By Kritika Arora and Geeta Nair
As if to make up for the lost years due to the pandemic, this year’s Ganeshotsav, commencing on August 31, promises to be a larger affair than what it was pre-pandemic. Not only are organisers expecting much larger crowds, corporate sponsorships and advertising are already setting the cash registers ringing.
“We usually get about a crore devotees for Ganpati puja to Mumbai’s Lalbaugcha Raja puja, but this time we are anticipating around 15 million devotees to show up,” said Balasaheb Kamble, president of the organising committee for the puja. He added that this year’ sponsorships and advertisements have already exceeded previous years’.
On the same lines, Anand Saraf, a Ganesh festival scholar and adviser to many large Ganesh Mandals in Pune, said for two years, funds for celebrations were down 60-70% but this year they are set to cross pre-pandemic levels of funding. Over the years, the share of vargani (voluntary donations/contributions) has reduced while budgets have soared, so they depend on corporates and brands for funding. Manickhand Group’s packaged drinking water business Oxyrich, Developer Punit Balan, spice and ready-to-eat food company Suhana and a host of other small cooperative banks are among the leading contributors to the city’s celebrations kitty. Pune alone has around 25,000 sarvjanik mandals.
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Not just the mandals, but around 20,000 housing societies have their own celebrations as well and spend around Rs 2 lakh on the 10-day festival.
The 10-day-long festival, celebrated prominently in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Goa, drives considerable economic activity. A Just Dial Consumer Report, dated August 8, reported a 53% rise in festival-related services in Maharashtra, with Mumbai, Pune and Nashik topping the charts, followed by Nagpur, Nashik, Kolhapur, Sangli, Solapur, Amravati, and Nanded.
Pandits and sweet shops contributed to almost 72% of the Just Dial searches. Other services in demand were mandap decorators, idol makers and flower dealers. Prasun Kumar, CMO, Just Dial, said they were seeing an upswing in consumer sentiment and boom in business for numerous service providers and the gig economy. Given the restrictions-free celebrations this year, traders and retailers are expecting double-digit growth this season.
Similarly, Pune’s oldest jeweler, PN Gadgil & Sons expects sales to be 20% above pre-Covid levels. Aditya Modak, CFO and head of marketing, PN Gadgil & Sons, said they are witnessing double-digit growth in demand for silver ornaments that adorn the Ganpati idols.
HNI customers were placing orders for gold ornaments also to adorn the Ganpati.
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While traders are seeing good demand for Ganeshotsav, several mall operators are also seeing increased footfalls as sentiment is picking up. The overall footfall in malls has been around 95% across India and it is only getting better, said Mukesh Kumar, CEO at Infiniti Malls.
Kumar Rajagopalan of Retailers’ Association of India said overall growth has been 20% above pre-pandemic this fiscal. “Business will definitely be above pre-pandemic levels this festive season. Overall festive mood is good,” he said. Total retail sales are up 30-35% as compared to 2019, Kumar said, adding that bucket size has also gone up.
Similarly, there is huge demand for discretionary products, electronics, and gifting items. “Our sales this August are already up by more than 20% as compared to the corresponding period of 2019,” said Pushpa Bector, executive director, DLF Retail, adding that they expect Diwali and the wedding season to be even bigger, with double-digit growth through December.
