The Bangalore Real-estate market

5 Reasons I am positive about India and Bangalore

By Harish Bijoor

The real-estate market of any city is a sub-set of the environment in the State it belongs to. And that is a sub-set of the country and its many policies, progressive or otherwise. Add to it the fact that the world is for sure a connected place today, and therefore there is a bigger environment that governs real-estate prices and practice, and that is the environment across the world at large.

Real estate is however all about geography that is real. It is about physical spaces that are about land, buildings, gated communities and more. To that extent, it is a physicality. A physicality that is very dependent more on the local than the global. To that extent, while the stock market of a country is all about being umbilically linked to the sneezes and joys of the world at large, the physical real-estate market is that much more local than global. And thankfully so.

In the world of real-estate, the further you move away in concentric circles from the local to the global, factors that affect the price point of real-estate get that much more insulated from the factors that surround. To that extent, the point I am making is a simple one. When you look at real estate, don’t fret and fume as to what is happening in Greece. Don’t worry that Nicolas Sarkozy has been replaced by Francois Hollande. Just don’t worry that you will not see Carla-Bruni Sarkozy that much in the news anymore. Just worry more about factors that are immediate and adjunct to the area of your investment. If you are planning an investment in Bangalore, worry more about what is happening to the governance structure in the real estate market, worry about jobs in the eco-system that throws up investors in the Bangalore real-estate market, worry about laws and rules that are in force and ones that will be enforced later than sooner. But worry about nothing more than that.

5 reasons why I am excited about Bangalore and India then, in that order:

1.     The aggressively young population

Bangalore boasts of a young population. While 54% of the population of the country is below the age of 25, Bangalore boasts of 63.6% below the age of 25.  A younger city means a hungry city. A city hungry for achievement, hungry for jobs, and most certainly hungry enough to invest in land and more. This young profile of the city is un-enviable. The only other city that comes close is Pune on this count. Young cities are hungry cities and hungry cities are investment friendly cities.

The downside of a young city is the fact that pressures to perform abound that much more in younger cities. Younger cities are high-tensile cities. No wonder then that Bangalore and Pune have emerged to be the suicide capitals of India as well. Sad fact.

2.     Spends and patterns of splurge in the TOP and MOP

The second reason why cities such as Bangalore are exciting places for the real-estate market for first buys, re-sales and repeat buys, is the fact that the splurge quotient of cities such as Bangalore is very high. The city is a polemical factoid. While Bangalore boasts of  10,600  Dollar millionaires at one end, at the other end, it also hosts large populaces of those living on the fringe of a hand-to-mouth existence. The real-estate market, sadly, depends on what the Top-of-pyramid (TOP) and Middle-of-pyramid (MOP) folk have to contribute to the kitty.

When you look at the spend patterns of the TOP and MOP profile, one witnesses no gloom at all. The splurge quotient is high on products and services alike. Super-market carts are still laden full with products that do not necessarily represent the best value-buys. The number of spas in Bangalore has grown from a measly 6 in 2001 to 121 in 2012. The number of beauty parlors has grown from a mere 107 in 2001 to 1220 in 2012. I do not have a comparative number for restaurants, but if you just look around, you don’t need numbers to tell you the story.

And every one of them is raking in the ‘moolah’. The point is a simple one. Never mind the fact that Greece is in trouble. Never mind that Europe is in shambles. Never mind that the Japanese economy is slated to de-grow at 0.6% p.a, in GDP terms. Just never mind. Look around and you will sniff prosperity and spends in your local TOP and MOP markets. Sadly or happily, the real estate market depends on its future on this market.

3.     The eastern investment mindset, and the shift from metal to land

This is a quick and happy one. Indians at large are very highly investment geared and investment oriented. The old mindset of investment was gold. This has held families in good stead over the years, particularly with gold prices ruling at an all time high as of today. This investment mindset has gradually shifted in the country from gold to land and dwelling units. The first things everyone wants to do, even before buying a Life cover in an Insurance policy, is to own a house or a piece of land. This has spurred and will continue to spur demand. Real-estate investment apathy has not set in as yet. It looks far way for now.

