| | DECEMBER 20218INCREASED DEMAND FOR PREMIUM PRODUCTS IN SMALLER TOWNS DUE TO THE PANDEMICBy Mohit Gulati, CIO, ITI Growth Opportunities FundF or centuries; India has been seen as an agrarian economy whereby for the longest time, we've per-ceived our farmer brothers as trend followers vs. set-ters. That India or Bharat has changed, and the 2020 COVID pandemic has acted as the final frontier to showcase it. In order to really understand how this change has arrived, we need to take a step back into history and revisit 1985, where on a visit to drought-affected Kalahandi district in Odisha, Ra-jiv Gandhi had quoted that of every rupee spent by the gov-ernment, only 15 paise reached the intended beneficiary. For the longest time in free India, this was the state of affairs, owing to which rural India continued to stay behind the curve consuming staples while discretionary spends re-mained concentrated to large urban cities. Over the last dec-ade, India has seen such monumental changes in its direct beneficiary initiatives aided by faster Internet connections and the Unified Identification of Indians via Aadhar that in 2021 ~85 percent aka 85 paise of that rupee sent from the centre reaches its intended beneficiary. Technology alone has bridged the geographical barriers between urban & rural India which coupled with the government initiatives such as the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, Vocal for Local Campaign, Make In India are all contributors to the doubling of farmer's incomes. Now that we have set aside the macros, lets dive into to the micros of where we see India heading. Personally, I feel in the decade up ahead, the great `Indian Middle Class' won't exist! Yes you read that right. My bold prediction comes from evaluation of the trend that's been set into motion since the last decade, but fuelled further over the last 20 months of this pandemic. Since most of our parents were middle class, it doesn't necessarily mean we need to be the same is the motto VANTAGE POINT
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