Family Decision Making On Purchasing the Gold: A Study on the Transition of Indian Gold Imports into Economic Turmoil

Abstract

Golden era is seldom illustrated for an epitomized growth of anything for a tenure and India having been topped the list in the consumption of gold, cannot be proved to be safer for the economic turmoil is ahead with current account deficit. Gold is a symbol for the fortune and treated as a cultural trait especially by Indian families coated with traditional thinking where the usages and purchases are escalating year by year. The innumerable efforts of the Government in the way of schemes and reforms have not been considerably successful and as a result, the large quantity of imports indicates economic disorder. Though many parties and players from different communities including the Government are responsible, the root level research on the family decision making of gold purchases for different purposes such as for ornaments, appreciation, investment, security and status would serve understanding the decision criteria of the need, resource utilization, place of buying and reality. The study as recommended with proper rationale, devoted an exploratory research with probability sampling of stratified random in the selected metro, urban, semi-urban and rural places of Northern coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh covering 200 respondents. This paper concludes with certain recommendations how the promotions of the government schemes would be materialized on the basis of family decision making choices influencing the purchases of the gold with an assessment of different purposes.