Hope you had an enjoyable Dol Yatra and a happy Holi.

At the onset of spring, this pair of festivals always brings great joy to the masses. Dol Yatra or just Dol, celebrated primarily in eastern India, is a festival that marks the time when Krishna reunited with Radha and expressed his love. Holi, on the other hand, is more on the mythology of good winning over evil, when Holika got killed in the very fire in which she was trying to murder Prahlad. The common element that binds both festivals is the exuberance of colors, or phag, as it is called in Bengal.

What makes the festivals more exciting is the economics they have associated with them. While we are yet to know the numbers, in 2022, a business of Rs 20,000 crore was generated on the Holi/DolYatra festival, the majority of which can be assumed to be from the MSME segment. Another good point that we have been witnessing is the reduction of synthetic chemicals getting used in colors, as people are looking more for herbal colors. This consciousness also reflects the fact that this year I did not come across many campaigns against water wastage. When a social campaign gets less visible, an optimist would like to assume that good is winning against evil.

A trend that we witnessed last year, and I assume, has continued in 2023 is the decrease in Chinese products that we see in the temporary stalls that get put up during Holi/Dol Yatra. It is encouraging to find that buyers are opting for country-made colors and/or gulal/phag, pichkaris, balloons, etc. Even for the Holi dresses, puja goods, sweets, dry fruits, gifts, toys, etc. that are exchanged, we find that Indian manufacturers are being given precedence over their Chinese counterparts.

At VFS Capital we welcome such trends. The more we find consumers opting for MSME-generated products that are Made in India, we are sure that a part of the business generated will come to the women entrepreneurs whom we serve. During the years of the pandemic, these festivals were hardly joyous and the sales indicate better days approaching in the future.

I would like to end this blog by mentioning that #ValentinesDay surprisingly was trending on Holi. Do you know why? Hint: it does not have anything to do with the love of Sri Krishna and Radha.