<TABLE id=msgUN cellSpacing=3 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD id=msgUNsubj vAlign=top>Coffeeshop Chit Chat - India's 1st luxury mall-poor can't go in</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
Subscribe </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgF noWrap align=right width="1%">From: </TD><TD class=msgFname noWrap width="68%">kojakbt22 <NOBR>
</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate noWrap align=right width="30%">Oct-16 8:19 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT noWrap align=right width="1%" height=20>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname noWrap width="68%">ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 30) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft width="1%" rowSpan=4> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>1311.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>India's first luxury mall
Gold-plated splendour amid dire poverty
October 16, 2008
WITH gold-plated ceilings, exotic fountains and the clink of champagne glasses, the Emporio Mall in New Delhi is the perfect place to while away a hot afternoon browsing through designer boutiques.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width=150 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD>[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-2]CATERING TO RICH: The mall is frequented by India's affluent. PICTURE: REUTERS[/SIZE][/FONT]</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>India's first luxury mall, adorned with palms and scented with lavender, is the exclusive playground of the rich. Despite the effects of the credit crisis, they still have plenty of cash to buy designer accessories with thousand dollar price tags.
Visitors to the mall are greeted by porters who swing open glass doors leading into two huge oval atriums decorated with crystal chandeliers, fountains and pillars.
The mall sprawls over 32,500 sq m of retail space. It houses scores of exclusive brands such as Cartier, Dior, Jimmy Choo, Zegna, Chopard and Dolce and Gabbana.
Given India's rapidly expanding millionaire base, it is hardly surprising the country has emerged as a delectable destination for luxury brands, which were previously sold mostly in small boutiques in luxury hotels.
Retail consultant Technopak estimates that some 1.8 million households in India earn US$100,000 ($146,000) or more a year, spending a tenth of that on luxury goods.
This adds up to a potential market of US$18 billion, a figure that is expected to rise to US$56 billion by 2012, assuming the financial crisis does not make too big a dent.
Mr Suresh Garg, a businessman shopping at the Emporio, embodies the spirit of the new, hedonistic India.
'We have been pushed around for far too long - a Third World country,' he said.
'But now we have arrived. Now we are no less than anyone and we need to show it off.'
The mall has a phalanx of security guards keeping out the destitute and an admission fee of US$5, the equivalent of one week's salary for 80 per cent of India's 1 billion population.
Some social observers see it as a symbol of an economic apartheid that they say increasingly divides the 'haves' and 'have nots'.
Acute poverty
The mall's grandeur is a sharp contrast to the grinding poverty of the Yamuna Pushta slum, one of New Delhi's most notorious.
'The conditions, the ground conditions are not like those of Western cities,' said Mr Satish Deshpande, professor of sociology at the Delhi School of Economics.
'So, we are tending more and more towards a kind of apartheid, a kind of separation that is very sharp and sharply visible in our cities, in gated communities.'
The widening wealth gap has major implications for India, which faces a general election next year, and has been plagued by waves of violence in its provinces that analysts say is at least partly due to the socio-economic divide alienating segments of society.
The issue is likely to play a central role in next year's general election in which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party will seek re-election.
[email protected]
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Gold-plated splendour amid dire poverty
October 16, 2008
WITH gold-plated ceilings, exotic fountains and the clink of champagne glasses, the Emporio Mall in New Delhi is the perfect place to while away a hot afternoon browsing through designer boutiques.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width=150 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
Visitors to the mall are greeted by porters who swing open glass doors leading into two huge oval atriums decorated with crystal chandeliers, fountains and pillars.
The mall sprawls over 32,500 sq m of retail space. It houses scores of exclusive brands such as Cartier, Dior, Jimmy Choo, Zegna, Chopard and Dolce and Gabbana.
Given India's rapidly expanding millionaire base, it is hardly surprising the country has emerged as a delectable destination for luxury brands, which were previously sold mostly in small boutiques in luxury hotels.
Retail consultant Technopak estimates that some 1.8 million households in India earn US$100,000 ($146,000) or more a year, spending a tenth of that on luxury goods.
This adds up to a potential market of US$18 billion, a figure that is expected to rise to US$56 billion by 2012, assuming the financial crisis does not make too big a dent.
Mr Suresh Garg, a businessman shopping at the Emporio, embodies the spirit of the new, hedonistic India.
'We have been pushed around for far too long - a Third World country,' he said.
'But now we have arrived. Now we are no less than anyone and we need to show it off.'
The mall has a phalanx of security guards keeping out the destitute and an admission fee of US$5, the equivalent of one week's salary for 80 per cent of India's 1 billion population.
Some social observers see it as a symbol of an economic apartheid that they say increasingly divides the 'haves' and 'have nots'.
Acute poverty
The mall's grandeur is a sharp contrast to the grinding poverty of the Yamuna Pushta slum, one of New Delhi's most notorious.
'The conditions, the ground conditions are not like those of Western cities,' said Mr Satish Deshpande, professor of sociology at the Delhi School of Economics.
'So, we are tending more and more towards a kind of apartheid, a kind of separation that is very sharp and sharply visible in our cities, in gated communities.'
The widening wealth gap has major implications for India, which faces a general election next year, and has been plagued by waves of violence in its provinces that analysts say is at least partly due to the socio-economic divide alienating segments of society.
The issue is likely to play a central role in next year's general election in which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party will seek re-election.
[email protected]
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