GOODBYE guilt, hello goodies. This is the new Indian slogan. And it is not confined to the urban rich. The middle class, brought up traditionally on the ideals of simple living, has learnt to splurge. It sees nothing wrong with spending and seeking luxury.

The term "conspicuous consumption" has gone out of fashion. Consumption now has to be conspicuous.

The number of billionaires is growing, high net worth individuals are multiplying and the middle class is getting larger. Can luxury goods be far behind?

While the government fights poverty with growth, its early beneficiaries are now high up on the luxury ladder. The luxury goods market is worth an annual US$2.2 billion (RM7.1 billion) now and growing at 20 per cent.

India has an estimated eight million consumers of luxury products, and they are growing at 25 per cent per year, says the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
From classy crystal ware to cognac for connoisseurs, from handcrafted carpets to opulent diamonds, a range of luxury goods is available now, nurtured by homegrown entrepreneurs and foreign labels lining up to address aspirants and old-world buyers.

"India is a strategic market," declared Damien Vernet of Louis Vuitton at a recent FICCI roundtable that brought Indian merchandisers, designers and real estate experts face-to-face with a delegation from Comite Colbert, an association representing the finest French labels.

Indians are used to certain luxuries anyway -- a servant or several at your beck and call, vegetables and fruits year-round (no tinned food), tailored garments, silks and cottons at prices unbelievable in the West, and the pleasure of writing with a fountain pen.

And yes, hot, home-made meals, if you have managed your family life well.

Yet, there is that thirst for more. The term "freedom from want" was coined in the context of the poor. But for the middle classes, this freedom may never come.

Like most Indians born post-independence, I grew up amid a socialist ethos. I travelled by bus and tram and the railway's second class. I still do, at times, out of nostalgia if not necessity. It is a great equaliser.

My generation notices the beggars while walking down the street, and feels guilty. You had better be politically and socially correct.

But the gen-next or gen-now is neutral to riches on one side and squalour on the other.

You stretch your feet as far as the sheet covers them, goes an old Indian saying. But an extensive survey confirms the uncomfortable: Indians seem to be living way beyond their means.

More and more households seem to be borrowing, not for creating assets like a house or a car but to meet consumption needs ranging from food, transport and medical bills to even repaying loans.

Consumers using credit facilities, probably credit cards, for purchasing fuel and renovating their houses constitute the biggest chunk of the borrowings, says a survey by India's National Council for Applied Economic Research and Max New York Life Insurance.

The findings confirm the trend towards urban India's transformation into a consumerist society, with diminished stigma associated with debt. Thus, while the housing loan business may be big in terms of value, in terms of loans it is still for the odd house renovation or to buy jewellery for a wedding.

Also, while banks may be pestering you with calls offering a variety of loans, many urban households don't mind tapping the much-maligned moneylender or friends and relatives to borrow for routine expenses.

Though only 7.2 per cent of urban households borrow from moneylenders, compared to nearly 21 per cent in rural areas, the figure is significant because of the widening institutionalised credit bouquet.

Then again, a third of city borrowers who approach moneylenders do so for meeting routine expenses, says the Indian Financial Protection Survey, which visited 63,000 households. In villages, the number is a little lower at 25 per cent.

For Indian households, food makes up over half the household budget, followed by transport (10 per cent) and education (seven per cent). Urban households spend 45 per cent of their income on food; rural households 55 per cent.

Surprisingly, spending patterns in urban and rural India are more or less similar, with education being the only major point of difference.

I got my first wristwatch on completing schooling. No longer a utility, it is a fashion statement. The present trend in the Indian market for watches with price tags upwards of Rs10,000 (RM1,000) is estimated at Rs6 billion, growing by 25 per cent a year.

Commanding about 22 per cent of the overall watch market, which stood at Rs20.7 billion last year, it shows that India is no longer the land of cheap or smuggled watches. The motto for today's generation is: If you have it, flaunt it.

A happy yet less celebrated part of the story is the demand it triggers for traditional artisans and craftsmen in leather, porcelain, silk, gold and crystal.

Indian craftsmen such as brass workers now contribute to French fashion. Overseas designers mould new material in shapes inspired by traditional products like moda, the cane-made chairs.

Another positive is that while global luxury goods makers may be betting big on India, Indians prefer a home-grown brand to a foreign one when it comes to splurging on luxury.

In comparison, China and Russia -- the two other emerging markets where the luxury brands are seeing huge market potential -- have a stronger preference for foreign brands, according to a new survey by US-based Time magazine.

A KSA Technopak study says that a growing number of Indians buy luxury goods because they perceive value in them. Wearing a brand name tells the world and yourself that you have arrived.

Where will all this lead? I am circumspect, even afraid, as it is widening the rich-poor gulf. In 1984, I witnessed violence after the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi. Homes of the rich were targeted for no other reason than that they were rich.

This can happen again.