India being a primarily a Hindu country, spends almost 32 Billion $ during the festival months which start from August all the way till December. That’s almost 1% of GDP. This is a staggering number, although in a developed economy like in the United states , holiday spending is almost 3% of GDP. Most of the spending in India is towards diwali supplies, home renovation, home repairs, some white goods, festival groceries.
Despite high inflation Indians have not toned down their festival spendings. Now in terms of investing, this seems to be a cyclic theme for a large number of companies associated with this theme. Maybe chocolates, sweets, paints(to certain extent) do well in a country like India. I am yet to find a suitable investment for home improvement as a theme. I guess the proxy to play most of these industries is packaging.
Also the average spending per festival of an indian family has increased over the years and this will keep increasing as the per person income goes upwards. Investments can be thought of in a way that indian companies manufacturing imported substitutes in this area can create wealth going forward.
Simple Finance 