The pandemic era has developed enough of hatred for the Chinese products in the market. Obviously all “made-in-china” products are being boycotted thus giving a good welcome to the locally made products. The effect is seen on the coming festival as well.

It is festival time and Diwali is one of the most celebrated and loved festivals in India and abroad as well. The festival of lights seems incomplete without bursting fire-crackers. Until last year, people were conveniently buying Chinese lights and lamps to illuminate their homes and Chinese crackers were also being widely used. This year with a good amount of boycott, people are now sticking to locally made products which is also a good thing for the daily bread earners who make earthen diyas. Even the lighting done in the houses and outside will be strictly with Made-in-India products.

As for fire crackers, since the pandemic demands that we maintain social distancing, the dealers and manufacturers have decided to sell the crackers online to make it really convenient for the public, a need-of-the-hour-mandate.

As informed by many cracker and fire-works dealers, the demand this year for fire-works has gone down to 50 percent. This year the demand is mostly for the smaller crackers which include sparkler (fuljhadi), flower pots (anar) and the ground cracker (jamin chakri). The shopkeepers and the dealers have made provisions for online cracker demands for the ease of public.

An app has been developed for this purpose and combo packs are being offered. The app is available on the play store and the delivery would be within 2 to 3 days of the demand, as informed by fire cracker dealer Pawan Lalwani. Since local crackers are in demand, these are being ordered from Tamilnadu and Kishangarh. Budget-friendly crackers are being demanded for this year’s Diwali season.