What a huge opportunity for India as a country, in terms of image, particularly in business. Also, as the world becomes an increasingly tech-savvy place, it’s important to take a good position in terms of capability. Moreover, it would also be a great way to get positioned in global importance.

I admit, I didn’t see any of the information flow overseas so perhaps I am not in the best position to comment on this. But I was here, and I thought the information flow was weak and uncoordinated. There was no attempt to use this to drive Brand India, which would then have flowed as the message overseas too. In fact, I remember my uncle in the US who is a great patriot was actually highly disappointed in the kind and amount of coverage. If any other country, say China, had achieved something like this it would have dominated global headlines for some time. But since this was us, we remained a one-day wonder.

When will governments realize the tremendous need to position the country? It doesn’t happen by chance, it’s something you work on consciously, that you drive strategically. You use every opportunity to leverage yourself into a position of greater global importance, because these opportunities do not come along every day. It helps when you negotiate for a nuclear deal, it helps when you have aggressive neighbours, it helps when the global economy is sinking… it has numerous and hundreds of intangible benefits.

When I was growing up, India was typically perceived as a poor country awash in tigers, elephants and sadhus. It took the IT revolution and companies like Infosys and TCS for India to be perceived in a whole new league. When I was at INSEAD, we held an “India week”, where for one week we had various cultural programs devoted to a discovery of India. As part of that, the many graduates from BITS who were part of INSEAD’s IT team created a complete website on India and its culture. Even as classmates shook their heads in disbelief at how we had done it, they acknowledged our abilities in the field.

It’s more and more important today that India not just perceive itself as powerful but that it make other countries conscious of the tremendous potential and beneficial power in the form of capability and intellectual talent that we have. It is a pity to keep frittering away our opportunities as we do.

Sarat Chandra’s classic novel Devdas, written in 1917, has been done many times in Indian cinema, about 11 times in all but none with such a different perspective as by Anurag Kashyap, maker of Dev D.

The Original Story

The story is about Devdas, born into a rich Bengali family in 1900s, who falls in love with a girl called Paro from his village. Under family pressure Devdas is unable to profess his love for Paro and she ends up marrying someone else. Devdas on the other hand ends up at the doorstep of a courtesan, Chandramukhi but vows to return to Paro before he would die.

While in the original adaptations, the social backdrop of the movie remains the same along with the storyline and characterization, Anurag Kashyap refuses to succumb to the conventional niceties. While at times, it remains true to the original novel, it becomes daring and often bizarre at others.

The difference lies in its modern day take on the Indian youth. The interpretation, which is slick, pushes the boundaries of Indian cinema.

Family Ties

All of the previous interpretations take us back to the early 20th century India where a family withered under the patriarch. From an early age, children were reminded of their roles and places in society. The father, head of the family took all the decisions and everyone else could do nothing but obey. Disobeying the father was seen as a gross act of disrespect.

Lines were drawn in society over several differences such as religion and caste. However, a far more powerful division was the traditional Hindu bifurcations vide social standing emerging from occupations and financial status.

This social divide was what kept Dev and Paro apart in the original adaptations of the novel. Dev and Paro, childhood sweethearts, longed to be together but when Dev’s father disapproved of their relation on the grounds of a mismatch in their financial stature, Dev meekly surrendered to his wishes.

His failure to stand up to his father came from the uneasy relationship he shared with him since childhood. It was taboo then in the minds of the people to confront difficult situations. He chose to avoid rather than confront, and quietly slipped away to the city at night.

We see this in today’s society still, as to how most of us are unable to resolve our childhood emotional baggage and continue to carry it with us as we grow up, eventually passing it on to our children and never being able to strike a comfortable relationship with them. In the latest adaptation, the relationship between the father and son coherent with the current times was shown as awkward still. The differences between rich and poor were shown to weaken, as Dev’s father expressed his agreement to his son getting married to Paro, his manager’s daughter.

Today’s Dev is faced with a dilemma yet again. This time it is his failure to come to terms with a sexually aggressive Paro. The deep rooted insecurity of men with bold, assertive women is explored. No matter how much society develops and claims are made that men are free to be sensitive metrosexuals and übersexual now, the truth remains that bold independent women make men uncomfortable.

What does Dev do? He watches Paro get married to someone else and drowns himself in alcohol.

In both the adaptations, the realization of standing up for love comes when he sees her marrying someone else. Was it out of love or was it a result of their egotistic nature?

