You must have seen the latest inflation chart which shows a reduction in inflation. Lower
inflation means more money into your pockets, more saving in your bank account.
But it will not last for long.
The living will become costlier in the coming years. You
will find yourself paying for services which you have taken granted for free,
like entertainment.
If you look, change is just around the corner and in a year
or two, we will see a real change in the way we all consume media. India is
rich in entertainment. There is never a dull moment even when you take a walk
there is a lot of happening around. That may not change. You will have an
opportunity to grab popcorn when there is traffic, or people are fighting, or
even some construction work going on. But rest of all will be taxable.
Start with music on your mobile. Earlier we used
tape. Without any adherence to copyright law, we copied music and played it.
When CDs came to dominate market we did the same. And now we have MP3 which is
easily transferable. But soon you might see a situation where you will be
forced to choose between Saavan, Gaana,
Hungama, Wynk to be your music player. All currently cost Rs. 99/- per
month. These are HMV or T-Series of our time.
Then there is Online Streaming market which will be larger
than the US and Europe combined. And fighting in this space are Hotstar, Amazon Prime, Voot, Jio TV(app)
and Netflix. Sure new players are also coming in with Flipkart thinking of
starting it’s online streaming service. Soon they will turn into our TV
channels. Remember the Big Bang When Star Plus came with Kaun Banega Karorpati
and Sas Bhi Kabhi Bahu thi? Hotstar is seemingly getting traction by giving
India centric content like IPL. And With Jio TV app this war is only going to
be expensive.
So what will you do? Stop listening to music or watching
movies or serial and take up reading as a new hobby? Well, no escape there as
well.
All major newspapers have free online content. You don’t
need to buy a newspaper and create raddi at your home. Just go online and read
it for free. Even though there will be advertising, but even print edition
comes with 10 pages of add. The current scenario in West is people have stopped
buying newspapers. The sales are going low and low year after year. So Newspapers
started charging a fee for online content as well. Some Sites put a restriction
of 5 articles per month whereas some only allow partial content available for
reading. This will be coming to India as well. Online reading of newspapers or
books will be easily available with increased data speed, but it will be chargeable
as well. Amazon Kindle will be our new library where we can download-read and
delete any magazine without leaving the comfort of our home. Kindle is just one
example, I am sure there will be several sites/apps/e-book readers coming up in
near future. Rather than paying subscriptions for several magazines and newspapers,
you will be paying for one site/app which will allow you limited time reading.
I remember in the old days when I used to visit one of my
relatives. They had a glass magazine table, where a bunch of magazines kept
underneath the glass for visitors to read. It is not needed anymore because
every waiting pulls out a mobile phone from the pocket and start playing.
The changes that are coming are not only going
to change our life but also our furniture.
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