INDIAN DIETARY EVOLUTION
In 1999, the average rural Indian spent 59 paise of every rupee on food. By 2024, that fell to 47 paise. Engel's Law in action. As incomes rise, food's share shrinks. Textbook progress.
But look at where the extra rupees went.
Edible oil consumption surged 141%. From 8.2 kg per capita in 2000 to 19.8 kg in 2025. India now gets 61% of its fat intake from cooking oil alone. The recommended level is 40%.
Processed food's share of total spending doubled. 10% of all monthly spending now goes to packaged food, beverages, and purchased meals.
And protein? Daily per capita intake went from 61 grams in 2012 to 62 grams in 2024.
Twelve years. One gram.
Pulse consumption is still 38% short of the 80 gram daily recommended level. The protein gap is not closing.
This is not an academic data point. A health insurer pricing a group policy in Bihar, where 53% of household income goes to food, is pricing for a population with structural protein deficiency. That is not a lifestyle risk. It is a portfolio risk. Health insurance underwriting, workplace productivity models, agri-fintech lending, food supply chain financing. All of these inherit the consequences of a food transition that is producing more fat and more processed food but not more protein.
Engel's Law is working. The plate got fuller. It did not get better. The question for every insurer and food-tech investor: are you pricing for the plate India has, or the plate India thinks it has?
Source: HCES 2022-23, 2023-24 (MoSPI); Economic Survey 2025-26; NSO Nutritional Intake in India.
ICT Classrooms in India
Tamil Nadu has functional ICT labs in 82.5% of its government schools. Punjab has them in 1.3%. This is not a typo. Punjab has ICT labs installed in 56% of its schools but only 1.3% actually work !
Last week I shared data on digital and financial literacy across Indian states. 60% of rural youth can search the internet, only 31% can do an online banking transaction. This week, I went looking for why. UDISE+ 2024-25 data on functional ICT labs in Government schools tells you everything you need to know.
The numbers are varied. And frankly, shocking.
Maharashtra, India's richest state by GSDP, has functional ICT labs in just 4.6% of its Government schools. Karnataka, home to Bengaluru and India's tech industry, is at 8.8%. Madhya Pradesh, 7.6%. Uttar Pradesh, 3.6%.
On the brighter side, Tamil Nadu sits at 82.5%. Delhi at 61.8%. Gujarat at 57.1%. The gap between the best and worst major state is 23x.
Not surprisingly, the states where less than 10% of schools have functional ICT labs are the same states where less than 20% of rural youth can do online banking. UP. MP. Maharashtra. Chhattisgarh. The overlap is almost exact. Digital financial inclusion does not start with an app download. It starts in a classroom. Or it doesn't start at all.
Source: UDISE+ Data 2024-25, Ministry of Education, Government of India, via MoSPI.
ONLINE BANKING ABILITY
60% of India's rural youth can search the internet. Only 31% can do an online banking transaction.
That is not a connectivity gap. That is a financial capability gap. You can see how internet has become a way of life in rural India esp. in hilly areas which are physically remote. Young people in rural India have figured out how to use the internet for information and entertainment. But, they have not figured out how to use it for money.
This is directly relevant to every fintech and NBFC building for rural India. UPI adoption, digital lending, account aggregator flows, BNPL, insurance distribution. All of these assume a user who can transact digitally. The data says only 1 in 3 rural youth who are online can actually do that. In urban India, the gap narrows. 72% can search, 53% can bank. Still a gap, but a manageable one.
Source: BSS 79th Round, MOSPI
GENDER WAGE GAP
Rs 5,864 per month. That is how much less an Indian woman in a salaried job earns compared to a man doing the same category of work.
PLFS data across four calendar years — 2022 to 2025 — shows both male and female wages rising steadily. Male salaries went from Rs 20,517 to Rs 24,217. Female salaries from Rs 15,406 to Rs 18,353. The absolute numbers look like progress. The percentage gap has stayed locked at 24-25%.
In rural India, it is worse. Women earn Rs 13,208 a month against men's Rs 19,300 — a 32% gap. Urban India narrows it to 23%, but that still means a salaried woman in a city takes home Rs 6,320 less every month than her male counterpart.
This has direct implications for financial product design. Credit underwriting models that rely on income thresholds will structurally exclude women borrowers. Salary-linked lending, insurance pricing, pension adequacy — all of these inherit the gap. Every fintech building for the "next 200 million" needs to account for the fact that women's formal incomes are a quarter lower, and the gap is not closing on its own.
Wages are rising. The gap is not shrinking. That is a structural condition, and it needs structural solutions.
FPI vs DPI FLOWS
March 2026 marked a record FPI exit, but markets absorbed it. FPIs sold about Rs 1.18 lakh crore in March, yet DIIs still bought roughly Rs 92,000 crore, softening the impact.
INDIA PAYMENTS
Indian Payments in FY2026: UPI All the way
This week' infographic captures Indian Payments in FY2026
The key takeaway for me was that 86% of all UPI transactions are under Rs 500. The average merchant payment is Rs 643. We built the world's largest real-time payment system and its primary use case is paying the chai wala. This is real change which has brought digital payments even to the smallest of vendors.
For years I wanted to turn data like this into an attractive visual. The idea was always there.
The design skills were not. AI has helped me close this gap.
India in Numbers. A weekly infographic. One data story, one clean chart, every week.
Until next time,
Quiet design. Loud impact.