The Relationship

In the story, Dev shared a relationship with two different women who had somewhat a similar character. Both of them were shown as strong, assertive and independent.

Dev and Paro were childhood friends turned lovers. Their love blossomed during the time they spent apart while Dev was studying abroad and Paro was back home.

In the original adaptations, their communication was restricted to letters. They wrote each other the ‘classic mushy love letters’. The modern day Dev and Paro used emails and telephony but the content of their conversation was quite erotic in nature.

This version also shows how the definition of love has slowly meandered towards sex. Both Paro and Chanda crossed their moral bounds for the sake of love. Chanda ends up making a sex tape with her then-boyfriend and Paro sends her naked pictures to Dev. The expression of love takes a totally different direction. From lighting an oil lamp as a symbol of her love to clicking pictures of her naked bosom, that is what Indian youth is now.

The strict social taboos that had governed the Indian way of life for thousands of years have all but disappeared now. These days a relationship between a boy and a girl does boil down to saucy chats/ sms and ultimately sex. You just can’t take sex off the table.

Life Does Not Often Give Second Chances

But in both versions, they did get a second chance at life and at love. Drowned in sorrow and depressed in love the male protagonist ended up at the door step of a sex worker. While he was brought there by his carousing friend in the previous adaptations, in the recent one it was by a PIMP (Chunni).

The dirty world then was shown as watching a girl dance at a brothel but this version gets realistic and ‘Dev’ lands up in the red light area of Paharganj, only to fall deeper and deeper into the sleazy world of drugs and prostitution. Not for a moment does he take stock of his life. Quite like the aimless youth in contemporary times.

The sex worker Chanda cares for Dev and eventually falls in love with him. Given those social mores, Dev could not accept a woman of that stature. He drinks himself to sickness in the old version and prefers to die at Paro’s doorstep.

The recent adaptation comes with a twist. Chanda infuses life in him and he warms up to a second chance at love but only to go into self destruction mode yet again. Caught between the traditional values he has been raised with and exposure to the west, he fails to see himself fit in this life and leaves once again.

His dysfunctionality finally is put to rest on a chance incident and he goes back to Chanda. His life turns a full circle with a woman triggering the self destruction and a woman rescuing him in the end. Life offers him a second chance and he takes it.

The Current Scenario

The vision of telling this classic love story blended with contemporary times and similarities with the MMS scandal and BMW case strikes familiarity and is more in line with the current social and cultural values.

Devdas is shown to be a soft and gentle person but exhibits irrational behaviour in fits of rage.  I find that this trait of Devdas will resonate with the sentiments of several youngsters whose anger has become displaced.

We resent the choices and decisions that are made for us and like Devdas, we also rebel silently, from within.  But not many of us have the courage to question openly and gain the freedom to make our own choices and decisions.  Like Devdas, we too build up anger within ourselves and prefer to go on a self destruction spree than direct it in some constructive way. We crib and we complain but do nothing. We talk about freedom and independence in our society, but where will this freedom and independence come from when we are still chained in our minds by values we  dissociate from but still cannot break away from?

Today’s youth are angst-ridden youngsters hungry for revolution.  But feel incapable of carrying out the revolution themselves because they are used to being in their ‘comfort zone’.  (and who wants to walk out of comfort?!?!)  Instead, they focus hard on enjoying themselves (just like Devdas who wanted to drown his miseries in alcohol).  But how successful are we in trying to run away from our real problems? When the morning comes and hangover dies down, the problems still remain.

Devdas was a victim – a victim of his own anger, a victim who kept punishing himself and a victim of his own helplessness to bring about a positive turn to his life.

We could continue to be Devdas‘es’ as in the previous adaptations and wallow in self-pity or we could be like Dev in the modern version, find a way out of our sorrows and grab the opportunity that life presents us.

In this version the opportunity at a second life was presented not only to Dev but also Chanda and they both made good of it as they both lived happily ever after.

And who knows, with how the times are changing we might just see our ‘Dev’ finding love in the arms of ‘Chunni’ in the next version of this celebrated love story of DEVDAS.