4.     The poised Next-gen ahead

The next generation is a very highly educated generation. Parents of the current generation have spent their lives working hard to educate their children and get them the best in terms of a qualification to earn more than they have earned. This is a good sign for the economy at large. This means the children of tomorrow will earn higher multiples than their parents did, net of inflation. This means there will be more money to invest. This is a trend that is quite unlike what we see in markets of the United States, where new generations are lesser equipped at large in terms of qualification and earning potential.

5.     Bangalore as a magnet city

The city despite all the ills we bemoan, is still a magnet city. We host mixed nationalities. We remain a secular city with secular intent. We are largely peaceful. We seldom fight. We might watch porn in the assembly, we might huddle our MLAs time and again in close-by resorts, we might clamor for free IPL tickets, but essentially we are a nice people living in a nice city. The city will still remain a magnet city. And that’s a big one for real-estate investments.

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Harish Bijoor is a brand-expert and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

Follow him on Twitter.com @harishbijoor

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Brand Bangalore in the Future....

Brand Bangalore: A Fantasy

By Harish Bijoor

Q: You and I live in the same city. How do you see our cities change over the years? What is your fantasy for Brand Bangalore?

-Revathi V, Bangalore or Bengaluru (still confused)

A: Dear still-confused Revathi, the city of the future is more virtual and less real. A lot of us will be spending more time in a life that is virtual, rather than real. A few of my personal fantasies on Brand Bangalore of the future:

1. We will finally have a new name. We will officially be "Bengaluru". Never mind the fact that Mayawati-ji's BSP, which will be the ruling party in the state by then (thanks to the lack of an alternative) will want to re-name the city into something else altogether by then. The re-naming debate is a forever one.

2. Future Bangalore is a different city altogether. We are going to be a Lasagne city if you look at us top-down. We are going to be a layered-roads city. Roads at different levels that help make the commute that much more bearable. Bangalore has been the first to experiment with roads made of recycled-plastic. We will have more of these. Our pot-holes (they will still be around) will be filled with this plastic no sooner than they appear. Silicon will find a more functional use in our roads than in our cosmetic surgery parlors as of today.

3. Commuting from one end of the city to another will take no longer than 32-minutes. This is going to be true at-least across those stretches connected by "Namma metro", our own city lifeline. A fair number of our city-techies will work from the Metro, thanks to its superior ambiance than the one at the noisy home. Eight up and down journeys on the train, and the code is written, tested, packed and dispatched to the Project Manager. Time to get back home.

4. Bangalore will have the first Pod-hotel. A hotel room in a pullout drawer of sort’s establishment. A see-through pod-room equipped with the best. Just one thing will be at a premium: size. Expect every Pod hotel to be fitted into a 2400 sq foot space. A 40-room hotel. The creative one's will call it the "Coffin hotel".

5. Night-life in Bangalore would have gotten a bit too noisy. In any case our Excise rules do not permit drinking and dancing in public places. You will therefore have the pure drinking places and the pure dancing places. No transgressing here. You decide. Most of our nightlife places will be "No-noise" places even. Wear a Wi-fi headphone and dance the night away. No noise anywhere, except in your ears. Anyone looking at you will think you to be the lunatic you are. Imagine strobe lights, lasers and a silent party in full swing. The cops are happy. The dancers are happy. Bangalore has found its own creative solution to the party-angst at large.

6. Bangalore will be more virtual than virtual. The largest number of tablet-PC's will be in Bangalore. The city will be the capital of the touch-enabled device.  We Bangalroeans will live more virtual lives than real. The largest number of Facebook users will be from Bangalore. We will make all our friends and enemies on FB. The largest numbers of Google+ users will be from Bangalore. A record number of circles with the most innovative names will happen from here. Lady Gaga move over. The largest number of Twitter followers will follow @harishbijoor.  Touche!

Q: The snack-food category is on the fast track. What’s next here? Is there a market overseas for the Indian snack-food?

-Rajesh Thevar, Mumbai

A: Rajesh, I do believe the snack-food category out of India can go places if it sticks to the knitting. Investing deeply into the health platform without tampering taste and the fun of the snack environment it lives in, is a must. If it is able to do this, it will thrive.

