India’s Luxury Market Is On A High Growth Trajectory

India's luxury market is likely to clock a US $18.5 billion (Rs 1.25 lakh crore) turnover this year as compared to US $14.7 billion (Rs 99,000 crore) in 2015. The compounded annual growth rate of this sector will be an impressive 25 per cent, said NITI Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant at an Assocham Luxury Summit in New Delhi Friday (25 November).

Kant said that while introduction of the goods and services tax, or GST, will provide a huge competitive advantage to this sector, sheer social demographics, India's economic growth, the rise in the young population in the country and the rise in the number of high net-worth individuals will fuel this growth.

However, India needs to create its own luxury brands since brands give real value to the economy over a period of time, said Kant. Another key challenge for this sector is to move to the tier II and III cities, just as luxury cars like Mercedes and BMW have done.