If we examine the larger picture, India and Indian companies are probably reacting in a sharperthan- required manner. The expected GDP growth is still 7%, not a mean rate of growth for such a large economy. The number of people actually laid off in India is miniscule. While it is true that the manufacturing sector has slowed down, many sectors have shown phenomenal growth. The FMCG sector is one such, while according to a source at a leading kitchen appliances MNC, the durables sector too has shown fast growth. The bulk of people in India are self-employed, with the number of people working in the organised sector at barely 2% of the total workforce. Similarly, the involvement of Indian consumers with the stock market is less than 5%, with the majority of people still relying on traditional financial instruments like fixed deposits and bonds. However, the prevailing sentiment amongst the middle class is that of uncertainty and fear. Mindscape, Technopak’s consumer – based consulting arm, did some brainstorming and consumer interviews to come up with 9 key behavioural trends for 2009.

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Alessi Product Catalogue

And it is to mitigate that vacuum that designers like Alessi come up with the trend of ‘personification’, and reinterpret and design ordinary household gadgets and tools. Useful, yet playful, with loads of personality and pep, these are guaranteed to add a sparkle and the reassurance of the human factor to any home/ desk.

Earlier it was not uncommon for even a middle class family to have a lavish 3-5 day affair, since relatives would congregate from around the country for the event, and it was as much a family reunion as a ritual. Traditionally, most of the work of organizing the wedding fell to the respective families and they would rally around, the aunt famous for sweets would be pressed into service as would the second cousin who knew how to put henna.

In the present times, we estimate that the annual wedding market is not worth a rupee under Rs. 120,000 crores ( USD 30 billion) currently, taking into account all expenditure heads, from catering to jewellery, clothing and the furniture and other trappings bought for the bride and groom. Amazingly enough, the bulk of the wedding market is still served by myriad unorganized players, be it the bands which play, the caterers, flower-vendors or tailors. That is expected to grow to Rs. 160,000 crores by 2010, on the back of the number of weddings going up from 8.5 to 9 million. That’s a 20% increase in spends on 6% growth in the number of weddings, i.e. the amount spent per wedding is rising faster.

The Total spends on weddings are divided as in the below chart, with jewellery and products for the home – furniture, furnishings, appliances etc, forming the largest categories, followed by the actual event – the venue, decorations, food, music, gifts to the invitees, invitation cards etc.

We do not anticipate any change in the distribution of expenditure over the next few years. The amount spent on each of these categories is given below, with our projections for 2010:

There is thus a huge and burgeoning market for wedding-related categories, and often the planned spends on weddings stay constant regardless of the macro economic situation, since Indian parents begin planning for the wedding as soon as their daughter is born. Thus weddings offer a huge and constantly growing market for marketers to tap into. However, the nature of the Indian wedding is changing a little bit, in tune with the times. We at Mindscape did some analysis to understand the key trends which are likely to play out in the Indian wedding in the next few years.

The largest and most interesting macro-trend which is driving many of the sub-trends is the new Indian family – still together, still bonded, but somewhat more democratic, with space for the younger members to explore their individuality within certain boundaries. As a result, the entire process of approaching the wedding had changed to quite an extent. Love marriages are on the rise, as are ‘arranged love marriages’, a peculiarly Indian concept ( or is it? More on this later in the article). The way parents are arranging weddings is also changing. While the rituals of the wedding remain traditional, the way they are celebrated is becoming much more diverse and more an act of self-expression. They have also become much more orchestrated as events, rather than the traditional, rather rambling event in which only the priest has a real clue about what’s going on at any point in time. And the Indian wedding has become popular overseas too – many people of other nationalities want to incorporate the fun and colour of it into their own weddings.

Trend 1: The Individual Marriage

Weddings have always been occasions to show off. But where they were meant to show off the family’s wealth and prestige, now they are also showcases of the family’s and in particular, the bride and groom’s style and values. In fact, in many ways, weddings are slowly turning into ‘theme parties’.

Movie-influenced weddings: Hindi films of the Yashraj/ Dharma Productions ( Karan Johar)/ Barjatya ilk have been increasing in their footprint of influence. If earlier they largely influenced weddings in North India, today even a South Indian or Bengali wedding incorporates some of the rituals popularized by their films. The ladies sangeet is one such which has become de rigueur at weddings of any community. Families plan for months, choreograph their dances in exact imitation of their favourite movie stars and some of them even hire a choreographer or dance teacher to help them get their matkas and jhatkas just right. Wedding apparel has become the other adherent to the trends set by Hindi films – mehendi , sherwanis, lehengas and even evening dresses for the cocktail party.