The snack-food category is a forever category. As India and its brand image grows, Indian snack-foods and foods and beverages will grow in franchise globally. A great way of understanding a country is by tasting its food and snack. While food is difficult to access and is difficult to prepare in any condition, snack-food that is packaged is easily accessible and is easy to transport and easy to find on the retail shelves overseas. In many way, every pack of a Haldiram’s ‘bhujiya’ that is opened in Norway or Sweden or in Cincinnati, is taking a piece of India out there. Food imperialism at play.

As interest in India grows, interest in Indian foods will grow as well. Food diplomacy and its time has come. Indian packaged foods have a lot to gain.

Q: Baba Ramdev has not been able to make much of a success with his political entry. Despite all his popularity, why this?

-BB Joshipura, Lucknow

A: Joshipura-ji, Baba Ramdev is respected as a Yoga Guru. As a person who has brought healing for a whole lot of people. Transcribing and super-imposing the same equity onto the realm of political activism is a long-haul task, and could be a mistake as well.

What works in one realm does not work in another. That is the sensitivity of branding that people need to understand. One cannot assume all popularity is divisible and that all popularity can be appropriated equally, once had.

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Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

Email: harishbijoor@hotmail.com

Being Bangalore

Being Bangalore


Harish Bijoor
Bangalore means a lot to me. If I am asked to name one thing that excites me about Bangalore, that’s a difficult one. To me Bangalore is a ‘bisibele baath’! And I love Bisibele bath! My favorite vegetarian dish. It is so much like Bangalore. An amalgam of this and that. A mixture of cultures, a mixture of people from all over India. A mixture of nationalities, with us housing the single largest population of expatriates in India. A mixture of tastes, a mixture of textures even. A veritable delight to the city palate at large.

Do I love this city? I do. I owe everything to it. My education, my life, my career, my friends, my relationships and most importantly my entire being. There is a state of mind called ‘Being Bangalore’. And I think I embody all of this, as many of us in this city do. ‘Swalpa adjust maadi’. And we do a lot of it. I have done a lot of it as well.

My earliest memories of Bangalore as a kid are that of walking in good old Lalbagh, playing around, getting hungry and then being taken by my parents to good old MTR, where I would gourmandize on rava idlis, and those small little ‘gindlas’ (katoris) of pure ghee that added a taste of its own to the idli at large.

If I think later, my favorite place was the State Central Library in Cubbon Park. That stately little red building. To me this symbolized the one space of all reading and learning. I don’t know why, but I spent thousands of man-hours here. Reading the magazines and newspapers within its confines, and reading books within its confines as well. Those days one could not afford to buy all the magazines and newspapers one wanted to read, and so, this was my daily haunt, visited religiously every day whenever I got the time (and there was so much of it in abundance then). I would cycle there every day from my home on Victoria Road on my reliable old blue BSA cycle and get back in time to be very hungry at home. Moving around took so little time, that one had all the time to focus on the real thing. Reading and eating in my case. Two passions that I still hold on to.
And then there is my college. St. Joseph’s Arts & Science. I remember being more out of class than in. I was into every extra-curricular activity there was to handle. I was in so many of them that I had little time for the curricular activities altogether. My favorite memory was that of an inter-collegiate magazine a few of us started called “Scribe”. We had St. Joseph’s Arts and Science, St. Joseph’s Commerce, Christ College, and of course the more exciting Mount Carmel College and Jyoti Nivas College onto it. We had representatives from each of these colleges on the Editorial Board, and all of us poured passion into it. Passion and time. This was the earliest business and consumer-touch venture that helped all of us hone our early and latent instincts for business and writing and communicating alike.

I can go on and on. Memories are such. “Being Bangalore” has been an experience to cherish and preserve.

