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Abstract

The performance of any economy is measured in terms of the trends of macro economic variables which includes national income, consumption, saving, investment and employment. Per capita income and food consumption, both are the indicators of human development but food consumption is a better indicator of human welfare. Economic development also involves a change in social attitudes, cultural set-up and institutional frame work. Economic development enables an economy to escalate the quality of life by increasing the efficiency of its natives. Keynesian psychological law of consumption states that increased income is distributed between consumption and saving. Whatever is not consumed is saved. Consumption is an important activity performed by the household sector and it is primarily of two types i.e. lifeline and lifestyle. Lifeline may further be divided into food items and non-food items like medical, education, clothing etc. Life style may include expenditures on entertainment, processed foods and white goods also known as heavy consumer durables such as air conditioners and refrigerators etc. The consumer buying behaviour is influenced by various factors namely cultural, social, personal and psychological factors. Consumer behaviour is a smaller part of the wide human behaviour. The present paper is an attempt to study the factors effecting the pattern of consumption behaviour of consumers in India.