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Biman Mukherji

In a bustling student hostel in Bengaluru, Swaksha Gupta scrolls through her favourite shopping app.
She skips past the household names filled with artificial ingredients that her parents grew up with, instead finding inspiration from older generations by filling her cart with turmeric-infused face washes and Ayurvedic hair oils in biodegradable tubes.
“Even a product like ubtan comes in a tube these days,” Gupta said, referring to the traditional paste of herbs and lentils once ground in family kitchens, now reimagined by start-ups like Mamaearth. “They tend to last longer, are better for my skin and good for sustainability.”
Gupta’s personal choice reflects a powerful collective one. From cosmetics to packaged food, fashion to household items, India’s Generation Z – broadly defined as those born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s – is fuelling an unprecedented consumer transformation.

They browse, buy and broadcast online, demanding products that are clean, transparent and culturally rooted while rejecting the uniformity of multinational giants.
The numbers suggest something of a consumer revolution. More than two-thirds of urban Indians now check ingredient lists before buying food, while 80 per cent actively avoid additives, according to a report released last month by Deloitte and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
This vigilance is already redrawing the map of a retail sector expected to nearly double to US$1.93 trillion by 2030, from US$1.06 trillion last year. For businesses, it is both a growth opportunity and a mandate: adapt to consumer values or risk irrelevance.
“Traditionally, India had a duopoly, or maybe three players, in every product category,” said Anand Ramanathan, who leads retail and consumer products at Deloitte Asia-Pacific. “Now some of that is shifting because of a long tail of direct-to-consumer brands.”
Gen Z were more open to experimentation and did not have the same fixation with multinational labels as their elders, he told This Week in Asia.
They already account for about two-thirds of all consumption in India, according to Ramanathan, so are a “critical consumption cohort”.
Clean-label promise
What draws younger Indians is not only what products contain but what they conspicuously avoid. So-called clean labels promising “no artificial colours”, “no parabens” and “biodegradable packaging” are increasingly influencing purchasing decisions.
Start-ups have seized the opening. Patanjali Ayurved, Lotus Herbals and Forest Essentials draw on Ayurvedic traditions, while others such as beauty and wellness brands Minimalist and Mamaearth highlight both heritage and health.
Big conglomerates are watching closely: Hindustan Unilever this year snapped up Minimalist and ITC is finalising its acquisition of Sproutlife Foods, the parent company of popular health food brand Yoga Bar.
These acquisitions were about relevance, Ramanathan said, providing a way “to drive engagement with Generation Z consumers”.

The shift extends well beyond beauty counters and supermarket aisles. India’s cultural heritage is now being restitched into consumption patterns across product categories.
Take fashion. In Mumbai, one entrepreneur recently paid 45,000 rupees (US$510) for a handwoven Maheshwari sari from a rural artisan – less than what they might spend on a creation from Indian designer brands Sabyasachi or Tarun Tahiliani, yet a deliberate choice for purity and craft.
“There is a sudden mass awakening to products which are pure and real,” said Nabomita Mazumdar, a think tank founder who works with small and medium-sized enterprises.
Mazumdar herself avoids mass-market brands for clarified butter, disinfectants and religious items, buying directly from village co-operatives now visible on mainstream e-commerce platforms. In Maharashtra, one cluster produces honey for medicinal remedies and even lipsticks made from beeswax instead of paraffin.
Gujarat state has supported local weavers to showcase products in metropolitan markets and abroad, as part of a larger policy shift encouraging micro-entrepreneurship along traditional lines.
Diaspora dividends
The trend has caught fire among the overseas Indian diaspora too. In Kerala’s Palakkad, Dubai-based businessman Raju Subramanian bought 20 acres of barren land nearly a decade ago. Using a blend of traditional Vedic farming and modern sustainable techniques, his Athachi Group transformed it into an agroforest where rare herbs, linked geologically to Madagascar, now grow.
That experiment, initially an act of hometown pride, gave birth to Moreganics, a luxury skincare line launched earlier this year, and a new range called Nature’s Chemistry. Managing Director Vishwanath Subramaniam believes it will appeal “not only to Indian consumers, but has the potential to lead a global skincare revolution”.
None of this would be possible without India’s digital marketplace, which has undergone structural transformation since the pandemic. Start-ups rushed online during lockdowns, while younger consumers, already attached to their smartphones, solidified habits of browsing, comparing and ordering virtually everything online.

Quick commerce is the latest frontier, promising deliveries in as little as 15 minutes. Thousands of scooters, increasingly electric, now criss-cross urban India, shrinking the gap between impulse and purchase. For home-grown brands, this immediacy is rocket fuel, propelling products from small-batch kitchens or village workshops into mainstream homes at unprecedented speeds.
The Indian government’s “vocal for local” campaign has lent symbolic support to these shifts, urging shoppers to favour Indian products. But observers believe the deeper drivers lie elsewhere: rising health consciousness, environmental anxieties and the sheer novelty of rediscovering tradition in Instagrammable packaging.
“This entire effort of promoting handmade products in India has been there for a long time,” Mazumdar said. “It has become big due to government support and youngsters coming to buy these products. We had a honey festival in Mumbai last year and the highest footfalls were that of youngsters.”
She pointed to another striking example: a private entrepreneur who booked the vast Pragati Maidan exhibition complex in Delhi for an entire week simply to showcase varieties of millet. Once dismissed as coarse grains, millets are now enjoying a renaissance as health-conscious alternatives to rice and wheat.