Email: harihsbijoor@hotmail.com

Karnataka Global Investors Meet Imperatives Ahead

3rd June Congratulations Mr.Yediyurappa


By Harish Bijoor


As the Global Investors Meet (GIM) kicks off in Karnataka today, the BS Yediyurappa government in the State, which has just about entered its third year at the helm of affairs, has fired its first serious salvo of development for the state. The GIM in many ways is the first big organized bid by the State to attract investors to a State that has everything to offer to the serious investor. Well, almost everything, except Power. But then the flip side of that statement is that Power sector investment is also an opportunity in itself for the serious investor.

The Yediyurappa government that came to Power 2 years ago has had serious issues at its doorsteps to date. Like a true-blue Sandalwood film unrolling itself, it has had a lot of drama. The euphoria of victory, the throes of division of power through the various ministries, two successive budgets that had Ministers clamoring for more in terms of expenditure limits, depending how much political clout they brought to the party. Ministries such as the Tourism Ministry, oft ignored and pushed into a corner of the budget, benefited for sure out of this. By reasons of default, rather than by reasons of conscious planning.

And then there was deceit and dissension to boot. A performing minister such as Shobha Karandalije had to leave the Ministry, thanks to egos at play. Nature had its play. Severe floods at one end that disrupted thousands of lives, and a severe drought at the other that had the government pushed onto the brink on its promise of the Rs. 2 per kg rice scheme. And amidst it all, the only missing element has been ACTION. It has had plenty of lights, lots of camera. But not too much action to date.
There was off-screen action though. There were bad-words in plenty, mouthed against a Chief Minister in front of television channels waiting to unfold it all. There were patch-ups cobbled together in Delhi. There were euphoric patch-up returns played out at the BIAL.

Amidst all the ‘nataka’ we have witnessed thus far, Karnataka and the BSY government in the State has fired the first serious salvo of good intent, backed by good planning through the GIM kicking off today. Hopefully thousands of serious investors will throng the show, and by the end of the 4th of June, 2010, we will know for sure how the event converted into serious bucks of investments. The MOU’s and their value (whether it be 4 lakh Crore INR or more or less), and more importantly the very many verticals that will receive investor interest will define the path of development the State will traverse over the next decade.
Every vertical of value and significance has been targeted, be it aerospace, biotech, pharma, Services, auto, infrastructure, power, food processing, health, education and more.
I do believe this festival of investment organized by the BSY government in the State is the first serious investment oriented foray launched in a State that deserves this and more. To that extent, the BSY government in the State earns its first positive spur of serious intent towards the development of the State.

Karnataka will move ahead basis the MOU’s signed. If we sign a 4 lakh crore INR set of MOU’s, conversion of this into actual projects, and on time as committed, is going to be a serious issue to tackle in the future. It is important for the government to set up a single-point nodal body that does serious follow-up on each investment oriented MOU. Investment-intent as exhibited in MOU’s need to convert to serious action plans cleared as projects by the State government. These need to be backed by loans as lined up by the plethora of banks that are keen participants in this 'mela'. And that needs to convert into actual on-ground action with the several projects being set up all over the state.

This nodal body needs to be empowered with action-parameters that help rather than hinder. The GIM is a terrific piece of proactive Karnataka-oriented development action. Let’ remember, this is just the beginning. From intent to plan to action to fulfillment is a long phase of dedicated work a lot of our bureaucrats need to get involved in. The game in many ways has just begun.

If good work results out of it all, and if investment intent translates into ground-level action, and if completed projects result in jobs and resultant prosperity, it can all only reflect in positive votes for the BJP government by the time we get to elections. Development is always a positive vote. And a well deserved one.

This is one big opportunity for Mr. BSY to emerge as a Statesman-planner of the State of Karnataka. The planning effort is excellent. It is important to witness the same degree of efficiency and follow-up action in terms of fast-tracking intent and implementing it all. And with pace.

Congratulations Mr.Yediyurappa! May the force be with you!

The author is a business-strategy specialist & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Email: harishbijoor@hotmail.com

Prosperous Cities

On-street Value


By Harish Bijoor

How rich and prosperous is a city? Is there a quick measure and metric for this one?
Is a city defined to be prosperous basis the number of cars its citizens buy? Or by the ownership pattern of homes? Or by the investment profiles represented by the stash in their banks as cash or in their lockers as paper securities and gold on hand?
Having spent a fair bit of time with macro-economic data that talks of prosperity indices that are complex and aggregated to a country, I have been in the quest for a measure that is true-blue micro, true-blue representative and true-blue comparable across cities and economies, never mind the color of their politics.

