Urban India News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Urban India appears to be going through a parenting revolution. Only one in five persons interviewed in a recent Mint survey said they believe in raising their kids similar to how their own parents raised them.

State Bank of India (SBI).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Urban India’s shopping carts are losing their heft. After a pandemic-era spree on everything from electronics to grooming services, city dwellers are pulling back, leaving manufacturers and service providers grappling with sagging sales.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Urban India’s perception of healthy eating may not align with established nutritional guidelines, the latest YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey suggests. Nearly seven in 10 respondents claimed they had improved their diets in the past year.

Urban India is under some strain as demand continues to be muted amid surging food inflation, packaged foods maker Nestle India’s chairman Suresh Narayanan said at a media briefing on Tuesday at the company’s infant foods plant in Samalkha. He said there are “some pressure points from mega cities and metros" though tier one and below towns and rural markets seem to be reasonably stable. “The FMCG sector is facing sluggish demand with growth declining to 1.5-2 per cent compared to double digit growth a few quarters ago,” Narayanan said. The maker of Maggi noodles, KitKat chocolates and Nescafe coffee, reported a marginal 0.94% year-on-year decline in net profit for the July-September ’24 quarter, down to Rs 899.49 crore, hurt by softer demand and high commodity prices. The India unit of the Swiss foods company had reported net profit of Rs 908.08 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Max Life Insurance’s India Retirement Index Study (IRIS) 4.0. Conducted in partnership with Kantar, the study shows a slight improvement in retirement preparedness, with the index rising from 47 to 49 points. Despite this, financial uncertainty continues to affect a large segment of the population. The study also shows that 31% of respondents are unsure about how much they will need to maintain their lifestyle post-retirement. This lack of clarity is a significant risk, especially as life expectancy increases.

This is part of a special series of articles by the country's foremost voices, ahead of Union Budget 2024, aiming to draw attention to the critical reforms that can help India in its journey to become a developed nation by 2047. It is now proven beyond doubt that India needs a new imagination of how to govern her cities. The last decade finally saw the emergence of the city as a political agenda and a significant increase in investments in urban infrastructure and services. But the narrowly focused, mission- and scheme-led development of our cities across both the Union and state governments is not delivering the desired results.

India is likely to see retail digital payments double to USD 7 trillion by 2030 from current levels, a study by Kearney and Amazon Pay said. In the report 'How Urban India Pays', Kearney-Amazon Pay said strong adoption of digital payments in online purchases has potentially led to a permanent shift in consumer behaviours, fuelling offline adoption as well. While 90 per cent of the respondents of the survey preferred digital payments when making online purchases, affluent consumers lead the way with the highest Degree of Digital Payment Usage (DDPU), tending to use various modes of digital payment for 80 per cent of their transactions. «Millennials and Gen X are leading in the adoption of all types of digital payment instruments,» it said. «Men and women both use digital payments in about 72 per cent of their transactions, indicating gender parity.»

India has more than 820 million active internet users at present. Over half of them — 442 million — now come from rural parts of the country. In 2023, internet penetration grew eight per cent year-on-year. A new report shows that Indians’ internet behaviour and activities are changing in several ways.

first part of this series, published on Monday, showed that support for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had increased substantially in the latest round of the YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey, with nearly 47% of the respondents favouring the party. Limited trust in the Opposition alliance and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal appeal have played a major role in this surge. However, this doesn't mean there is support for the BJP’s position on all key issues related to its 2024 election campaign.

India's 5G smartphone shipment share grew to 57 per cent in the third quarter (Q3) of this year, marking a 78 per cent (year-on-year) growth, a new report has said. According to the CyberMedia Research (CMR), Samsung led the 5G smartphone market in the country with a 23 per cent market share, followed by Vivo at 16 per cent. Worth $11 billion 5G smartphones have been shipped in Q3 2023. «The 5G smartphone segment continued to headline the market growth, with 44 new launches, and a 57 per cent market share.

This year, too, is no different. Delhi on Thursday hit the 'Severe' category as it breached the Air Quality Index (AQI) mark of 400. In Mumbai, too, it was no better with Team India skipper Rohit Sharma articulating his concerns before the Sri Lanka game at the Wankhede Stadium in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023. «I mean, in an ideal world, you don't want a situation like this, but I'm pretty sure the concerned people are taking the necessary steps. It's not ideal, everyone knows that. But obviously, looking at our future generations — your kids, my kids — obviously, it's quite important that they get to live without any fear,» the Team India captain said on Wednesday.

Don't miss this special report from our Plain Facts team that captures the pulse of young India on the nation's 77th Independence Day.

Urban India’s Retirement Index (on a scale of 0 to 100) stood at 44, according to a recent study ‘India Retirement Index Study’ (IRIS) that maps the retirement preparedness of consumers in India.