Coffee boom

2007-12-31-16
Coffee is big in India now. Starbucks-like cafes such as 'Barista' and 'Mr. Beans' are very popular. Teenagers of all ages seem to hang out with their laptops and books sipping cappuccinos that cost around Rs. 50 (a PPP of roughly $5 in the US) with aplomb. This, and other prices in India, were a complete shock to me when I was there on my recent trip a month ago. A lot of lifestyle goods seem to cost about 8 to 10 times more than what they used to cost when I was there about 10 years ago. However, the expendable income for most middle-to-upper class Indians that I met or heard about seems to have gone up about the same or more thus driving the inflation which seems to feed back into the salary, at least for now when the chips are up.