IT returns - less than 1% actually pay direct tax
As others have pointed out, I don't see how this is relevant.
Attitude of big electronic brands - inferior products are dumped here
In most cases where I've felt this way, this has been due to a combination of these reasons - Most Indians are not enthusiasts/ well-informed; Practical, Tried, tested & trusted products that simply work and is available for cheapest price is what most of us want. It doesn't matter if this makes products 'inferior' in any other regard.
Anyways, doesn't this go counter to your question? I mean, don't you think such brands are able to do this because India is a big market and stuff gets sold by any means?
Online consumer base(which is what most FDI businesses target now a days)
Such businesses look for the potential for increase in what already exists, so that they gain in returns, and there's been an influx of such investments.
The population participating in online/offline consumerism are roughly 3% of population of India, roughly 40 million.
Besides the source being old, I'd argue it didn't really make sense even for 2017. It uses 2015's study & ranking details (
src), without mentioning the year and conveniently cropping it out from the image, and compares how India has done since investments from, I assume, 2015 (it is earliest I see from the link they've provided). That is too soon to judge anything for such investments. You could also go further and question how much sense does the method carried out by the study make. It also includes mixed messages like these -
The good thing is that we witnessed one of the highest growth in ecommerce segment at 27% to reach $3.8 billion, and 21% is the projected growth rate for the next 5 years.
Interestingly, ecommerce is just 10% of USA’s total retail market, wherein in India, ecommerce is just 3% of total retail.
Considering these, the title is obviously clickbait, even for 2017.
How come we see India portrayed as a comparable market to China in media?
Much of this is advertisement. There are political reasons as well, for investors to consider alternatives and India is increasingly becoming a promising one.
Middle class is the people who patriciates' in consumerism
Depending on how you'd define middle class, this is largely true; not entirely.
When Indian middle class is shrinking year by year then who will be the consumers these media houses sees?
I don't know much about this, but from I've read so far, this statement simply seems to be mis/dis-interpretation. There will always be a spectrum of income. How to define each class is questionable on its own. Governments design the slabs considering multiple factors - ideally, even out the curve; optimal for most tax extraction; most appealing to the party's base etc. Whether a given definition of a class grows/shrinks, is all situational. Given the economy is growing, I don't think these factors affect overall consumption. Who gets the most chance to spare for expenses might differ, again for a given definition of class; what sector would benefit most/ gain best returns might differ - none of which really concerns the overall market.