Ixigo CEO on report claiming 1 bn Indians have no money to spend: 'Most myopic view of Bharat opportunity'

Aloke Bajpai, the Managing Director and Group CEO of Ixigo, on Friday dismissed a recent report by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that suggested a billion Indians have no money to spend.

Calling the report "completely bunk", Bajpai said that it is the most short-sighted view of the opportunity that India presents.

"All you have to do is talk to some NBU (India-2/3) focused companies like ourselves as well as folks at Nestle, Dabur, Unilever, HUL, D-Mart, Jubilant and others to understand why that is the most myopic view of the Bharat opportunity," Bajpai said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). 

In its recent article, BBC cited a report from venture capital firm Blume Ventures to suggest that around 90 per cent of India's 1.4 billion population do not have sufficient money to spend on "discretionary goods or services" or non-essential items. 

He said that those compiling these reports need to understand the "traditional India-1 definitions of discretionary spending" do not apply at all in the Indian context. To substantiate his point further, the Ixigo boss cited the people who went to Mahakumbh or Varanasi. 

"When certain reports say that India-3 has negative spend on discretionary, they need to start looking at the folks going to Mahakumbh or Varanasi to understand that our traditional India-1 definitions of "discretionary spending" do not apply at all in the Indian context."

He further explained a trip undertaken due to faith or wanting to meet relatives, first pizza party with college friends, first AC train trip, first smartphone costing more than ₹20,000, and first purchase of branded clothes among others could constitute discretionary spends in India-2 and 3.  

Bajpai added that the opportunity that exists with Indian entrepreneurs is that of building empathy for the problems faced by these consumers and their aspirations, innovating cost-effective products, and distributing them effectively in India-2 and 3 markets. 

"Copy-pasting western products rarely works for these consumers and gestation periods can be longer due to the scale required to build viable companies, but ignore the next billion Indians at your own peril."

It also mentioned like the Mexico's population, only 13-14 crore of the Indian "consuming class" have disposal income that exceeds their essential needs. The report goes onto say ~30 crore people were classified as "emerging" or "aspiring" buyers, who have begun spending due to an ease in online payments.