Too tragic to mock.

The middle-class in India is defined as "households with annual disposable incomes ranging from Rs 500,000 to Rs 3 million (at 2020-21 prices) and "this group accounted for 40% of India's population in 2025, up from 26% in 2016," according to PRICE's ICE 360 survey report, wrote Rajesh Shukla. "Discretionary spending has surged in high-value categories, such as smartphones, automobiles and real estate." "Steep rise in the cost of living, subdued job market trends and, of late, a volatile equity market have added further strain on the country's middle class that have cut down on purchases." "Despite challenges though, one segment that continues to grow by leaps and bounds is the luxury homes - residential units priced over Rs 30 million." BT. "Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, consumption by India's 294 million households has nearly trebled to $2.07 trillion. It is the top engine of the $4 trillion economy and drives around 60% of GDP." "Beyond the luxury market where well-heeled Indians are spending big on the high-life, cracks are appearing; car sales crawled during the busy annual Diwali holiday in October-November. Indians are eating out less often." Reuters. "In 2024, India's consumer landscape has been marked by paradoxes - on one hand, a slowing economy and sagging private consumption and, on the other, an unmistakable shift toward premium products." "According to the latest GDP data, private final consumption expenditure dropped to 6% in the July-September quarter from a seven-quarter high of 7.4% in the previous quarter." ET. "After Covid, the share of post-tax profit of companies listed on the stock exchange has risen to 5.2% of GDP, which is a figure only seen during the boom times of 2007-08." But, "Economists Amit Basole and Zico Dasgupta report that from the third quarter of 2021-22 to the second quarter of 2023-24, the average real GDP growth rate was 6.7% whereas regular wages stagnated (minus 0.7% growth)," wrote Ajit Ranade. As a barometer of the nation's economy, the Indian Rupee has fallen to lifetime lows. "The rupee's plunge to its lifetime low has prompted X users to remind PM Modi and celebrities of their comments mocking the Manmohan Singh government on the Indian currency's depreciation before 2014." "When Modi took office in 2014, the rate was 58.58 to a dollar. It was Rs 86.17 on 17 January." TT. "Companies are reluctant to put up new factories. They don't know what kind of pressure they will face from Chinese rivals," and "Above all, firms don't know if domestic consumers will be able to buy what they make." "A recent survey of 16,000 consumers by New Delhi-based LocalCircles showed that one in four of them expects their household earnings to drop by 25% or more in 2025," wrote Andy Mukherjee. So, "A senior advisor of NitiAayog, government's to think tank, admitted that under instructions from the top, the UN's Multidimensional Poverty Index was one of the 30 indices that the government monitored and reviewed, and eventually countered with a self-serving alternative, because it showed India in a 'poor light'." The Wire. They can fake economic data but they cannot force people to spend if they have no money or prop the rupee up by words. The demise of the rupee is tragic. Too sad to mock.