerous for them.

The trend in Indian novels and the youth readership

Reading the novels that revisits the history and discover ancient myths, are predominantly popular among the youth in India. The trilogy of “Mehula” (The Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi ) a myth based fiction is one of the bestsellers. The report in The Hindu newspaper states "As a nation grows confident, its people become more interested in their own history".

The Empire of the Moghul(series) by Alex Rutherford, Chanakya’s Chantby Ashwin Sanghi, The Palace of Illusionsby Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, and almost always something by Amitav Ghosh are blusting the chart. Two of these are retellings of mythological themes, while the others, which have been on the lists for at least a year now, are all, in one way or the other, set in a time and place in Indian history. Authors such as Amitav Ghosh, (famous forThe Calcutta Chromosome,The Glass Palace, andThe Sea of Poppiesand the ongoing Ibis

Trilogy, almost all of which have won literary awards), according to the Blossom bookstore, Bangalore, are staples for the city’s book-reading crowd. “His works are steady sellers. But recently, I see that mythology-based books such as The Immortals of Meluha and The Palace of Illusionsare selling a lot more,” says Mayi Gowda, proprietor, Blossom book store. He credits the sales to the ‘modern format’ that the authors follow.

Formulated in a phrase It’s difficult to put works such as The Immortals of Meluhaand Chanakya’s Chantunder the historical fiction category. Even their authors, Amish Tripathi and Ashwin Sanghi, are not happy classifying their works exclusively under this category. But they do agree that they have made a conscious attempt to keep their writing style ‘modern’. “By setting my books in the Indus Valley Civilisation and calling it that, rather than the traditional name ‘Jambudweepa’, I have tried to make the stories more relevant, so that people can connect to them,” admits Amish. But the real reason his books fly off the racks, he feels, is because Indians are now keen to explore their roots. “As a nation grows more confident, its people become more interested in their own history. At the same time, people are not interested in taking a history lesson, so they like to read something which draws from history and crafts an engaging story out of it,” he says. “Twenty years ago, historical fiction was written either from a subservient or a defensive perspective, both of which come from a space of insecurity. But today’s historical fiction comes from a space of relaxed confidence, which people are drawn to.” Though he says his works are more political thrillers rather than historical fiction, Ashwin Sanghi makes similar observations about the genre’s popularity. “For the longest time writers have been writing for a global audience. But today’s books are written for an Indian audience. A Western audience might not appreciate Chanakya’s Chant because of its dependence on history and ancient statecraft,” he explains. “My book is a modern-day thriller set on a bedrock of history. My primary object is to entertain, not educate.”

Contemporary stories with historical plots, therefore, seem to be the order of the day and Manreet Sodhi Someshwar’sThe Taj Conspiracyis one of the latest additions. Steeped in Mughal history, the thriller is the first of a trilogy. And Manreet’s reason for writing a book that falls broadly under the genre of historical fiction is quite straightforward. History buff “I am a history buff. My second book,The Long Walk Home, published in 2009, is the first fictional examination of the 20th century history of Punjab. History, therefore, has been a part of my storytelling and is an inextricable part ofThe Taj Conspiracy.I guess this fascination for history has to do with the small town that I grew up in, Ferozepur, which is located on the border of India and Pakistan and has witnessed Partition, three Indo-Pak wars and the Khalistan movement. It is impossible not to be touched by history when the air of the place you grow up in is suffused with its stories.” Much of Indian historical fiction is set in the Colonial or the Mughal era or during Partition. For instance Amitav Ghosh’s work in set in Colonial India and Salman Rushdie’s Booker prize-winningMidnight’s Childrenis set in the period of Indian independence (post-Colonial and Partition).

