The National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), a premier New Delhi-based economic think-tank, has been conducting household-level income surveys since 1968. The only other nationwide published surveys that have directly collected household income was National Sample Survey Organisation in 1960s, now discontinued, and its one-off Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers in 2002-03.
NCAER too added expenditure to its surveys only in mid 1980s, roughly coinciding with the beginning of India?s economic rise and stupendous growth in its consumer markets.
The last such survey, National Survey of Household Income & Expenditure (NSHIE) 2004-5 was conducted seven years ago. Much has changed in the intervening period, from the volcanic growth between 2005 to 2008, the global economic meltdown post Lehman Brothers? collapse in autumn of 2008 that continued right till beginning of 2010, to the reset of 2010-11. India?s annual per capita income almost doubled from R23,198 in 2004-05 to R46,492 in 2010-11. Annual per capita expenditure too galloped, from R25,000 in 2007-08 to R30,000 in 2009-10. All manner of consumption grew, from food, consumer expendables, cars, bikes, fashion accessories to foreign travel. And for a change, rural growth far outstripped that in cities thanks to growing farm and non-farm incomes and government largesse in terms of loan waivers, guaranteed jobs and better support prices for crops.
Surely, all that has changed the income, expenditure, ownership and savings patterns of the basic consumption unit in the country?a household. The composition of the household itself has changed in terms of its size, social and religious grouping, and profile of its members like age, sex, education, work status, et al. It is here that NCAER?s new division, Centre For Macro Consumer Research?s new survey, National Survey of Household Income & Expenditure 2011: Living in India, currently on, steps in. With an initial sampling frame of over 500,000 households across 30 states covering 268 districts, 2,508 villages and 360 towns, Living in India went into final 100,000 sample households starting June 01, 2011.
The Financial Express will bring its readers stories based on data from Living in India starting later this year. NSHIE 2011 will bring clarity to India?s emerging income pyramid, ownership patterns of over 38 household goods and services dissected every which way?rural, urban, et al. It will also bring glimpses of a humongous intra-country migrant remittances, gold investments, housing demand, household level old-age and social security coverage and much else. What?s more, this time the survey is also capturing qualitative variables like consumer perceptions, values, aspirations, confidence and buying behaviour. Most marketers will tell you that macro numbers apart, what they look for is the granularity of data at the household cluster level for actionable sales related programmes. With Living in India, the most exhaustive and robust consumer survey to have been attempted in the country, they?ll need to look no further.