Eco-weddings: As people become increasingly conscious of the environmental issues faced by our planet, some of them are taking a bold step to do their bit to preserve it by opting for ecologically healthy wedding celebrations. The ecologically friendly wedding starts right from scaling down the celebrations to opting for recycled paper for the invitation cards, using leaf-plates for the feast and buying sarees made of ‘ahimsa’ silk – a non-violent way of extracting the silk thread. Often, eco-wedding are held in the daytime to save energy costs as well.

Small weddings: Further to the eco-friendly wedding is the trend of small, intimate weddings where only the nearest and dearest are invited. This does tend to get a little complicated in India where families are large and family ties jealously guarded. It’s all too easy to insult the fourth cousin six times removed by not inviting his daughter’s son-in-law but there are some gutsy couples who are opting for a more meaningful celebration rather than a grand event comprising of people they don’t even know. That doesn’t mean that the feast, the décor , the venue or the wedding attire is any the less sumptuous, just that the gathering is small. The focus is on meticulous attention to every exquisite detail, quality rather than quantity.

Destination weddings: At the other end of the spectrum is the destination wedding, where the entire wedding is planned at an exotic, scenic locale, be it the beaches of Bora Bora or heritage palaces in Rajasthan. All the guests are flown out to the selected locale and put up at a central venue, and the entire wedding is organized to take place there, to make for an unforgettable experience.

Theme weddings: Turning the wedding into a theme party is also becoming more popular. In fact, at many weddings, what happens is that different events are themed differently. For instance, the cocktail party would have a theme that enhances the flavor, such as bohemian or harem, while the wedding itself could have a royal theme with the bride and groom decked up like royalty. Themes of colour are becoming popular as they are also easy to carry out. Fantasy themes like Arabian Nights, fairytale themes, Egyptian and Japanese themes, all of them have started coming into play across every detail associated with the wedding, from the invitation cards to the décor, the food and the costumes.

Trend 2:  Love marriages:

Love marriages seem to be on the rise in India, helped along by the more friendly relationship between parents and children. Earlier the relationship used to be much more hierarchical and paternalistic, where the parents held sway over the children’s decisions. In today’s India, parents are making more of an effort to be accommodating of their children and vice versa, thus making it easier for children to broach the topic of having fallen in love. Parents too have a more conciliatory attitude towards the same and thus love marriages or ‘arranged love marriages’ are becoming common amongst the middle class. The arranged love marriage is one where the parents or family friends introduce the couple to each other and the couple then has the option to accept or reject the ‘rishta’, unlike the former tradition where the bride and groom to be had no say in the matter. Interestingly, many of today’s youth also find these a much safer alternative to the western-style love marriage where they are themselves responsible for selecting their life partner.

Trend 3: e-wedding:

The internet has now become an increasingly powerful force across many industries. Interestingly enough, even the wedding industry is now more and more reliant in the web. The size of the online matrimonial market has exploded to an estimated Rs. 90 crore, from barely Rs. 6 crores 4 years ago. There are websites which offer a database of almost everything needed for a wedding, from bands to flower-vendors, mehendi-walis to pundits, to make it easy for the harried parents of the bride. In fact, today everything – starting from matrimonial announcements and ending with custom made invitations or rings can be arranged online. With more families now spread out across the globe, wedding webcasting and online bridal diaries are also available to make it possible to stay connected through the process. In fact, shaadi.com has even started an online gift registry to make it easier for guests to plan thoughtful gifts.

Trend 4: Wedding Planning:

As the wedding celebrations become more complex, the field of wedding planning is getting a boost. No longer are the bride’s parents and her extended family running around in a frenzy, but many of them are opting for a professional wedding planner who has the experience of having organized several weddings to save themselves the hassle.

Wedding planners are mushrooming to cater to the varied demands, from arranging coordinating décor with the bride’s ensemble to researching more and more exotic and un-heard of cuisines to add that touch of novelty. A non-exhaustive list of their job responsibilities includes taking care of the venue and meals for all functions, booking hotel rooms, making invitations, planning meals with the accompanying décor. A wedding planner makes about 15% commission on all the expenses of the event.

Trend 5: Indian Weddings:

The traditions and rituals of Indian weddings are elaborate and colourful, and with the increasing knowledge of India across the world, Indian weddings are becoming a popular theme overseas. Inspired by movies and programs on travel channels, many foreigners want to come to India with their families and friends and get married in Indian style, combining the event with an exotic holiday. Some of them also believe that getting married in this style may actually help the marriage to be stronger, as these are age-old rituals. Wedding portals and travel agencies alike are busy planning packages for overseas clients who want to get married like Indian royalty or Bollywood style, complete with singing, dancing, caparisoned elephants and the groom riding in on a horse!

