Young Indian, rural, misunderstood and restless.

Nobody can turn 70 overnight, neither a living being nor a nation. An ancient nation (older than history) yet a young state, forged in the crucibles of fratricidal violence of 1947 turned 70. Slowly the generation of 1947 fades away enrolee to their heavenly abode & the one coming of age, so called millennial carry the burden of passing the baton to a generation who would have no physical contact with the 'Midnight children' per se. What they pass-on will depend a lot on how millennials live their lives, realise their dreams, fulfilled their aspirations.

There is a looming crisis that awaits India as a nation and subsequently the businesses as well. An army of 500 million young, literate barely employable (plenty of statistics) in formal sector, aspirational & voting populace is about to come to age.. deciding the destiny of this nation. Today agriculture employs almost 57% contributing to 12-13% of GDP. in 5 years contribution will come below 10%..where will be young (rural millennials) find employment if private sector doesn't step up?

Centre for the Study in Developing Societies (CSDS) in partnership with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) conducted a sample survey-based study on the attitudes, anxieties and aspirations of India’s young population. The CSDS-KAS Youth Survey 2016 was conducted in 19 states of the country among 6,122 respondents in the 15-34 age group. The study gives us a fair idea about how the economic, political and socio-cultural, and technological changes in the country have impacted the Indian youth, as the last such survey was conducted by the two organisations ten years ago in 2007. Here are 4 big insights mostly ignored : deliberately or otherwise.

a. Most millennials are extremely anxious :

The number of young Indians who marked ‘student’ as their occupational profile has seen a significant rise from a mere 13% in 2007 to about 32% in 2017. Being more educated than their parents, they are more informed too.. share of news consumption continues to rise and the only the size of screen and medium has changed from Newspaper/TV to Mobile and videos on the go.. WatsApp forwards to Twitter/facebook

Yet... prospect of unemployment is their biggest worry. More worried are the urban youth even with their accessibility to resources, infrastructure, better educations and higher economic status. No sociologist or marketer has dived deep trying to understand the underlying fear. I at best have tried....

Given almost 65% prefer a govt job over a private one, it points to few very notable aspects..

i. They value stability over chaos... need time for their extracurricular activities which they don't want to give up. Socialising is important to them & Private sector in India is notorious for treating employees' time as unlimited commodity extended into late nights & holidays. They actually need a work-life balance. job preference in the private sector is at 7%. Tough luck Corp India.

ii. They don't have struggles of their own & don't have stomach for them either. Most millennials are product of relative abundance in comparison to their parents (urban india for sure), rural too. With basics met, they are prepared to make trade offs.

iii. Govt salaries are at par with better life & balance. With younger suave babudom on social media, millennials have heroes..

iv. Millennial generation in India is far more 'giving' and altruistic than parent's generation and they see govt job to serve society, bring about a change.

b. Young Indians are style conscious

Indian youth seems to be quite conscious about how they look. 61% says they are somewhat or very fond of wearing stylish clothes. 59% were keen on acquiring the latest mobile phone. 39% said they liked applying fairness creams quite a lot and 36% reported a moderate or high degree of fondness for visiting beauty parlours and salons.

Mobile phone ownership among the Indian youth has doubled in a decade. About 81% own a mobile phone in 2017 as opposed to only 34% in 2007. 24% of the households surveyed own a laptop, compared to only 8% in 2007.

They LOVE their badges & want to belong. Brands are giving them identity, yet they are cool with fakes as well (even if they can afford originals). Show healthy skepticism to price if the value doesn't match their parameters.

c. Young Indians are returning to their spiritual roots more vigorously.. even more conservative

This is reflected in their attitude towards women, wherein 51% agreed (either somewhat or strongly) with the proposition that wives should always listen to their husbands. 40% of the respondents agreed with the proposition that women should not work after marriage. Interestingly, a fairly high proportion of young women respondents also held such conservative views.

After taking into account five questions probing attitudes towards women, the survey found that about a quarter (24%) of the young respondents were very patriarchal and 29% were somewhat patriarchal, another 29% were less patriarchal and only 18% or one in every six were found to not be patriarchal at all.

When asked about their opinion on the issue of same sex relationships, three in every five or about 61% of the young respondents considered a love affair between two men as wrong. Similarly, 61% considered a love affair between two women to be wrong. Interestingly, young people living in big cities were found to be less approving of homosexuality than those living in smaller cities and villages.

Over 60% believe that movies that hurt religious sensibilities should be banned and mostly cinema makers are not fair to the majority belief system of this country.. This has nothing to do with Modi effect but actually may be the reverse. Narendra Modi is a result of this feeling of distortion & seize mentality that has gripped majority millennials in Urban India. So a church wedding of a Hindu-couple in love scenario in movies may not sit down well.. people are rediscovering their roots & holding them tightly..

