New Delhi, March 25 -- Discussion around youth consumption in India has been largely focused around observed purchasing behaviour. Despite its enormous value in guiding marketers, two key questions have been left to the realm of assumption rather than data-led insights: one, the larger and more foundational question of where consumption is located in the overall canvas of life aspirations, dreams and emotions of 'mass' or mainstream young India. Two: the 'state of mind' or zeitgeist that fundamentally shapes the lives of this cohort. This is the territory of our last column in this series.

Taking the second question first and drawing on what has been discussed in our previous columns: Despite being a cohort that is tired and entropic fro...