Being as rustic as I am, I have always wanted to get at it simply rather than look at complex numbers that boggle more than answer right. One measure that serves me right and serves me well, particularly after using it across cities in India (21 to date), and across cities from some 17 countries (Eastern Bloc cities included), the On-street value method is a great way to go.

What does this method do? It very simply looks at the on-street value of the citizens of a city and does a quick valuation of the various commodity items and brands carried on the persona of an individual on the street.









Take for instance Bengaluru. Hit the street and pick a whole cross-section of people off the street for an assessment. Pick from bottom to top. Pick up an auto rickshaw driver, a bus conductor, a newspaper hawker, the driver of a BPO van, the cook at a local dhabha, the pan-wallah at the street corner, the BPO employee in a hurry either to or from office, the Tech-worker from an end-to-end services enterprise, the bank clerk, the tinker, the tailor, the teacher and more.

Having picked sets of people who truly represent a city, run a clear and clean audit on what he or she is wearing, carrying and with. Let me look at two possibilities we have explored.

Look at the tailor and the techie for a start. The tailor has on him a shirt, which is stitched by him. Check the cost of garment and put a notional stitching cost to that. Add to it the price of vest and every other under-garment he is wearing. In most cases, the under-garments are aggressively branded items and the over-garment is not. Put a price tag to everything.

Look at the watch he is wearing and the purse she is carrying. The mobile phone, the blue-tooth device, and more. The contents of the purse, every one of them, lipstick, mascara, comb and every one of the 26 other items that adorn a woman’s handbag. The cost of the slippers, the belt, every earring, every accessory and right upto the point of assessing the value of the brand of perfume sprinkled onto her. Add the gold and silver ornaments on the persona as well. The cost of the 'Janivaara' (sacred thread) as well. God is in the details of this assessment.

Having done this basic exercise across every one of them, do it across every city. Do it across countries and you have a benchmark that tells a rich story. A story that is both gory and dark as well as bright and prosperous.






Is Chennai more prosperous than Bangalore? And is Delhi equally as prosperous as is Istanbul? The answers are blowing in the winds of such a study.
Some quick data points then for Bangalore.

The average on-street value of a techie on the street of Bangalore is INR 87,500 when on the way to work. At a weekend his value dips to 31,450, as he is without his trusted laptop on shoulder.

The average on-street value of an auto rickshaw driver in Bangalore is INR 12,100. And this is nearly three times more than the on-street value of a black and yellow taxi-driver in Mumbai.

The average on-street value of a BPO employee in Bangalore is INR 13,700, not too far from the on-street value of the auto rickshaw driver he employed to ferry him around.

The data goes on and on in the impact-throw of prosperity and flaunt value of the man and woman on the street.

A great way to check, compare, collate and literally run on a quarter to quarter basis as well to see a change in trend, if any. A rustic route to market. A rustic route to understanding cities and consumers who live and thrive in them as well.

We have just emerged from a study of some 7970 such on-street people from all walks of life. A study that looks at 38 cities across 18 countries. A study that is rich and compelling and a study that can get richer by the day.

Reading a city off its streets is a rich and satisfying way to go.
The author is a brand-strategy specialist & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Email: ceo@harishbijoorconsults.com

A Budget for Bangalore

Budget ethos for the city of Bengaluru


By Harish Bijoor


Bengaluru is a very vital part of Karnataka. The city is today not only the capital of Karnataka, but in many ways, is the Intellectual capital of India as well.

If Mumbai is the financial capital, Delhi the political capital and Kolkata the cultural capital, Bengaluru is surely the Intellectual capital of India.

In many parts of the world where I travel, I have had cab drivers ask with awe about the mystique of Brand Bangalore. Many flatteringly mistake the city to be the capital of India as well. This has happened to me equally in Singapore as it has happened in Addis Ababa and Ankara alike.