Are stories now moving away from traditional historical fiction, blurring the lines between genres like fantasy, mythology, crime and politics? Paul Vinay Kumar, Editor of Westland books, says, “Historical fiction as a genre has been vastly underdeveloped in India, which is ironical considering how interesting and diverse India’s history is, and also because our glorious past is systematically invoked by everyone as a pointer to our glorious future. I am a big fan of Amitav Ghosh, and Alex Rutherford. I wish there were more writers writing like that,” he says, observing that a variety of sub-genres like Madhulika Liddle’s historical detective novels, and historical romance are becoming popular. Manreet adds “The immense success of some recent books — the Meluha trilogy for instance — might give this impression, but it could also be a fad. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how the genre grows.”

the emotions and its expression in social media : youth in India

After the emotics, the expression of SNS emotions of youth in India are now getting consolidated into more intangible formats; the facebook “like” button. The button which was only a graphic way to represent one’s “linking” is now used at various formats / situations to express “solidarity”, “brotherhood”, “exhibition of fan following”, “power (of supporters)” and yes, “love”…. The recent article at The Hindu newspaper expresses it well.

The article states “Half of our personality now lies in the virtual world. Are ‘likes’ are replacing common emotions of anger, happiness, solidarity or sadness”…. Further it cites various case studies as given below:

A few days ago, Bihar (a state in eastern India) touched the social networking scene. If the government is to be believed, apparently youngsters can reach out to the officials and choose to either ‘like’ the policies and governance or could express their ‘dislike’ through their facebook page. In April this year, reports emerged out on the internet that Facebook was now going to employ the dislike button. Keeping up with times, we do know that, the tiny little button ‘like’ is in in fact an infallible business model that helps brands and businesses get insight into the consumer’s lifestyle: primarily the likes and dislikes. When we get into the more personal form of interaction, it’s surprising that likes are replacing most emotions. When 25-year-old Rizwan Mohammed posted about his late father, he didn’t expect a 235 people from his friends to ‘like’ his status. He is more composed now and understands that, it has become a form of solidarity. “It was upsetting to see that people like that my dad is dead. But I guess you can’t go by the literal meaning anymore. All those people were showing their support that way,” says Rizwan. When Dev Dutta’s relationship status went from single to in-a-relationship, it evoked as many as 300 likes from his 500-odd friends circle. A few months later when it went to ‘it’s complicated’, as many as 250 people liked that status too! Do these 250 people actually like that his relationship is on the rocks? A now-single Dev laughs and says, “I was really confused, so I never commented or said anything there. I didn’t know, if they are mean enough to like what is happening to me or if they are showing support. It’s funny now, but I was really hurting then.” It’s not all that different with Sneha Devulapalli either. The 17-year-old engineering student met with an accident recently and posted, “Met with an accident, bed-ridden.” 39 of her friends liked the status. “I am assuming that they feel bad for me and I take it as solidarity ‘like’,” she says cheerfully. Culture studies student, Suzzana Joseph notes, “The ‘like’ button is giving all our emotions the easy escape route, that’s how we are beginning to interact with each other. ‘Like’ is becoming a necessary obligation.” Like is perhaps first reflective of the ‘pop’ in society, tweens who have little respect for grammar and dish out sentences with more than three likes.

Now ‘like’ is all inclusive. Liking someone’s status, picture, and video takes less than a split-second, but if you’re still on the dial-up connection, it might take longer. However, with the ease of the button, it’s making us not think so much. Let’s just ‘like’ it, let’s store that emotion somewhere in the corner of our mind, to deal with later (or not, whatever suits).

e commerce in India : the current scenarios

Apart from booking flight / train tickets/ paying bills (as tht's cumbersome process offline), buying books from amazon (after noting that the book is not available at local book shop) or booking movie tickets(it's cool to surprise your counterpart with the "smartness" of "online booking") the country is not yet comfortable to transact online. Reliability is the core, that lacks currently. Then comes the after sale service... replacement as well as smooth / uncorrupted money transaction. online business has to earn the faith of people.. As stated by the blogger Sriram Vadlamani " I have booked train tickets on IRCTC, bus tickets on Redbus and ordered books on Flipkart. That was a neat little circle I have drawn around me for eCommerce. For the first time, I came out of my comfort zone and ordered a Samsung camera on Yebhi.com. What followed is my biggest nightmare and probably the nightmare of many consumers as well...."

