100 crore Indians have no discretionary income to spend: Report

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, February 26, 2025: India has a population of around 140 crore people but only the top 10 per cent have enough discretionary money to spend, as per a report published by Blume Ventures, a venture capital company.

In the Indus Valley Annual Report 2025, the firm mentions that it is only the top 10 per cent in India who drive economic growth and consumption.

And this consuming class is not widening (more people coming into it), but deepening (the rich are getting richer). The class in India that consumes is the size of Mexico’s population (1.3 to 14 crore people), as per the report.

There is another aspiring class, which has just begun to spend beyond the essential with the advent of easy payment options like UPI.

This nature of the Indian consumer is also shaping the way brands approach the Indian market—with focus shifting from capturing the mass market to concentrating on premium products that will be able to satisfy the consumers with deeper pockets.

This trend can be seen in the fact that higher-end mobile phones sell more in India while the base variants struggle to show impressive sales. There has also been a notable rise in demand for luxury gated housing and branded goods.

Another sector that is booming in India is the ’experience economy’, which was seen recently as expensive tickets to concerts of global artists like Coldplay and Ed Sheeran sold out in no time.

One of the authors of the report told the BBC, "Those who are too focused at the mass end or have a product mix that doesn’t have exposure to the premium end have lost market share."

Inequality has also been on a steep rise in India. While in 1990 the top 10 per cent of Indians held 34 per cent of the national income, in 2025 the number has jumped to 57.7 per cent.

The bottom half’s national income, on the other hand, has fallen from 22.2 per cent to 15 per cent in the same period of time.

The report further reveals that while India’s consumption growth has outpaced major world economies in the last 10 years when it comes to consumption expenditure per capita, India is still behind China by 13 years.

As per the report, while India’s average per capita consumption was $1,493 in 2023 compared to China’s $1,597 in 2010.

Penetration of credit cards and mutual funds is also way lesser in India than all other major economies.