Bengaluru is therefore a city with a significance index for the nation, which is larger than life. The city in many ways belongs to each and every one of us in India who believes in the power of knowledge and the power of technology and technology enabled services.

If I am to look at the Budget ethos for a city such as Bengaluru, I do believe attention needs to be disproportionate, futuristic, global and of a cutting-edge variety. The city needs all of this and more.

Let me start on the allocations side. The budget for Bengaluru for a start must look at an outlay that is significantly larger than the INR 3000 Crore that was allocated in the Karnataka Budget for 2009-10. There is a demand that seeks a minimum INR 5000 Crore need. Bengaluru needs the attention of funds that are disproportionate to the total outlay on the Urban Development initiatives in the Budget. The last budget saw 40.7 percentage of the Urban Development budget kitty go to Bengaluru. This year, for a start , the need lies in a deeper percentage as the budget allocation to Urban Development initiatives deepen all across.
I would list the following basic ethos that the budget document needs to follow and use as a beacon light:

1. Infrastructure spending has been earmarked well budget after budget. This time round, there needs to be investments in the maintenance and sensible enhancement of the infrastructure that has been put into place. There is a need to allocate moneys on the soft side of infrastructure as well. It is important not only to build the flyovers and under-passes, it is important to invest in educating the public on the proper use of roads and the sensible use of infrastructure as well. Lane driving for one is a forgotten aspect on Bangalore roads.
2. Bengaluru is a really big city today under the BBMP limits. This mega-city produces a lot of waste. There is little expenditure that goes into waste-management. It is important to focus on this. Recycling of water and recycling of non-bio degradable waste is an important imperative the budget needs to allocate moneys to. Garbage is the biggest issue staring at us. Creative use of garbage needs the application of minds and moneys. I do believe the budget has a role to play here by upping allocations to recycling expenditures.
3. Slum rehabilitation is an important city need. As the city spreads and as consumptiveness becomes more and more vulgar in its orientation, it is important to manage the needs and wants of those who live in our city slums. It is important to invest in infrastructure development to provide for decent houses with drainage and water facilities. The city cannot cater only to the needs of the haves. It needs to look after the needs of those who have very little. The polarization of wealth is a big issue in a city like Bengaluru. This is a powder keg that acts as a crucible for the development of crime and simmering social discontent that waits for an opportunity to erupt.
4. The Language of GREEN is important to back. It is important to look at showcasing Bengaluru as a green-city that believes in green initiatives that are eco-friendly. Investment in building a nodal body that spearheads this and showcase Bengaluru to the world as a leader among all cities going green is an initiative that is needed. Bengaluru has up-rooted many trees in the last two years. It is important to focus on re-greening Bengaluru back. It needs to be disproportionate to need. Budget allocations on this count is what I look forward to.
5. Bengaluru can be an excellent tourist destination. We need the allocation of moneys for the re-invention of the tourist route of Bengaluru. The last budget saw an excellent allocation of INR 180 Crores for Tourism initiatives. In this budget ahead, I look forward to see a healthier still allocation with a focus on Bengaluru as well. Properties such as Nandi Hills are screaming for the need of attention. Let’s give it that.


Lastly, as a parting note to this budget-need piece, I do believe it is time for Bengaluru to invest in the creation of a logo of its own. We need a symbol the city can own and nurture. Bangalore is already a brand. The brand now needs a symbol. Progressive cities of the world own symbols of their own. I think Bengaluru has arrived enough to ask for one its own. Let’s start the debate on this at least now in this budget with a small allocation that helps put together an eco-system to make it happen.
The author is a brand-expert & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Email: ceo@harishbijoorconsults.com

Cities lose thier Frugality-mindset

Losing My Frugality


By Harish Bijoor


Decades ago all of us were very frugal in everything we did. If not us, at least our parents were.

Decades ago there was a method to every spend. There was a calculation that went behind every replacement of a pressure cooker in the kitchen and the good old 'tawa' to fry the puris in. There was a calculation at play even when it came to replace bed-sheets in the bedroom and towels in the bathroom. Decades ago, there was an entire attitude of frugality that was the big sentiment at play.