Zinnov consultancy report has placed  e-commerce at only 12 per cent of total retail sales in India.

here's a report as published in The Hindu newspaper:

Only a small fraction of the roughly 5 million Internet users in the late 1990’s even transacted online. Faltering dial-up connections and text-only browsing made the purchasing process cumbersome. Credit card usage was limited to a few, and even fewer were ready to disclose their card details over the Web.

The economics of online commerce, however, have changed so much since then, that Rana Athreya is now attempting to cut the Gordian Knot of e-commerce — setting up an Internet pet food store.

In 2011, Mr. Athreya co-founded Dogspot.in, a Gurgaon-based start-up that shipped over 35,000 kg of dog food last year. 

“A number of factors over the last decade have given us the chance to prove that the pet category can be successful online,” said the 30-year-old entrepreneur. Dogspot.in hopes to break-even next month, ending the year with sales of Rs.3 crore. Online pet stores are always mindful of the tale of Pets.com Inc, a publicly-traded firm in the U.S. that sold pet products online and then went onto become a popular victim of the dot-com bust over 10 years ago. The California-start-up, founded in the late 1990’s, raised over a hundred million dollars and went public in 2000.

After spending millions on marketing, it burnt through most of its cash and laid off over 200 employees — eventually shutting down in late 2000. Today, Dogspot has 10 employees compared to the 350 that Pets.com had and aims to become a $40 million company by 2015. A combination of factors, including a better ecosystem, increased credit card penetration and a jump in Internet users has made this possible.

A new litter of online-only niche product stores, including groceries, women’s apparel and sporting goods have emerged over the last two years. 

Backed by venture capital firms in some cases, these start-ups represent how the economics of selling merchandise over the Internet have evolved since the late 1990s. Over the last ten years, the cost of almost every aspect of launching an e-commerce website has plummeted. 

Plummeting costs
 

A large part of dropping costs comes from the boom of a tech-ecosystem that takes care of website creation, site hosting and the servers that are required to create an e-commerce portal.

Overall, it is ten times easier to launch an online retail business than it was a decade ago, says Suneet Manchanda, former Business Development Head, SifyMall Ltd.

“Back when we were setting up SifyMall, the technology and people who could build a website were hard to find. Furthermore, the companies who could create it were expensive to source from, it was a costly nightmare,” he said.

The rise of businesses such as Amazon’s web services allows companies to rent computer power and storage, reducing the need for start-ups to buy their own servers.

Mr. Manchanda said it cost anywhere between Rs.20 lakh and Rs.25 lakh to start up SifyMall and took over six months before it could go live. Now, it would cost Rs.3 lakh and could be live in 10 days, eliminating the need for investors or loans. Mr. Manchanda, last year, founded an online luxury women’s apparel store (ladyblush.com). 

Easier logistics
 

Another advantage is the growth of a cottage industry that helps in logistics, mainly storing and shipping of products. A common complaint of the Indian e-commerce industry is the huge damage and losses that companies incur in shipping while using India Post.

New shipping start-ups such as Delivery.in or Chhotu.in, however, offer logistics that are better tuned to the e-commerce industry by reducing damage losses to less than one per cent, calling customers before delivery and charging their clients only when they make a sale.

“Something that sets us apart from India Post or even major courier companies is that we are a straight business-to-business company. This allows us to reduce our capex, letting us charge much lesser rates.

“We are a natural logistics extension for e-commerce companies,” said Navneet Singh, CEO, Chhotu.in.

“Right now, close to half of our customers are start-ups. Our services complete this whole ecosystem that lets them really thrive,” he added.

According to Abraham Koshy, who founded an online sports goods store last year, it took less than Rs.3 lakh to launch the company, excluding buying inventory. He was able to hire outside software engineers to create the website, shopping-cart system and paid a few thousand rupees for Internet service. Setting up warehouses has also become relatively easier, with third-party companies charging a storage and per-shipment fee, allowing start-ups to reduce costs.

