[ti:Next for India- Chai Points and Coffee Houses] [ar:Jim Tedder] [al:Economics Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. [00:05.07]India is traditionally a tea-drinking country. [00:10.27]But, it is now gaining a new taste for coffee. [00:14.12]This has led international coffee companies [00:17.65]to consider opening businesses in the huge market. [00:21.74]Local business people are also hoping [00:25.39]to profit from the country's tea-drinking habits. [00:28.86]They want to open new stores that offer tea. [00:32.58]It is ten thirty in the morning in India. [00:36.18]Two cafes are within meters of each other, [00:39.98]near a college in New Delhi. [00:42.12]And they are selling a lot of tea. [00:44.98]Their main customers are undergraduate students. [00:49.08]STUDENT: "We have a lot of break between classes, [00:52.52]so whenever we get time, [00:53.53]we just go and we enjoy ourselves. [00:55.10]It's a lot of fun, especially when you are [00:57.21]with people you enjoy spending time with." [00:58.66]In the past ten years, [01:00.56]cafes have become increasingly popular in India. [01:05.05]The country's huge young population [01:08.63]has quickly taken to the coffee culture. [01:11.80]Coffee stores have spread from major cities [01:16.90]like New Delhi and Mumbai to smaller towns. [01:20.28]Coffee use has doubled in the last ten years. [01:25.19]It is the success of this market [01:29.01]that has gained the attention of companies [01:31.41]like the American-based coffee chain Starbucks. [01:34.97]The company will open its first store [01:38.71]in India later this year. [01:41.03]Other companies like Lavazza [01:44.62]and Costa Coffee are already there. [01:47.72]The head of India Coffee Trust, Anil Kumar Bhandari, [01:54.53]praises Starbucks's decision. [01:56.95]He said cafes in India have become central [02:02.00]to the lifestyle of the young, middle-class [02:05.83]as incomes grow and global trends gain popularity. [02:11.66]ANIL KUMAR BHANDARI: "They should have been here before... [02:13.70]Almost any caf¨¦ chain which has a reasonable quality [02:17.74]with its service, ambiance and food, and coffee first, [02:21.37]will succeed in this country." [02:23.33]Yet, the growth of coffee will not to [02:26.44]reduce the popularity of tea. [02:29.21]Indians drink eight times more tea than coffee. [02:33.82]They have been drinking tea [02:36.27]for more than one hundred and fifty years. [02:38.19]India is one of the world's biggest producers of tea, [02:43.29]which is known locally as "chai." [02:46.20]Outside homes and offices, [02:49.41]it is mostly sold by small businesses on the street. [02:53.75]That is what businessmen [02:56.61]like Amuleek Singh Bijral hope to change. [03:00.86]The thirty-six-year-old graduated [03:03.86]from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. [03:07.86]He has opened a tea store called Chai Point [03:12.42]in India's information technology section in Bangalore. [03:17.12]In less than a year, [03:18.99]fourteen Chai Points have opened in the city. [03:23.00]Business experts note that half of India's [03:27.52]population of over one billion [03:30.47]is under the age of twenty-five. [03:33.02]They say both caf¨¦s and tea places will find room to grow. [03:40.33]And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. [03:45.42]Visit us at 51voa.com. [03:49.51]And find teaching and learning activities [03:53.10]in The Classroom at VOA Learning English. [03:57.44]I'm Jim Tedder.