What you eat impacts not just your health, but also the health of the economy. According to Professor Shamika Ravi, who is a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, the changing consumption pattern of Indians indicates economic growth.
Ravi, who recently released a report on the consumption pattern of Indians, says more people in the country are moving away from consuming cereals and are having fish and dairy products.
Speaking to News18.com, Shamika Ravi said: “The changes in consumption pattern do reflect on economic growth. This despite what the naysayers may be saying. As they say, bad news travels 15% faster, so I would not go by it. There has been a significant increase in average monthly per capita expenditure across rural and urban areas.”
According to Ravi, this change in consumption pattern shows the “success of the government’s food security policies which provide free food grains to large number of beneficiaries across all states of the country and with particular focus on the vulnerable 20% of households”.
One of the highlights of the report is the change in consumption and expenditure patters of the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and OBC communities, a political flashpoint between the Narendra Modi government and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Among the SCs, there has been a growth of 178% (average monthly per capita expenditure) in rural India and 172% for the OBCs in urban India.
“I don’t want to get into the politics of it. The fact is that the shift in consumption pattern shows that there is a shifting of the groups and targets,” adds Ravi.
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