Trend 6: Wedding Fashion:

Wedding trousseaus have long been the mainstay of Indian fashion designers. But with more and more personalisation of the wedding as an event, wedding attire too has become part of the fashion industry. The traditional colour palette of reds and pinks has now expanded to include almost all colours of the rainbow, from turquoise blues to seafoam greens, yellows to purples. Borrowing from evening gown styles, lehengas have become fish-tailed or columnar, apart from the standard A-line. The number of wedding magazines has escalated to 10 on the newsstands, three of them – Brides & Style, Marriage Mantra and Brides Now -launched in 2007. The wedding market has lead to the creation of a 24hour Hindi wedding channel. Besides, there is a huge resource of Internet websites that keep the couples up to date with the latest fashions for weddings.

We do anticipate a bit of a contraction in the spends on weddings, given the prevailing attitude of uncertainty on the economic front. Wedding planners are already feeling the impact, with clients asking for more to be done with the same or less money than in the past. While not wanting to compromise on the scale of the wedding, clients now want to pay, say, Rs. 300 per plate of food, rather than Rs. 500. The number of events hosted is falling as is the spend on décor. The frills and furbelows of the wedding celebration are getting scaled down while retaining the essentials. What remains constant is the expenditure on the costumes, jewellery, gifts for the groom’s family.

A global social values study* conducted a few years ago threw up an interesting finding. An analysis by Ronald Inglehart and Christian Wenzel revealed that over 70% of values could be grouped on just two dimensions: traditional versus secular/ rational and survival versus self-expression (Inglehart-Wenzel Cultural Map of the World). Interestingly, despite what one might consider a much more laid-back attitude towards tradition, the US falls on the more traditional side of values, similar to India, though the US is much higher on self-expression.

A recent study by Mindscape – Technopak’s consumer insights division – on social values amongst Sec A and B respondents in the age group of 25 – 45 year olds from 8 Tier I and II cities, leads us to believe that over time, India too would end in the same position as the US – high on Tradition as well as on Self-Expression.

The Key Trends

1. Health is wealth – continues to be the mantra for Indians, young or old, male or female. With the rising focus on lifestyle diseases, India’s urban consumers have become increasingly conscious and willing to undertake serious efforts to preserve their health.

2. Education and being pro technology are among the most important values, as both of these are still perceived as key to gaining status in a society otherwise determined by birth-related factors like caste. However, in keeping with tradition, which says “work is to be done for its own sake and not for the fruits thereof “, the factors controlling success,

• education,
• technology
• an edge over others by virtue of state, religion, birth or caste ,
• meaningful work

are stronger values than the need to win / achieve.

3. Traditional values, such as the need to take care of aged parents, respecting age and saving for tomorrow still carry a lot of importance in India. This becomes especially interesting in view of the fact that 65% of India is now under 35 years of age, thus casting a greater burden of support onto India’s youth. Interestingly, traditional values are strong even while faith in religion is becoming weaker.

4. Female careerism – a belief that women should be not only encouraged but brought up to have a career of their own – came up as a strong belief, though it was stronger in women than in men. However, this was not backed by a corresponding belief in flexibility of gender roles, which means the burden of child-rearing and running a household is still all too likely to be viewed as a woman’s space.

5. There is a concern for the environment and a belief that one should actively do one’s best to try and at least maintain the current environment, if not improve it. As a result, consumers seem to believe that going back to nature is a more environment-friendly way to live.

6. Brand consciousness was on the rise, no doubt spurred by the explosion in modern retail and the availability of both international brands and of formerly unpackaged goods becoming packaged and branded.

7. There was a strong belief in people power – perhaps one of the factors that keeps India’s status as the world’s largest democracy current.

8. People seemed to feel that life had become very fast and hurried and that one had ‘no time to stand and stare’. Thus the need for control came through as a higher-order need amongst people- the need to be able to manage their own time and space, to carve out time for their personal needs, rather than be subsumed in the minutiae of daily living.

9. By and large the values which have come up as important were those which did not pose a threat to India’s traditionally paternalistic culture. Flexible gender roles and being liberal about sexual matters are relegated to the lower end of the heap.