And then the decades rolled by. We now enter a brand new one in the series of years that will follow 2010. I now wonder, where has frugality as a sentiment gone? Where did it go? How did it go? When did it all happen?

Look into our city lives today. Is frugality a sentiment we associate a bit too closely to that one big vice called stinginess? Has it somehow got lost and has it altogether vanished form our lives?
Forty years ago, when I was al of 5 I grew up with a shortage of sugar. While holidaying with my grandparents in Mumbai one felt he pinch of shortages al the time. Delhi was no better. The sugar shortage was so acute that Udupi restaurants in Mumbai had stopped keeping sugar in eh small little bowls on the table for use with your cup of coffee or tea. Restaurant guests wee in the habit of swiping the sugar with eh bowl in tow. The shortage had bitten everyone hard.

This was one thing that spurred on the sentiment of frugality all around I guess. Everyone used everything frugally. With care. The more expensive the item, the more the care that was shown to it.

And then things changed. As India moved on from a supply-short economy to a supply-excess mode, advertising helped changed peoples mindsets on what to use and how much to use.

In a nation where even toothpaste it eh bathroom was used frugally, in came mass media advertising that encouraged consumers to fill the entire space of their tooth-brushes with sensuous looking tooth-paste (at least in the ads made during the day). India changed. Gradually though.

I still remember catching the sight of a ‘chimta’ in several bathrooms in North India and South India alike. These 'chimtas' were used to squeeze out the last bits of paste from the metal tubes of toothpastes the day. And we did it with pride.
That’s how frugal we were.

In the mid eighties and right upto the last years of the series 1900, India remained reasonably frugal, despite what mass media advertising has always wanted us to do. Sped more. Use more. Waste more even.

Mass media advertising wants us to have three television sets in the home. One in the drawing room as the family TV set. One in the bedroom for private viewing. And one in the kitchen for the moment, for Shantha-bai to watch while she cooks.

Mass media advertising has also wanted us to have more than one car in the home, use a lot more of snack-food and maybe even have three hair-dryers in the home.

India somehow remained rigidly and resolutely frugal. For a long number of years. An older generation of people who had seen wars ands shortages and strife, helped rein in sentiment.

India somehow continued to be rooted to the method of using what we must use, saving what we must save and not throwing what we must not throw.

We continued to be a nation that still has homes selling old newspapers to a “raddi-wallah” at the end of every month. In many of our homes we still save up empty plastic sachets that bring milk in them to our homes. At the end of the month we sell them to the 'raddiwalla' as well.

We buy a new car and keep the polythene seat covers on them on for a year and more. Never mind how sweaty and uncomfortable it gets. D never mind how yucky it looks. It at least prolonged the life of the seat cover.

As we enter the years of the 2010 series, I am afraid things are morphing. Frugality has somehow slowly found it sway out. Our city lives are filled with attitudes that fight frugality instead of perpetuating the sentiment.

We buy more than we must. We eat more than we must. We waste more than we should as well. We buy things we don’t really-really need. We buy things on impulse. We buy things led by emotive appeal rather than functional need and want.

I think advertising has succeeded at last. If you really peek at every product and service we buy and use, every one of them has two dimensions to them.

One is the “need and want” dimension. The other is a “desire and aspiration” dimension.

Let me explain. Coffee has a “need and want” dimension. When you need and want it, you go buy it. It is simply to satisfy this need and cravingn that is reasonably functional.

Coffee does also have a “desire and aspiration” dimension. When you want to try an exotic Colombian blend that costs twenty times the price of your local blend from Sunticoppa, in comes the dimension of “desire and aspiration”/ This is mostly cosmetic. This is mostly led by the allure and drama of branding and advertising at play. It is also spurred on by the influence of the Joneses, or the neighbors and peers who do the same.

Frugality as a sentiment has gotten lost from our city lives slowly but surely. Some of us are still frugal. But the rest may not allow us to be. For long. So watch out.
Must we then re-invent frugality in outr lives once again? Just to stay in touch with who we are rather than who or what we want to be?
Touche!
The author is a brand-strategy specialist & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Email: ceo@harishbijoorconsults.com