Report claims India has 247 million households with multiple income sources

These entrepreneurial households, defined as those whose members put together have more than one source of income, will see their CTV growing to $95.2 trillion by 2042-43, estimated the report.

Govt survey finds per capita consumption spending up 33-40% in 2022-23 from 2011-12

CTV is the sum of a household’s income from all sources, any borrowings, and expenditure on key heads that don’t include daily living costs and discretionary spending.

“If you look at any major emerging economy like India, the corporate side of the world has so much to do when it comes to the upper and upper-middle class… The large institutions are satiated with the business they have to deal with and there is very little incentive for someone to completely reboot and go deeper into the smaller ticket-size businesses,” said Jyotsna Krishnan, co-founder of Enmasse World. Praxis conducted the study on her behalf.

For Krishnan and her fellow founding member Sandeep Farias, it is crucial to look at this segment. They see entrepreneurial households as those which have a permanent house, transact online, own certain white goods, and even travel by air domestically – not as individuals or through their primary income stream – to understand the opportunity for businesses who work with them.

“These households have strong aspirations to progress to the next level from a social mobility standpoint and typically the four buckets that form CTV make a difference to their progression in society,” Krishnan said.

“So, for someone wanting to do business, it is great to develop a meaningful relationship with these households on those four buckets because there you are likely to see a lot more traction. We see businesses earning better margins because there the customer wants to pay for quality and is willing to pay for predictability,” she said.

Farias is founder and managing partner of Elevar Equity, while Krishnan is the managing partner. Enmasse World is a sister organisation of Elevar Equity, an early stage investor in businesses that focus on underserved customers and households.

To be sure, Farias and Krishnan understand the challenge in trying to change the language in a world where the focus is on incomes, income growth, consumption, and debt as separate categories.

“Whether the phrase entrepreneurial household becomes the new buzzword… Ultimately, we just want to ensure that there is recognition of this vibrancy of the economic unit which is much more complex than a nuclear family,” Farias said.

“We are not trying to be economists and neither are we trying to be experts on the topic. There are hundreds of millions of these households around the world and India has a sizeable number. Is the number X or Y is less important… But from our standpoint, there is a clear opportunity on the ground and we are trying to communicate that message to the world of capital,” he added.