“It’s become increasingly easy to join the field without large investment. Take a simple thing like payment gateways for example. The (payment gateway) charges on customer credit card use have dropped from 6- 8 per cent to around 2 per cent over the last ten years or so,” said. Mr. Koshy, who left his job at Amazon Inc two years ago. 

While competition has become increasingly fierce due to dropping costs, there are already signs of consolidation among the bigger players in the market.

Flipkart bought Letsbuy, a rival firm, for a reported Rs.100 crore. A few months later, Snapdeal bought online sports retailer Esportsbuy.com, for an undisclosed amount.

A info-graphic by Track.in :

Gen Next are striving towards imparting sex education in India

Though the sex education is still a taboo in India; but the GEN Next Indians are striding forward faster than the others.

Sixteen year old Aparna Bhola is an aspiring gynecologist who gives sex education lectures to peers in Mumbai, Maharashtra, in India. She grew up in Kolkata and then moved with her mother, a sex worker, to the red-light district in Kamathipura. From a young age, Bhola was surrounded by women who were stigmatized for their profession and lacked support from the medical community.Her mother was sold into sex work for the equivalent of $120 when she was twelve years old and gave birth to Bhola at age fourteen. As the daughter of a sex worker, Bhola received little education, few medical resources, and was anemic due to malnutrition at times. She also drank alcohol heavily.

Aparna says she was distressed by the way doctors routinely mistreated sex workers because of the stigma against their profession. Her mother, diagnosed with uterine cysts, was unable to get treatment for them because of the bias against sex workers. Aparna remembers a niece being refused treatment by a doctor who said he didn’t want to bother with such poor people.

When sex workers like Aparna’s mother would become pregnant, the “doctors would treat them so badly,” Aparna recalls. “They would yell at them, and even slap them sometimes. They would say things like ‘You go and pick up anyone’s child and come to me with your stomach swollen. When you were doing it, you enjoyed yourself and now what happened?’ ”. These encounters made Aparna want to become a gynecologist. Even when she was younger, she would share with her friends and peers whatever sexual health-related information she could find. “I want to work with gynecology to cater to sex workers because I know the issues they faced,” says Aparna, her face set in a determined expression. “If I became a doctor, I could give whatever information the mothers need when they are pregnant. There would be someone to talk to them nicely when they are in pain.”

Bhola joined a women’s rights NGO called Kranti in July 2011. There, she received needed support and resources, learned how to teach sexual education classes, and battled with her alcoholism. Bhola’s goal is to attend medical school and change the system for the better. She is currently in twelfth grade and preparing for her medical school entrance exams.

“There’s nothing to giggle or be shy about; there’s no shame in it. It’s important for us to learn about these things. Be totally bindaas (carefree) and ask me questions,” says Aparna Bhola, with a wide smile.
She also represented Maharashtra state in the Youth Parliament, an advisory group to the state government, where participants recently discussed whether sex education should be introduced in Indian schools.
“I used to think that my whole world is within the four walls of my room, of the house,” says Aparna. “Now I see that there is a big, big world beyond that where many things are possible for me.”

“What I really want is that girls become powerful and aren’t scared of anyone,” says Aparna. “They should think in their minds that ‘I will go ahead and progress and no one can hold me back.”

What's up yaar : Understanding youth in India

(This chapter is the part of Kaustav's book "What's Up Yaar : Understanding youth in India")



“Indefinite peacocks: definite desire”



Why the hell a male peacock (peafowl) spreads his wings and “dances”? Nops, not that he wants to show-off his “beauty” to us who visits a zoo nor he thinks spreading wings will bring him a reward from the zoo keeper (unlike monkeys who knows that if they jumps the zoo keeper will give him a banana)... then?

