In the jajmani system of village India, families who provided services were tied to patron families, the jajmans. Britannica describes the bond: “These relations are supposed to continue from one generation to the next.”
The tie was a duty of the family, not of one person. “The hereditary character allows for certain forms of bond labour, since it is the family obligation to serve its hereditary patrons,” Britannica adds.
Brijmohan Lall Munjal, who led Hero for decades, met every dealer before the company appointed them. Dealers called him their “guru, guide, mentor and father figure.” When Hero and Honda ended their partnership, many expected the dealer network to break apart. “Not a single dealer left the Munjals in spite of the doomsday projections,” wrote Bhupesh Bhandari in Business Standard after Munjal’s death in November 2015.
Bhandari added that Munjal “never let Hero MotoCorp (earlier Hero Honda) become a faceless and impersonal corporation.”
In August 2016 Business Standard reported that the carmaker Maruti Suzuki was “witnessing the emergence of the second and even third generation at many dealerships.” The company set up a forum called Junoon for the next generation of dealers.
R S Kalsi, Maruti’s executive director for marketing and sales, said the company had to “retain them, offer them a sense of security on the professional as well as emotional front.” A dealer from Udaipur, Priyank Mathur, explained: “I was a little reluctant to join the family business which my father had started in 1986.”
C V Krishna Murthy opened Kusum General Stores on Avenue Road in Bengaluru on December 10, 1960. It sold toothpaste, soap, face powder and other household items. His family later took it over. When the family closed the shop after sixty years, Deccan Herald reported that it had a loyal customer base, “with many being third generation regulars.”
“Many of them have even become his friends,” the paper wrote of the founder. The owner said that online shopping and malls had drawn the younger customers away.
On the evening of Diwali, Gujarati traders perform Chopda Pujan. They “place their new account books before deities,” Outlook Traveller explains. “The first page of a new ledger carries particular significance.” On it, traders commonly write Shubh, auspiciousness, and Labh, gain.
The timing follows the calendar. “Diwali falls at the end of the Vikram Samvat year,” and the Gujarati New Year follows it.
From April 1, 2024, Section 43B(h) of the Income Tax Act changed the rules for buyers from micro and small enterprises. If a buyer pays later than the legal limit of up to 45 days, the payment can be deducted only in the year it is actually made. Traders protested. Business Today reported that textile companies “often work with these small businesses on a credit system.”
The Confederation of All India Traders asked the finance minister to suspend the rule. The Federation of All India Vyapar Mandal went to the Supreme Court. Its president, Jayendra Tanna, said the rule “infringes upon the fundamental rights of MSEs to conduct business on their own terms.”
PM SVANidhi, launched by the Government of India in June 2020, lends money to street vendors without collateral. “For the first time, a loan of Rs 10,000 is given,” the government’s magazine New India Samachar explained in 2022. “On timely repayment of this loan, 20 thousand rupees are given in the second installment,” and “50 thousand rupees in the third installment.”
Vendors who repaid regularly also received an interest subsidy of 7 percent a year. In August 2025 the government extended the scheme to 2030 and raised the first two loans to Rs 15,000 and Rs 25,000.
Haath udhaar, a hand loan. The Rekhta dictionary defines it as a loan that is asked for when it is needed, without anything in writing.
A second definition adds the terms. It is given “without writing,” on the promise that it will be returned soon.
In May 2024 Ankit Sawant posted on X: “Mom got a mini heart attack because she had to pay for dhaniya on Blinkit.” At a vegetable stall, a little coriander, dhaniya, often comes free. His mother suggested that the delivery app should bundle it free “with a certain amount of veggies.”
Blinkit’s chief executive, Albinder Dhindsa, replied that he would. Soon after he posted: “It’s live! Everyone, please thank Ankit’s mom.”
Packaged goods in India must carry a printed maximum retail price, the MRP. The government made it mandatory in 1990. Under Rule 18(2) of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, a seller may not charge more than the printed price. A seller may charge less.
“Retailers also enjoy the legal freedom to underprice a product, the government having fixed only the upper limit,” Outlook explained in 2022. Companies began quoting a lower market operating price as well, because “customers have always bargained on MRP and sought discounts.”