New Delhi, Feb. 16 -- Whatever you can say about India, the opposite is also true, an exasperated Cambridge economist once quipped. On the macroeconomic front, while the country's waning GDP growth and sputtering mass consumption are eliciting a lot of hand-wringing, not a week goes by without Gurugram or Mumbai reporting such an unreal real estate deal that it puts even the French Riviera to shame.

Small cars are struggling to sell, but many premium sports utility vehicles (SUVs) have waiting periods stretching on for almost a year. Biscuit packs priced at Rs.10 are being deemed expensive in some pockets, but demand for deluxe artisanal chocolates is insatiable. And so on.

For a nation as vast and diverse as India, government-issued st...