INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - AUGUST 2006
THE MONTH THAT WAS...

CHANDIGARH TOPS

CONSUMER for consumer, Chandigarh pips all big metros in the country, reports Shailesh Dobhal from New Delhi . The Union Territory 's consumers are not just the richest (on per capita income), but also the biggest spenders (per capita expenditure) among the top 50 cities in India . Why, the city even comes second to Thiruvananthapuram on per capita savings, proving that consumption and profligacy are not necessarily interchangeable in the Indian context.

In exclusive partnership with New Delhi-based Indicus Analytics' City Skyline of India 2006, we present the top 10 cities on per capita income, savings and expenditure. A caveat here: for this exercise, we have considered only the top 50 cities in India based on total annual consumer market size, with the cut-off at close to a billion dollars, big enough for marketers of most products and services to seriously target.

An average Chandigarh resident earns Rs 1.09 lakh per month, spends Rs 72,000 and saves the rest — Rs 37,000. These per capita spends are significant when read with the total market size in Chandigarh , a sizeable Rs 6,893 crore. Thiruvananthapuram, Jamshedpur , Vadodara, Kochi , Goa , Guwahati, Faridabad , Bangalore and Thiruvallur make the rest of the top 10 on per capita income.

Interestingly, the top 10 on highest per capita cities on income, savings and expenditure are populated by just 14 cities. Besides these 10, Jaipur, Visakhapatanam, Jalandhar and Madurai make up for the per capita income list.

As many as six cities— Chandigarh , Thiruvananthapuram, Vadodara, Goa , Guwahati and Faridabad —figure among top 10 in all three: earning, spending and saving. Bangalore is the only metro to feature in all the per capita top 10 list (number nine on income and number four in savings). And just two — Faridabad ( Delhi 's suburb) and Thiruvallur (Chennai) — satellite cities manage to find place on any per capita top 10 lists.