Two-thirds or 67% of the respondents did not approve of live-in relationships and two in every five or 40% were opposed to the celebration of Valentine’s Day.

In fact, most youngsters don’t stand with liberals on contentious political issues like the death penalty, ban on films, and consumption of beef. 49% disagreed that death penalty should be abolished, 60% agreed that films that hurt religious sentiments should be banned and 46% disagreed that consumption of beef is part of personal eating habits and nobody should have an objection.

d. Proud to be Indian..

Fact that they are veering more towards thee roots is also reflected in the product choices they are making. This can be seen in the spectacular rise of products and services that appeal to the Indian taste and way of life. For instance, Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, an ayurvedic/natural products firm that was launched in 2006, has already clocked revenues of more than Rs.5000 crore, as of fiscal 2016, set to double to 10000 Cr in 2017, as it appeals to consumers who want to express their Indian-ness. Likewise, Fabindia Overseas Pvt. Ltd, a retail chain for garments, furnishings, fabrics and ethnic products handmade by craftspeople across rural India, continues to remain popular and see good growth even as the larger brick-and-mortar retailers complain of a slowdown in revenue.

Then there is Hector Beverages Pvt. Ltd, with ethnic drinks under the Paperboat brand such as ‘aam panna’ and ‘jal jeera’, which is fast gaining acceptance in the Indian market. Even when it comes to sports, we are now moving beyond cricket, with Indian sports such as kabbadi and wrestling also gaining sponsors and mindshare.

While young India is immensely patriotic and Indian at heart, at the same time, not everything desi is cool; likewise not everything foreign, too, is cool; basically, they aspire to be the best of both worlds as global netizens.. Paisa vasool is the motto but millennials are lapping up experiences like never before.

However, even as we move forward, limitations such as poor infrastructure, the lack of focused policy frameworks and, in some cases, the regulatory environment, continue to hamper progress. 

The youth today is impatient and demanding, taking to the streets to protest and often using social media to voice their opinions.

The imprint of technology has also changed the way we consume. There no longer is a desire to own or build assets.

With the rise of companies such as Ola, the cab-hailing service modelled on Uber, it is now all about usage and the here and now in the sharing economy.

Technology empowerment and media penetration has also blurred the lines between rural and urban.

Moreover, the roles of work and home, business and society are also blurring as it is now possible to pursue multiple roles simultaneously for businesses and people.

According to an Economist Intelligence Unit survey, “Supply on demand: Adapting to change in consumption and delivery models”, “Almost 80% of companies are seeing changes in how their customers access goods and services, and more than 51% are in the process of changing how they price and deliver their goods and services.”

What we are seeing today is the convergence of social, mobile, cloud and big data, which is presenting enormous opportunities for businesses to transform themselves as they can now capture the vast amounts of information and introduce new business, delivery and engagement models.

Technology is also changing the ways that people work, and is increasingly enabling machines and software to substitute for humans. Millennials being more tech savvy & educated are anxious yet optimistic about future.. Will corporate India rise to the challenge of providing platforms to nurture and exploit their talent or they choose Govt job. Credibility of Corporate india is very low with bank NPAs and promoter lifestyles.

Remember Millennials are far more socially conscious & responsible.

The increasing youthfulness of the country with roughly 50% of the population being less than 24 years old plays a huge role. “Nearly 50% of the world’s entrepreneurs are between the ages of 25 and 44. Moreover, 25- to 34-year-olds show the highest rates of entrepreneurial activity,” according to global reports referred to by the EY Megatrends 2015 report.

Giving start-ups a huge boost, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a new start-up action plan in January 2015 , which included a Rs.10,000 crore fund to be deployed over the next four years, exemption from capital gains tax on investments, faster and cheaper patent applications and easy registration for new companies. Corporate India, are you listening?

I don't know when will I ever make use of what has been learnt over a lifetime of studying Economics, mother of human civilisation, along with being a obsessive 'behaviour addict' (this term belongs to friend Shalini Rawla).

The youth have lesser patience with status-quo and expect or rather demand quicker change.

Young people drift. Sometimes the forces in a country, be it corruption in the political classes or bad grammar in the national press, provoke a revolution. And sometimes, when it appears the revolution will exhaust itself before ever beginning, there is a new outrage & restless find a new cause.

There is a silver lining. millennials may be opposed to reservations (upper castes) but increasingly they are making strides in breaking the caste barriers, have friends across castes and communities. More and more young men have a close friend from the opposite gender than young women.. they are learning to respect choice of women friends..

Brands must listen or they will fade away.. If brands don't stand for something then chances are they may not exist in next decade.

** Credits : Mint & Swarajya for data.