Yes, I know u have a better answer....that, male peacock’s dance is a courtshipping behaviour. They try to impress potential partners. The problem for the male peacocks is, that while they are dancing, it is hard to escape predators. Especially when they are displaying the tail in forest.... but still the urge to find the right mate compels them to take the risk! Interestingly, various human tribes around the world picked up the movements of male peacock and exhibited the dancing skills mostly performed by the female species and not as a courtshipping act!


But, again, how the spreading of wings ensures that the male peacock is most suited one for the approaching peahen (female peacock)? Why not any other acts (shouting like a female frog or displaying chivalry by a loin)? Well, the dance (movements, grace etc.) and the display of wings (the quality and arrangement of feathers...the way lights reflect from them etc.) exhibit that the peacock is very healthy and hence a most suitable partner for the approaching peahen. Male peacocks display their iridescent feathers for prospective female mates. Females may check out the feathers of a number of different males before deciding on a suitor. The length and quality of a male peacock's feathers can indicate his age, vigour, and status. But, why only the male peacock “dances”, why they needs to attract the female? Why not the other sex? Well there must be many reasons, and one common reason is that the male peacocks are polygamous! As per various researchers the evolution of sexual dimorphism relies on a difference between the forces of sexual selection acting upon each sex (Freeman & Herron, 2004, p. 376). This differential of forces is closely tied to the distribution of reproductive control. Generally, males have a virtually unlimited supply of extremely small and inexpensive gametes, meaning they are rarely the bottleneck in the reproductive process (Alcock, 2005, p. 373; Freeman & Herron, 2004, pp. 376-377). Conversely, females produce large, relatively expensive gametes in far lower quantities, a trend that usually dictates their role as the limiting reproductive reagent (Alcock, 2005, p. 373; Freeman& amp; Herron, 2004, pp. 376-377). In addition, females often provide the greatest proportion of parental care to their offspring, with their reproductive success depending mostly on how many eggs they can produce and how well they can raise their young to maturity (Alcock, 2005, p. 373). Though the situation is reversed in some species, males resort to polygyny, obtaining as many mates as possible in order to enhance their reproductive success (Freeman& amp; Herron, 2004, p. 376). With a higher variation in mating success, males are most frequently exposed to greater forces of sexual selection than females (Freeman & Herron, 2004, p. 377). Furthermore, sexual selection can act upon a species in two main ways: Intrasexually, as males compete with males and females compete with females (e.g., sperm competition, infanticide and combat) and intersexually, as males and females attempt to attract members of the opposite sex (Freeman & Herron, 2004, p. 380; Moller & Pomiankowski, 1993). Though male-male intrasexual selection is a considerable force in many species, it is female preference for certain desirable males that makes the final decision since females controls the sought after eggs (Alcock, 2005, p. 365).

You must be wondering why I am explaining these in details when the book is supposed to focus on Indian youth’s contemporary socio-psychology. The scenario prevalent among peacocks is now common among the youth in India!



“Hope in a tube vs. Men in glows!”

Let’s consider few facts. Based on McCann Erickson's Consumer Insights Report the desire for fairness as an essential physical attribute has been steadily on the rise over the past few decades. Out of the current $180 million skin care market in India, which is growing by 10 to 15 percent annually, more than half of the revenues are now generated by fairness products alone. Among many, the undisputed leader of fairness cream is HUL’s “Fair & Lovely”. In company’s own language “Fair & Lovely was launched in 1975 and Indian women finally found hope in a tube”! The brand is marketed primarily to young women in the 18-35 year age bracket. Considered to be the most elite of the fairness creams, the price of a standard tube of Fair & Lovely best suits the middle class and above, but it is sold in many corner shops and drug store in cities across India. Indeed, at the rural level, Fair & Lovely is being made available to poor villagers in the form of inexpensive sachets. South India (where the population is dominated by people with darker complexions) is the largest market, while the relatively fairer populations in Northern and Western India each have a smaller yet significant market share. However, even though Fair& amp; Lovely is one of the leading fairness cream brands, it faces growing competition from cheaper skin-whitening products, such as Revlon's Fair & Glow and CavinKare's Fairever.

