Gold consumption in India is a universal phenomenon across income classes, which explains why the GST rate on gold was fixed at just 3% and not 18%.

The year 2016 will undoubtedly be commemorated for tectonic changes in the global and domestic environment, including Brexit, election of Donald Trump as the US president, and closer home.

An overwhelming majority, 87%, of people living in metros belong to the top two quintiles of India’s income pyramid but even the richest among them consider themselves ‘middle-class’, says ICE survey

Low returns, lack of awareness and a fetish for hoarding the yellow metal in the country seem to have led to the tepid response to the gold monetisation initiative...

The poor use India’s massive public distribution system (PDS) for foodgrains much more than the rich, and rate the quality of grains more favourably than richer income classes...

Four out of 10 households in India have more than one earning member, according to fresh data from a large-scale nationally representative survey conducted this year...

40% of indebted households in underdeveloped rural areas took loans for social obligations...

Fresh data on consumer behaviour shows that the transition to cashless will be a Herculean task in a country such as India...

Just as non-cash shouldn’t mandatorily be imposed, neither should cash. Why has this not figured on a reform agenda between 2004 and 2014, or much earlier?...

Though the actual position will only be known at the end of the year, chances are the new black-money window IDS-2 will do well since, for those who have not already laundered their black money post-demonetisation, it would make more sense to give up 55-56% of it to the government instead of losing it all...

This is the season for quoting, and misquoting, Keynes. “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” This is attributed to Keynes, though there is no actual evidence Keynes ever said, or wrote, this...

The discussion on the fall in employment after the November 8 demonetisation relies on anecdotal evidence. It is not backed by data...

98% of the top percentile own either a car or a two-wheeler, shows a PRICE survey on India’s consumer economy...

Middle India is largely rural and uneducated, shows the ‘Household Survey on India’s Citizen Environment & Consumer Economy’...

For measuring the material well-being of bottom of the pyramid households, we need to follow an approach that takes into consideration both their income & expenditure...

While the government has announced a number of big impact schemes, the focus should now be on creating linkages between various departments and roping in stakeholders with different types of expertise...

In Indian context, two-wheeler is less of an automobile and more of an enabler which creates a virtuous cycle of increased mobility towards generating better livelihood...

Income, expenditure and saving-related indicators, when taken together, provide holistic insights into levels of household well-being...

Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, with a large population, are pulling down other north Indian states in terms of the general well-being status of households...