Changes in the Pattern of Consumption in India

In an earlier study Iyengar (1967) had estimated Engel elasticities for a large number of items of consumption, making use of the group mean expenditure data obtained from the Indian National Sampla Survey (NSS) tenth round, 1955-56 and employing the method of concentration curves (Iyengar, 1960, 1964). These estimates have been widely used for projecting consumer demand (Iyengar and Jain, 1970), which was an important ingredient in India's Material Balances in the Fourth Plan (Planning Commission, 1966).