Sunday, September 2, 2012

Metro Cities in India looking to become 'French Riviera'?

Increasingly, metropolitan cities in India are becoming more Western in terms of their lifestyle, employment opportunities, education facilities and so on. Look at metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru among others. 

Metro Cities in India become hubs for niche market areas 
You are likely to find an increasing number of 'niche market' areas in these cities that cater to the super rich socialites who don't want to be clubbed with the city's more obvious 'middle class.'

On Twitter, I read a tweet by @primaveron stating 'South Bombay feels like the French Riviera! So many foreigners! And marvellous weather!'

In Delhi, you can visit GK 2, Defence Colony and Khan market that continue to attract most foreigners who are visiting the city. It also attracts the increasingly affluent crop of Indians who don't worry about buying outrageously expensive 'organic' spices like turmeric, coriander powder and so on from Fabindia, an elite retail outlet that caters to the subtly emerging preferences of foreigners who look to take back something 'ethnic' from India and also cater to affluent Indian preferences. You also have the very posh area called Sunder Nagar that houses the rich, the famous and the infamous. 

But where do the poor in the Metro cities live? They continue to live in the outskirts of the cities where slums fester, the gutters spill over and are not cleaned for years and their children continue to live in terrible squalor because no one really cares. That is the ugly side of nearly every metro city in India.

City of Kochi gets its share for niche shopping and fine dining 
In Kerala, the constant flow of Gulf money has spilled over and become visible in its peoples'  obsession to build double storeyed, palatial looking houses. Fine dining restaurants are fast becoming a rage too. In the city of Kochi, for example, you have specific shopping areas and restaurants that are frequented mostly by the affluent class. 

A recent addition to the city of Kochi is the Bay Pride Mall on Marine Drive that attracts children, youths and families from either affluent families or those with an NRI background.The Oberon Mall is also another recent example of how affluence is fast paving the way for 'niche market' areas in Kochi which has still not been recognized as a 'metro city.' 

My question to you is this: Whichever part of the world you are from, how do you relate to the emergence of 'niche market' areas? Whom do they typically attract? What makes them popular in the region that you come from? Do they cater to a different kind of super luxury lifestyle adapters? 

If you could give some names and details as I have mentioned here, that would be interesting information too.

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