While older Indian men still nurse their whiskies, increasing numbers of women and young adults in conservative India are knocking back vodka, sending sales of the tipple soaring.
The love affair with vodka can be traced back to a government decision in 2001 to allow the import of foreign liquor into the country, albeit with high duties.
India has a long history of making rum and gin, but until the arrival of foreign makers, vodka was undistinguished in taste, easy on the wallet -- and brutal on the stomach and head.
A 750ml bottle of Swedish-made Absolut vodka with its host of flavors costs 1,450 rupees (US$31) including the 200 percent tax, but the hefty price tag does not put off India's bold and beautiful.
"You have to be insane to drink Indian vodka -- they tend to have a lot more crap in them that makes your body revolt the next morning. Don't even get me started," said polo player and part-time model Robin Grewal, 32.
"I can die for chilled Grey Goose vodka. I am shameless. I just ask all my friends coming from abroad to get me a bottle. Thank God, Swedish Absolut is now available in India," he said.
Vodka made abroad or in India under license by international firms now accounts for 75 percent of the market, with foreign vodka making inroads into 14 of India's 28 states, industry officials say.
Before liberalization, vodka sales were stuck at 350,000 cases, but last year an estimated 3 million drinkers put down 620,000 cases. Sales for this year are projected at 750,000 cases, industry officials say.
"The vodka market has been expanding at 20 percent each year, which is faster than the Indian liquor industry average of 8 percent," said R. N. Raja, chief operating officer of the South Asian branch of US-based United Distillers and Vintners, which sells Smirnoff.
Siddharth Banerji, director of Kyndal India Pvt Ltd, which distributes Absolut, said vodka sales could grow to 1 million cases if duties were scaled back.
He attributed the decline of India's preference for brown spirits to rapid changes in society.
"In the last decade, drinking has come out of the closet in India with the collapse of the joint-family system," Banerji said, referring to the tradition of the entire extended family living under one roof.
"More men now enjoy a drink
in their own drawing rooms with their wives. And, middle class women and young people with high incomes love vodka," Banerji added.
The trend is evident in urban India's pubs and lounge bars, where anyone over age 35 is as out of place as a whisky drinker.
"When I started running this joint we hardly stocked vodka. Now suddenly I can't do business without it as young people want nothing else," said C. Singh of DV8, a popular weekend hangout in New Delhi.
The choices from imported vodka range from pepper to black currant, taken straight or with mixers of soda or juice.
"Young people always look for something different. The exciting flavors keep them hooked," said R. Sidhu, manager of Delhi's busy Amber bar and restaurant.
In some parts of India where anti-drinking traditions are stronger, vodka is favored for a different reason: Tipplers can pour it discreetly into porcelain cups.
"When I drink vodka people think I am sipping water. It does not smell as foul as whisky or rum so I can fool my mother-in-law, who drops in unannounced," said homemaker Anju Kesarwani.
But India's hip college set has no problems drinking vodka straight and openly.
"It is my poison. I drink vodka at home, when I hang out with my friends and when I party," said Nirmala Gonsalves, a 22-year-old student in Delhi University's law faculty.
"Even when I raid my dad's bar I leave the single malt for him. He gets stunned when he offers me a Scotch whisky and I stick to my vodka," she said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2