{"id":3040,"date":"2016-09-05T08:48:54","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T03:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thinkshop.in\/?p=3040"},"modified":"2023-03-07T12:33:49","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T07:03:49","slug":"india-three-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/2016\/09\/india-three-countries\/","title":{"rendered":"India – Three Countries"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days ago, Founding Fuel\u00a0posted a cogent piece by Haresh Chawla on\u00a0How India\u2019s digital economy can rediscover its mojo<\/a>. In it, Chawla speaks about the current\u00a0crisis of confidence surrounding the digital economy and the so-called unicorns. It’s a great\u00a0piece on the realities of the startup mania, and has a lot to offer to many of us – regardless of the role we play in the ecosystem. What was most intriguing for me, however, was Chawla’s thoughts\u00a0on how India is not just\u00a0a huge\u00a0mass of consumers as\u00a0many in the western world mistakenly assume. Here’s\u00a0how he articulates it…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

India One:<\/strong> Club the top 2-tiers above and you find that the top 15% of Indians, i.e. about 150-180 million, earning an average of Rs 30,000 per month, are the ones who have money left over after buying necessities. These 15% of Indians control over half the spending power of the economy and almost its entire discretionary spending.<\/p>\n

India Two:<\/strong> This is the middle 30% or 400-odd million Indians, earning an average of Rs 7,000 a month… They are the ones who \u201cservice\u201d the $1 trillion market (yes, read that again) that India One represents\u2026 Of course, we report them as internet consumers in our slick presentations on Startup India.<\/p>\n

India Three:<\/strong> These are the forgotten 650 million who subsist and don\u2019t have the money to buy two square meals. Their incomes rival that of sub-Saharan Africa… However, they are the ones who form our vote banks and determine the political future of our nation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Think about that for a minute. Yes, as Indians, we all know that there are huge disparities in the wealth that surrounds us. And that is unlikely to change in the short term. But to think of India in terms of “three countries” puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n

If I had a dollar for every time someone told\u00a0me they were thinking of\u00a0“building an app”\u00a0as a\u00a0path\u00a0to striking it rich…<\/p>\n

Of course, it is a silly notion to think that one app – any app<\/em> – makes for a healthy and sustainable business model. And I’m\u00a0sure the marketplace will address such misplaced notions appropriately, for the most of us who venture into this ‘glamorous’ territory completely uninformed about what lies ahead.\u00a0But there is a larger issue at play, here.<\/p>\n

Even if you don’t<\/em>\u00a0intend to start an app project on the side, if you’re reading this, you are most likely a\u00a0part of the ‘India One’ that Chawla writes about, and therefore, in a position of some influence in Society. You are more likely to be\u00a0involved in making decisions on behalf of your employers related to the products or services you manage. You are more likely to spend your waking hours in the pursuit of making your\u00a0product or service available\u00a0to consumers across categories – India Two and Three included.<\/p>\n

Do we\u00a0really understand the customer\u00a0we seek to satisfy? Do we know what their world looks like? Do we\u00a0identify with their trials and tribulations? Or do we assume that their lives more or less resemble our own, except for the fact that they don’t watch Star World or converse in the Queen’s English?<\/p>\n

Think about India in terms of three different worlds, and you may just\u00a0have a greater chance of success when it comes to translating your lofty ideas into success on the ground. After all, understanding your customer’s needs and addressing those needs profitably is the very foundation on which any business is built. Is it not?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago, Founding Fuel\u00a0posted a cogent piece by Haresh Chawla on\u00a0How India\u2019s digital economy can rediscover its mojo. In it, Chawla speaks about<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[6,7,11,14],"class_list":["post-3040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-india","tag-life","tag-technology","tag-work"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4047,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3040\/revisions\/4047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}