The ‘Great Indian Wedding’ has had movies and documentaries made about it, but the industry now worth an estimated Rs 50,000 crore annually and growing at an estimated 25 percent per year, it has been the driving force of more industries in India than any other. From wedding event planning to gifting and of course aviation and hospitality. Try to get a banquet hall or even a hotel room in the months of November and December in destinations as varied from Goa to Nainital and rates are through the roof.

And countries across the world also want a piece of the pie, from cruise ships hosting large pre-wedding functions across the Mediterranean and beach resorts across South-East Asia now making arrangements for everything like beachside mandaps and even diving excursions during weddings and top chefs from across the world now specialising in wedding food, India is also exporting large sums of money abroad thanks to weddings.

Little wonder then that Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January announced that Indians should ‘Wed In India’ in order to keep the wedding industry ecosystem in India growing. But there should also be increased government support for all the start-ups in the space, from those who design cards to the thousands employed by the industry every year from make-up artists and waiters.  For better or for worse, a large part of the wedding industry ecosystem is still cash-driven and outside the tax net. In fact, it might not be a bad idea for different states to start competing for wedding traffic by offering incentives to host weddings in their states, this could be through tax incentives to hotels and catering services as well as taxi operators. The ease of doing business should apply to the wedding industry as well. It is understandable that many people find the ostentatious display of wealth at weddings grotesque, especially since at a per capita GDP of less than $3000, Indians are far from being rich. But the wedding industry provides employment and opportunities to millions across the country every year and authorities should do more to ensure that a majority of the funds spent remain in India.