Trends | The great acceleration

Between 2005 and 2015, India accelerated. Money moved faster. The mall replaced the market. Buying reassured people that they belonged to the moment. By the early 2010s, that confidence faltered. Spending slowed. Aspirations hit a wall.Reality television turned anonymity into a brief career. Wealth demanded spectacle. Celebration became performance. Money also found darker playgrounds. Gambling moved indoors and upscale.The wired generation slept less. Work followed people home. Mobile applications promised solutions for everything—love, fitness, discipline, distraction. Roads became killing fields. Art chased money.Morality grew theatrical. Kisses sparked cases. Obesity rose with affluence. Men chased sculpted masculinity. Breasts were reshaped. Waists were cut down. Sex moved online and onto screens. Porn became portable. There was a silent economy driven by money, loneliness, and the fetish of status..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Adolescents chased adult bodies, adult choices, adult risks. Teen suicides rose. Parents aged alone. Love changed form. Marriage moved online. Choice overtook caste. Compatibility challenged horoscope. Young divorces rose. Crimes of passion rose.Drugs slipped into corporate life, campuses, call centres and parties. Goa became symbol and warning. Drugs, sex, real estate and politics fused into one ecosystem.Faith returned in new shapes. Devotion blended with identity. Health anxieties deepened. Hospitals felt unsafe. Lifestyle diseases rose. Wellness became an industry. Reproduction entered the marketplace. Surrogacy turned motherhood into contract. This was decade when growth reshaped bodies, desires, faith, families, pleasures, and moral lines. - EndsPublished By: Shyam BalasubramanianPublished On: Jan 3, 2026Must Watch

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Trends | The great acceleration

How a boom decade transformed money, bodies, faith, intimacy and risk, leaving aspiration restless, morality performative and private lives reshaped

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