"1.2 Billion Indians Will Have A Smartphone By 2030"

By 2030, India will become the most populous country in the world. The increase of population will bring true sustainability and opportunities to the industries. Million plus cities will leap to more than 49 per cent of the country’s expenditure. By targeting less than 10 of these cities, marketers will have a track of half of India’s expenditure. Speaking on the future of marketing in India, Prasun Basu, President- South Asia, Nielsen, said, “Selling will change by 2030 as there might be drones delivering products in a few years.”

Urban India will produce 70 per cent of the new jobs in future. Their future will see a rise in GDP from 58 per cent to 70 per cent. The country will witness a large rapid income expansion and growth in per-capita income by 2030, said Basu. Further adding on the prospect he said, India in 2030 will have a wide scale consistency of economic parameter. There will be a dynamic shift in economic expansion.

According to Nielsen’s data, India as a nation will have a high consistency of consumer confidence by 2030. The major markets will change, but India will grow consistently. “If you look at research figures, almost all countries get a bump in consumer consistency, but India has stood consistently through the years and will remain to do so,” Mr Basu said.

India is a young country and the 2030 projections by Nielsen also highlight the fact that India will remain a nation of millennials. Sixty-nine per cent of the Indian population will lie in the earning population category with the age bracket of 16-60 years. India will have more than a billion people in the category by 2030, which is more than any other nation.

1.2 billion Indians will have a smartphone by 2030 and there will be a 4.5X internet penetration. Ninety per cent of the internet consumption will be through mobile devices. The e-commerce will boom with a 15X growth. This will all be possible because India’s expending growth will increase six folds by 2030, Mr Basu concluded at the BW Businessworld Marketing Whitebook launch in Delhi at Radisson-437' class='description_topic_highlight'>Radisson-103' class='description_topic_highlight'>Radisson-437' class='description_topic_highlight'>Radisson Blu Plaza Delhi Airport on July 21.

Adding to the topic, Preeti Reddy, CEO- Kantar South Asia Insights, talked about how consumers are very unpredictable and India will change in many unexpected ways in the future. This will provide the nation with a great deal of headroom to grow. The change will give marketers less control over the consumers. Consumers will have more choices in the future and they will dictate terms to brands, Reddy highlighted, thus changing the brand and consumer relationships.

According to Kantar’s data, by 2030, India will witness an increase in urbanisation as more than 30 people move to urban areas every minute and this will increase further.

Active social media users will increase to 190 million. Internet penetration will increase to 14 percent, giving a boost to the e-commerce penetration, which will increase to 10 per cent. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will help bring rural to the mainstream by 2030. Augmented Reality will fill in the shortage of teachers.

India will still be a rural predominant nation by 2030, Kantar’s data shows. Religion will continue to remain important for us- India spends more money on spiritual purity than on cleanliness. Despite growing individuality, families will be important in the future. Atypical families will become main-stream. But, joint families will remain a bulwark of society, Reddy highlighted.

Another prediction Reddy mentioned was that by 2030, gender imbalance will still not go away and women may have to fight harder for jobs.