The moffusil India of ramshackle railway stations, dusty streets and open drains now refuses to play the poor cousin to big cities. Once a parochial, closed-off world where nothing changed, the small-town India is now going places. Having shrunk the world, the internet has also changed small towns which now look up to European and American cities instead of desi metros. Trends in education, travel and consumption point at a rising cosmopolitan class in small towns which often travels to western countries, also goes to study there, and splurges on foreign luxury brands. The globalisation, so to speak, of the small-town India started nearly a decade ago and is on full swing now.
There was a time when only students in metro cities dreamed of studying abroad. A degree from a western university was a mark of high social status. Today, boys and girls from small towns have made a beeline for universities in America, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
More students from small towns in India are seeking to study abroad, despite macroeconomic uncertainty in the US and Europe and rising job losses in some of the destination countries, ET has reported recently. Factors contributing to the trend include better financing options, more scholarships, the influence of social media, and increasing affordability. UK-based Prodigy Finance saw average growth of 53% and 109% in tier-2 and tier-3 applications respectively. Significant demand is coming from ..
Despite challenging economic condition in Western countries, the trend continues unabated. These students from India's small cities and towns are undeterred by the macroeconomic uncertainty in the US and Europe as well as rising job losses in some of the destination countries, loan financing firms and education consultants have told ET.
"The demand for studying abroad in India's tier-2 cities is increasing as students look for opportunities to gain international exposure, access better job prospects, and enhance their personal and academic credentials," Karan Gupta, founder of Karan Gupta Consulting, told ET recently. "Applications from cities such as Surat, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Agra and Pune have been on the rise."
One of the major factors contributing to the rising trend of foreign education among young Indians from small towns is economic affordability. Besides, many affluent families who have the means to send their children abroad but did not have access to professional guidance and advice, are now encouraging their kids to explore their foreign dream as the location barrier has gone away due to a lot of things going online after the pandemic.
In 2021, an ET story narrated how internet is exposing youngsters in non-descript small towns to global trends. Eighteen-year-old Adrit Ganeriwala from Raniganj, a neighbourhood in the Paschim Bardhaman district of West Bengal, started exploring opportunities to study abroad and came in touch with one Harnoor Singh from Amritsar, who ran a YouTube channel with videos of his undergraduate and graduate school experience at Georgia State University. "I am a fan of Harnoor. When I saw his videos, th ..
Consultants providing study-abroad guidance told ET that there was a sharp increase in enquiries from non-metro locations. Some of these places including Jharsuguda in Odisha, Gurdaspur in Punjab, Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, Chirkunda in Jharkhand, Tezpur in Assam, the islands of Andaman, small villages in Jammu, remote districts in Maharashtra and Gujarat and the Northeast have seen a large jump in the number of aspirants looking to study abroad.
Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have suddenly opened the whole world to them, and rising middle class incomes as well as growing options for study loans, ensure it is within their reach. A so-called "white degree" or education from a Western country results in a sudden social class jump for these youth.
A new wave of consumption fuelled by online retailers has seen people in small towns splurge on foreign luxury brands. And it has been happening for a while. Back in 2008, AT Kearney's India Luxury Review Report had estimated that the market for luxury products in India would be in the $25-30 billion range by 2015 and non-metro India would account for at least $10 billion of that. The PTI had reported more than a decade ago that the sweeping spread of cyberspace had made it an ideal channel for ..
"Before Valentine's day, we received a big order for Victoria's Secret lingerie from a place outside of Patna. One of our most regular clients is from Bhatinda. In the small towns of India, there are plenty of people who can afford the brands but don't have access to them and that's where our website steps in," CEO of an online retailer had told PTI back then.
This consumption trend has become quite visible now as the social media and frequent foreign trips have exposed the small-town rich to foreign lifestyles.
RockNShop, an online high-street fashion store with over 300 brands including Manolo Blahnik and Valentino selling on its site, got 40% of its sales from tier 2 and 3 towns, its founder Priya Sachdev had told ET a few years ago. She said the core proposition of her business is being driven affluent consumers in small towns.
One in four of the super-luxury Lamborghini cars — with an on-road price in excess of Rs 4 crore — was being bought in the hinterland and the country’s smaller towns and cities such as Ludhiana, Kanpur, Guwahati, Salem, Surat, Madurai, and Indore, TOI had reported in 2021.
Source Name: Economic Times