As per Neilson Co. Data the men’s fairness cream market was Rs.200 crore in year 2010. The first ever fairness cream was launched by a Kolkata based personal care product manufacturer Emami Limited in the year 2005 as “Fair and Handsome” in the southern state of India, Andhra Pradesh. According to the Confederation of Indian Industries report (CII) on the fast moving consumer goods segment in India, men’s fairness cream segment has seen a growth of 28% in July September quarter of 2010 which is higher than over all growth of fairness segment!

A report on the share of spending on apparel-All India and zones (by The Knowledge Company, Technopak and published in The Marketing Whitebook-2009-2010) shows that Indian men spends 9% in the accessories where as the women spends 8%! A snap poll conducted by TIMESLife! in five metros -Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore - on the spending habits of youngsters, indicated that only young Kolkatans seem to be saving, from their average allowance of Rs 2,000 per month. Girls saved up to 13 per cent while boys kept about nine per cent aside. The rest of the country's youngsters seem to be blowing up their entire allowance and not managing to save anything. Looking good and appearances are important and youngsters across India spend the most each week on clothes, mobile phones and going out as per the study. Boys from the South were found more romantic as compared to their counterparts in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. In Bangalore and Chennai, boys spent 18 per cent and 13 per cent respectively on their girlfriends while Mumbai and Delhi boys spent five percent and Kolkata spent just one per cent on dating and girlfriends.

A global research, carried out for Travelodge (2011), found that on an average morning men spend 23 minutes in the shower, compared to 22 minutes for women. On average men spend 81 minutes a day on personal grooming, including cleansing, toning and moisturising, shaving, styling hair and choosing clothes, the study found. Women have their beauty regime down to a fine art and get hair, clothes and make-up done in just 75 minutes. Men then take 18 minutes on their shaving regime, compared to 14 minutes for women despite them having to trim legs, armpits and bikini line. Men take a minute longer - 10 minutes - on cleansing, toning and moisturizing.


The thriving business of gyms or fitness clubs, spas and salons in India are now focusing on men’s grooming. Kaya skin care started separate product & services for men with a note that“Men need skin care too. Men's skin is thicker and more oily compared to women's skin. They are exposed to the sun, pollution and prone to excessive sweating, which is why Kaya brings to you skin care exclusive for men”. In an article titled “Why men are romancing spas” was published at DNA (Daily News & Analysis) newspaper dtd. March25th 2010 from Bangalore stated “...This is the beauty ritual of many men in the city who now believe that spa treatments are a lifestyle investment. They reserve most of their weekends for visits to the spa, for procedures that could take anywhere between three to eight hours. Oum Pradutt, founder, Phase 1, loves spas and has set apart three days in a month just for them. “I don’t think going to the spa is a luxury anymore, it is a necessity,” he says. “I also feel that I deserve this treat. I am in an industry that is very stressful and after a spa treatment, I feel like I am floating on a cloud. I often gift spa vouchers to my employees too.” Nina Bual, director, The Spa.ce, a city spa, finds that many men in the city are addicted to being pampered. “Ninety per cent of the clients in a spa are men nowadays,” she says. “There are special spa packages for them, like the Just for Men spa treatment that costs Rs 4,100. Massages have been around for thousands of years in our country and have been associated with good health and well-being. People have re-discovered them now.” Netscribes (India) Pvt. Ltd., a knowledge consulting solutions company, published a report as Wellness Services Market in India 2010 covering an industry which is expected to witness phenomenal growth (INR400bn. By 2014). The rise in discretionary expenditure and changing consumer lifestyle is expected to fuel the demand for wellness services.

Why the boys in India are spending more on accessories, fairness creams, gifts for their girlfriends and grooming? In-spite of their stressful career why they are visiting the wellness centers? The affinity is stronger among the young, single working men (in their late 20s or 30s) at the fastest growing cities like Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmadabad etc. where they stays alone / with peers; away from their helicoptering parents and family.

