New Delhi, Sep 22: India’s next phase of consumption is expected to be shaped by rising incomes and greater upward mobility, but businesses need to look beyond affluent urban consumers to fully tap the country’s expanding market, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
Addressing the 53rd National Management Convention of the All India Management Association in New Delhi, Sitharaman said India is at a structural turning point as economic reforms and rising household incomes continue to influence consumer demand.
She said higher incomes are likely to gradually shift spending towards more discretionary categories, including healthcare, personal wellness, consumer durables and quality services. However, she stressed that the emerging consumption opportunity extends well beyond the formal urban economy.
Sitharaman urged corporate India not to design products and business strategies only for affluent consumers in major cities. She pointed to working families associated with agriculture, rural construction, transport and informal enterprises as an important part of the country’s wider consumption base.
The changing consumption pattern could open new opportunities for companies willing to expand their reach across smaller cities, towns and rural markets. For businesses, this could mean developing products, pricing strategies and distribution networks that cater to a wider range of consumers rather than concentrating only on premium urban demand.
The Finance Minister also highlighted the government’s focus on public investment and digital infrastructure. She said Union capital expenditure has been raised to more than ₹12 lakh crore for 2026-27, while effective capital expenditure, including grants to states for creating capital assets, has crossed ₹17 lakh crore.
India’s railway network is now almost fully electrified, while freight loading has reached 1,670 million tonnes, Sitharaman said. She also noted that digital public infrastructure recorded an average of around 79 crore transactions a day in August 2026.
Sitharaman further called for greater private-sector participation in emerging areas, including space and nuclear energy, as the government opens more sectors to private investment.
She also encouraged Indian companies to move beyond manufacturing scale and strengthen their role in global value chains by investing in design, engineering, patents, software, technology and know-how.
The broader message for corporate India is that the country’s consumption opportunity is becoming increasingly diverse. As incomes rise and consumer aspirations spread across regions and income groups, businesses may need to rethink how they develop, price and deliver products for India’s next generation of consumers.