A Study on Consumption Pattern in India and Its Impact on Environment

G DP is one of the foremost benchmarks to measure the economic growth of the country. The major constituents of the GDP growth are (a) Consumption, (b) Government Spending, (c) Investments and (d) Net Exports. Out of all these factors responsible for GDP gr owth, consumption has been the dominant part contributing to more than half of GDP growth. Knowledge of changes in consumption pattern helps in both projecting demand and developmental policies. The paper focuses on analysing the consumption pattern of f ood and non food items across income groups in both urban and rural areas by using data from National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) 9th quinquennial survey, 2011 12. The proportion of income that households of varied income classes spend on food and no n food products is analysed by using Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE). Study also aims to examine the changes in consumption pattern (especially cooking and lighting) on environment by analyzing the percentage of households with primary so urce of energy used for cooking and lighting, covering the period 1993 94 to 2011 2012 in both urban and rural areas. It was observed that among food items that form the basic food basket in India the MPCE drops with rise in income, among relatively more expensive food items witnessed that MPCE rises as income rises and then falls in the higher deciles. The most expensive food category displayed that as income rises the MPCE also rises. Similarly, among non food essentials showed a declining MPCE with risi ng income classes and the semi luxury and luxury category showed increasing MPCE with rising income. The study of the source of energy used for cooking and lighting reflected a shift towards cleaner and convenient fuel like LPG and electricity from compara tively hazardous biomass fuels like coal, dunk cake, firewood and chips.