For Amol Goel, founder and chief executive of Louis Stitch, which sells handcrafted leather goods directly through online platforms, the momentum comes both from heritage and tailoring products to the tastes of a new generation.
“Gen Z loves personalised experiences. So we use data driven insights to give them special offers,” he said. “This has helped us immensely to build our brand name and popularise it.”
He says the company’s guiding principles are “personalisation, affordability and durability” – a formula that speaks to a generation keen to sport a distinctively Indian style while still expecting value for money.
Other enterprising brands have adopted similar strategies – boAt, whose portfolio ranges from earphones to grooming gear, has aligned itself with the government’s “Make in India” campaign.
“As part of our Make in India initiative, we’ve manufactured over 80 million products locally,” said Gaurav Nayyar, the company’s chief operating officer. “It’s a milestone that not only supports self-reliance but also builds a sense of national pride among consumers.”

The company’s flagship campaigns blend cultural resonance with sustainability, from one titled “Rock in India” to eco-first manufacturing themes, with Gen Z at the heart of the strategy, Nayyar said.
Established conglomerates face a dual challenge: securing relevance among a discerning youth while also preserving margins in a fragmented, competitive market. For start-ups, the promise of fast scaling often rubs against the slower rhythms of artisanal production and ethical sourcing.
Yet observers say the direction is clear. “Gen Z is a lot more receptive to buying into some of these industries,” said Deloitte’s Ramanathan, adding that this was creating opportunities not just for so-called unicorns but for microbusinesses across the country.
If current momentum continues, India may not only reshape its domestic consumption but also export its model abroad: a high-volume, heritage-rooted, digitally accelerated consumer landscape that speaks simultaneously to local authenticity and global wellness trends.
For Gupta in Bengaluru, the choice is clear. She picks the tube of ubtan cleanser over the familiar multinational brand, not as a symbolic gesture, but because it feels better for her skin, her values and her future. In that single decision lies the trajectory of a trillion-dollar market.


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The Gen Z marketplace: how India’s youth are rewiring e-commerce

A young woman walks past an apparel advertisement at a shopping centre in Bengaluru on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Workers process packages for dispatch at an e-commerce fulfillment centre in Haryana, India, last month. Photo: AFP

Students check their mobile phones in Thane, a city just outside Mumbai, India. Photo: Hindustan Times/Getty Images

The “Ecostay” make-up range from Lotus Herbals. The brand draws on Ayurvedic traditions. Photo: Lotus Herbals

Athachi Group founder Alamelu Subramanian (left) at the launch of a Moreganics facility. Photo: Athachi Group

A worker scans packages for dispatch from an e-commerce fulfilment centre in Haryana last month. Photo: AFP

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Passengers sit inside a bus during a downpour in Manila last month. Photo: EPA

Young Filipinos make their way through floodwaters in the town of Hermosa, Bataan province. Photo: EPA

Aron Josh Santos, 23, relaxes at home in Bataan province, the Philippines. Photo: Aron Josh Santos

A motorbike passes a group of homeless people resting outside an abandoned building in Quezon City, suburban Manila. Photo: AFP

Filipino students walk in front of the main campus of Universidad de Manila in the Philippine capital. Photo: Shutterstock

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr holds a press conference about flood control projects last month. His father was also president for more than two decades. Photo: EPA

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A Swiggy driver with flowers for his next delivery. Swiggy, which began as a food delivery aggregator and launched Instamart in 2020, was a pioneer of India’s quick-commerce industry. Photo: Handout

A delivery rider prepares to set off after picking up groceries from a Swiggy warehouse in New Delhi last month. Photo: Reuters

Advertising hoardings promoting the Zepto instant delivery app are seen on a street in India. Photo: Instagram/kaivalyavohra

A worker picks up groceries from a Swiggy warehouse in Delhi. Instant delivery apps leverage the high population density of major Indian cities to offer speedy deliveries. Photo: Reuters

A vegetable vendor at a retail market in Kolkata. Experts say India’s 11 million or so small shopkeepers are likely to take a hit from instant delivery apps, especially in big cities. Photo: Reuters

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Malaysian Tamil rapper Yogi B is credited with helping create the genre. Photo: Handout

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Malaysian Tamil hip-hop artist Coco Nantha. Photo: Young, Tamil and Famous 

Malaysian Tamil rapper Yogi B live in concert. Photo: Handout

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In India, a new, digital-native generation is intent on reclaiming tradition while embracing modern convenience


In India, a new, digital-native generation is intent on reclaiming tradition while embracing modern convenience.


The Gen Z marketplace: how India’s youth are rewiring e-commerce

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}In India, a new, digital-native generation is intent on reclaiming tradition while embracing modern convenience

In India, a new, digital-native generation is intent on reclaiming tradition while embracing modern convenience