Festival money

August is when festival season starts in India. Gokulashtami, Ganesha festival, Dasara, and Diwali being the main string of festivals.

Coming to business angle of these festivals - What is the cost involved in these festivals? I will say, nearly half a billion USD! Ganesha festival is round the corner and we can see stalls put in every corner of the street. Let us calculate an approximate turnover of selling Ganesha idols. NOTE: This money is purely unaccountable and Govt. cannot track this business. No receipts given to show proof of purchase! Calculations below:

Total Indian Population - 1,000,000,000 (1.17 billion to be exact).

% Hindu Population = 80% (82.4% to be precise) => 800,000,000 Hindus in India

Lets assume only 10% celebrate/participate in Ganesh festival. Rest either don't celebrate or are below poverty lane => 80,000,000 celebrate Ganesha festival.

Assuming average family size of 4 => 20,000,000 families buy idols.

Each idol will cost on an average Rs.100. There are idols which cost more than this based on intricate work => Rs. 2,000,000,000 -
That is Rs. 2 billion.
That is US$ 47 million!

That is just idol money.. (doesn't even include idols which communities buy to put them in pendals) there are many other costs involved including travel during this season. Above was only numbers during Ganeshachaturthi! Let me come back to this topic during Diwali and calculate money bursted on crackers (pun intented).

India surely runs on Festivals!!!

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