From fast food to autos, India's digitally connected users lure investors

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Mumbai resident Shivam Vahia cannot remember the last time he left home to shop. He spends about 30,000 rupees ($364) a month buying necessities like groceries, clothes and gadgets, all by tapping a few buttons on his mobile phone.

"My only offline spends are bars and restaurants, when I go to meet friends," said the 24-year-old engineering graduate.

Vahia is one among India's young and aspirational 1.4 billion population, whose propensity for online spending has attracted global companies and digital platforms. And as private consumption underpins economic growth in India, financial investors are targetting new ways to tap into it.

China saw a jump in consumption from 2006 when, as per World Bank data, its per capita gross domestic product (GDP) crossed $2,000. India crossed that threshold in 2021, according to the bank's latest available data, which could put it on a similar growth trajectory even though weak job growth and income inequalities in the country pose a risk to this outcome.

With the cheapest mobile data rates in the world, thanks to intense competition among telecoms providers, and the explosive growth of social media and personal entertainment, Indian consumers are going digital at a breakneck pace.

It has nearly 700 million smartphone users, who, rating agency ICRA estimates, consume an average of almost 17 GB in mobile data per day, higher than the 13 GB in China and the 15 GB in North America.

"An urban consumer in India can see what consumers are consuming in developed countries and a rural consumer can see what an urban consumer is doing. This aspiration-led consumption boost has the potential to provide a material fillip to discretionary consumption in years to come," said Priyanka Khandelwal, fund