India is the second most populous country in the world after China, and the Indian population is expected to overtake that of China in the next decade due to its higher birth rate.
The Indian economy has grown by more than 7% p.a. in real terms over the last decade and is now similar in size to the economies of the UK and France. Agriculture accounts for 15.4% of economic output but employs roughly half of the Indian population. The service sector is smaller in India than in most developed economies, although the sector is growing especially rapidly, particularly in the areas of IT and business process outsourcing.
While there are still huge disparities in wealth in India, there is an expanding middle class which is driving demand for many types of consumer goods and services, thus making India an important location for market research. Much of this research is carried out in English, although it is estimate that English is only spoken by around 10% of the population.
As the nation’s commercial capital, Mumbai is the focus for much of the research, but Delhi, Chennai (formerly Madras), Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) are also important centres. FieldworkHub has capabilities in all of these locations.