10. Similarly, India’s uneasy relationship with overtly pleasurable activities continues to reflect in its stated value system. Pursuit of pleasure, fancy for foreign goods, ostentation and risk-taking are also consigned to being valued less, as is making an overt effort to look good, or the belief in a child’s ability to discern good from bad.

Thus, the new values which have come up and become integrated with the self-image of Indians today are those which promise better quality of life, but pose no threat to traditional, paternalistic patterns of society. Indians are still uneasy with anything that overtly threatens the established order of society, and while they assimilate new values and ways of doing things, prefer not to upset the apple-cart. Individualism and Openness to change are still middle-order values in India today, superseded by Respect for age.

Differences Between Segments

Working Women Support The Traditional Order

Traditionally, women working out of home have been perceived as threats to the established patriarchal society and thus not very favourably viewed by society. Interestingly, however, the Indian working woman is in many ways far more conservative than her housewife counterpart.

Education is most important for this segment as it is the key to achievement. Aids to education, namely technology and the internet are valued more than by men. Meaningful work is as important for working women as for men. Naturally due to their juggling of roles, health is extremely important for working women, and their belief in natural products higher.

Unsurprisingly, they believe in female careerism more strongly than housewives or men, and would encourage their daughters to work. Earning money translates into saving for tomorrow, more strongly for working women than others.

However, the guilt of ‘neglecting the family’ leads working women to compensate by pampering the children, and their belief in flexible gender roles is less than that of housewives, almost as compensation for their working out of home. They are also less individualistic than housewives. Traditionalism is stronger in working women as compared to men. Values such as respect for elders, caring for aging parents are firmly entrenched. Religion is there in the background but is not a very strong force.

Working women also place lesser importance on brands, shopping, craving for change, than housewives. They assign slightly lesser scores to values such as looking good, fancy for foreign products, pester power, ostentation, out of home activities and are less liberal about sex than housewives.

While Housewives Would Like Some Changes…

While housewives may not work outside the house, they believe in female careerism and would encourage their daughters to engage in meaningful work. Accordingly, they believe in flexible gender roles, more strongly than society overall. They are also more individualistic, believing that they should make decisions for themselves, and do what interests them.

In line with this thinking, housewives are more into seeking new experiences, meeting new people. They have a fancy for foreign products as well, more than working women. They also value out of home activities, and being well groomed more than others. And interestingly, the need to win is stronger than for working women and men.

Thus housewives would seem a far more potent force for change to the traditional social order than working women.

And Men Prefer The Established Order

Men in general place a lower importance on social values than women. Even education and health, which are the strongest values, are less valued by men as compared to women. Technology is important, but familiarity has resulted in a lower score than for women. Similarly, the internet does not hold the same importance that it does for women.

Traditional Indian values such as respect for elders and care of ageing parents, while strong values for men, are less strong than for women. Traditionalism itself is a lower order value for men as compared to women.

Concern for environment and the use of natural products are strong values for men, but not as strong as for women.

Meaningful work, as among working women, is important for men. Saving for the future is important, but interestingly, the need for control although a strong value, is lesser than for women. Acknowledging that working life is tense, men seek to balance work with stress releasing activities, shopping, seeking a change in routine, new experiences. Self indulgence is in but men are not as ostentatious as women.

Individualism is a weaker value than for females, and most men are still chauvinists with lower scores for female careerism and flexible gender roles, as compared to women, though their role as father does seem to have become more hands-on than in the past.

Overall Social Trends

Traditional values and ways of thinking still play a strong role in India’s social fabric and would seem to continue to do so, despite the advent of global media and technology which have become all-pervasive. Despite the overt evidence, from the booming retail market, of people having become more pleasure-seeking and fun-loving, it doesn’t gel with the Indian consumer’s sense of propriety to overtly admit to the same. However, there is a slow-growing admission of the increased stress of today’s world leading to the need for outlets, in the form of shopping, looking good, grooming etc. In the long term, therefore, one would expect to see a movement towards pleasure and self expression while remaining bound to traditional values.

—

* JDS Global social values study 2005

We are focusing this issue of Outlook on a number of trends and developments in two broad areas – health foods and indulgence foods. These seem to be the two dichotomous and yet somehow synchronous directions in which consumer needs as well as product development seem to be moving. In fact, food is taking on many different roles for consumers, and these are the trends we have found.

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