India Shining or India Floating?

The amount of alcohol consumption has been increasing steadily in India. Thanks to the IT boom in India, many more people in India are open for a drink. Earlier it used to be considered as a taboo, if a person has alcohol. But post globalization the contemporary Indians have broken out of the shell to have liberal views regarding alcohol intake.
The significance of alcohol is class specific, for the elite group its more a prestige issue, for middle class it represent modernity and sophistication, whereas for the people in the lower strata of the society its the antidote to forget the bitter thoughts of social and economic deprivations.
Studies in 2002 revealed that about 20 percent of Indian people consume alcohol and in the past two decades, the number of drinkers has increased from one in 300 to one in 20.
As per another survey, a large majority-62 percent-of drinkers in India can be classified as light drinkers (i.e. social drinkers), 29 percent as moderate drinkers, and only about 9 percent as hard drinkers. Alcohol use appears to be higher among people 20-39 years of age.

Given serious health implications as well as negative religious connotations of alcohol use, prohibition has long been a rallying point for Indian politicians and social reformers. Mahatma Gandhi insisted on prohibition across the country, and the Indian Constitution and five-year plan programmes instituted this policy. In fact, the declaration in Article 47 of the Indian Constitution notes that "States shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of consumption of intoxicating drinks except for medicinal purposes."
The revenue issues surrounding prohibition were glossed over initially; but the lure of lucre from liquor has proven to be irresistible. Liquor is a major source of income to the Indian government, and over time, commitment to prohibition as a cause h as dwindled. Now, all Indian states except Gujarat have lifted prohibition laws. However, concerns persist that the lifting of prohibition leads to increased production and availability of liquor and that this permissive access contributes to more crime , alcohol-related health problems, road accidents, loss of much needed income due to expenditures on alcohol and reduced productivity and life expectancy.

Following is an interesting news that I came to know while researching about this topic. I never knew that India has law against drunken driving as I have never heard of any incidence where the police has caught someone for drunken driving.

The Indian Motor Vehicles Act specifies a blood alcohol cut-off of 30mg.% for drivers, which is arguably one of the strictest in the world. Yet, a recent study in Bangalore city across a calendar month, found 40% of drivers were over the legal limit.

I also checked some matrimonial sites to see how many people are ok with their future spouse consuming alchol, almost 75% of the people are fine with their expected spouse consuming alcohol.

There has been a significant lowering of age at initiation of drinking. Data from Karnataka showed a drop from a mean of 28 years to 20 years. The largest expansion is seen in southern India, which has been driving most of this economic growth. It is visibly focused on the nontraditional segment of urban women and young people, with a noticeable upward shift in rates of drinking among urban middle and upper socioeconomic sections.

Whom do we blame for this trend, Globalization or Modernization?

(Sources: CECHE, The Globe)