According to the recent census(2011) report India has male population as 628,800,000 (628.4 million) and female population as 591,400,000 (591.4 million). According to the report 'Power, Voice and Rights: A turning poing of gender equality” by the UNDP(2010), while India had 48.2 per cent female population at birth, Pakistan had 48.5, Bangladesh had 48.8 and Japan 51.1 per cent. The sex ratio at birth in India was 1.08.India also has 42.7 million women who were missing in the year 2007 and the mean age at marriage is 20 for women and 25 for men. According to the report, almost half the adult women in South Asia are illiterate, more than in any other region in the world. But interestingly, Cabinet in India has recently approved the introduction of a bill which would reserve one third of the seats in parliament and state legislative assemblies for women. 33 per cent of seats in local bodies in rural and urban areas were reserved for women, with some states reserving up to fifty per cent.


Fortune India's November 2011issue ranked India's '50 Most Powerful Women in Business', for the first time. "Indian women span generations and today we find them in every field. Acquisitions, garnering profits, successful new ventures, pioneering concepts, snagging mega deals...all important factors, no doubt, when defining power. We looked at the changes they brought in, and the way they transformed businesses," says Dibyendra Nath Mukerjea, editor of Fortune India. The issue covered pivotal women like Bharatratna award winner Chanda Kochchar who heads ICICI Bank, Shikha Sharma, MD & CEO or Axis Bank, Mallika Srinivasan, Chairperson TAFE, Aruna Jayanthi, CEO Capegmini India, Vinita Bali, Managing Director, Britannia Industries etc. In IT, Bank and BPO sectors the women (mostly in their late 20s and mid 30s) are in slowly raising to power. Women workers constitute about one-third of the total Call Centre and BPO workforce in India and account for only 11 per cent of the leadership roles in senior management (Newsline Noember 2008).


Notice this interesting scenario. The literate, well placed and most desirable women are lesser in misbalanced population of India and over it the young men are becoming self sufficient to decide their own partners (rather than allowing their parents to select the right one). Hence, the peacock phenomenon prevails among Indian young men and the growing fight for best partner to select from the fewer options!


The young women are also becoming more confident to select the best partner and the only method to impress them is to become more desirable through grooming, accessorizing, and becoming “fair & handsome”!The above mentioned “look good” traits also collaboratively exhibit the money power a young man has in pocket which can satisfy the age old need of “safety and security” of an Indian female.

for more details about the book or this chapter, you can connect Kaustav at kaustavsengupta@yahoo.com

Suicide rate among the youth highest in India - Survey result

According to a new Lancet study, India has the highest suicide rates in the world with maximum number of young people on the brink, worse it may soon turn out to be the biggest killer in the country.

According to Registrar General of India's first national survey, 2001-03, suicides claim twice as many lives per year as HIV-AIDS and could take over maternal mortality as the biggest killer in the country with an estimated 1,87,000 suicides in 2010.

The suicide cases among the young, wealthy and educated are the highest. 40 per cent of men and a whopping 56 per cent of women between the ages of 15 and 29 commit suicide.

Suicide rates were also found to be much higher in rural areas and nearly ten times as high in the southern states.

Author Vikram Patel said, "The most worrying trend is young women and men are committing suicide. In young women it will become the primary cause, there’s a huge social change in our country but lack of coping with that main reasons behind these suicides are depression and alcohol use."

Psychiatrist Sameer Malhotra said, "On one hand we are seeing the stress levels go up so when we talk about metropolitan cities, despite the money factor are still leading lonely lives. Two we are seeing that there some kind of disintegration of family system Patch and you miss out on those kinds of support systems."

About half of suicide deaths were due to poisoning or ingesting of pesticides. Adding to the key stressors is the lack of mental health facilities.

The Indian Health Ministry is currently revising the National Mental Health Program. Even as the World Health Organisation estimates that globally there has been a 45 per cent increase in suicide rates the last 45 years.