Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, is celebrated today, Sunday, November 8 — and India’s festive shopping season is on course to pass ₹7 lakh crore in trade, according to the Confederation of All India Traders.
The traders’ body, known as CAIT, said on Saturday that festival-related business across India had already exceeded ₹6 lakh crore, with Delhi alone crossing ₹1 lakh crore, and that it expects the total to pass ₹7 lakh crore once tonight’s celebrations are counted. The figures cover the period from Navratri to Diwali, roughly five weeks, and are trade-body estimates rather than independently audited sales — so they should be read as a measure of the season’s scale, not as an official retail total.
The main day of the festival is Lakshmi Puja, this evening. In New Delhi the customary puja window runs from about 5:54 p.m. to 7:50 p.m. local time, according to Drik Panchang. In London, the Lakshmi Puja muhurat runs from about 4:35 p.m. to 6:12 p.m. GMT, and Leicester holds its Diwali Day today at Cossington Recreation Ground and the Golden Mile, with a stage, food village, funfair and laser show — but no public fireworks this year, for safety and crowd reasons.
Gold led the buying
Gold and silver led the festive rush. On Dhanteras, the first day of the five-day festival and the most auspicious day of the year to buy gold, the All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council put gold business at about ₹60,000 crore, up 15% to 20% in value on last year — although the quantity sold was broadly flat, because prices are so much higher. Silver sales by value were expected to rise about 30%.
The jewellers’ federation put gold and silver together at more than ₹66,000 crore over the days around Dhanteras, with Delhi’s bullion markets alone doing more than ₹10,000 crore of business. CAIT put the whole of Dhanteras at a record ₹1.25 lakh crore across all goods. Spot gold traded at about $4,072 an ounce on Sunday, and in Delhi 24-carat gold was about ₹1,43,720 per 10 grams today, down from ₹1,46,300 on Dhanteras.
A hazy Diwali in Delhi
The celebrations come with a familiar worry in the capital. Delhi’s air quality index stood at about 383 at 8 a.m. on Sunday, according to the Central Pollution Control Board — in the “very poor” range — although a later live reading put it at 225. The Supreme Court has temporarily permitted only certified green crackers in Delhi-NCR on November 7 and 8, between 6 and 7 a.m. and 8 and 10 p.m., with a ban within 300 metres of hospitals, schools and old-age homes.
In Punjab, the Golden Temple in Amritsar is illuminated for Bandi Chhor Divas, with about 100,000 earthen lamps expected, while a fire at a firecracker stall in Jalandhar late on Saturday night caused panic and destroyed the stall. Online, the festival is also big business: Redseer projects festive online retail of ₹1.40 to ₹1.49 lakh crore in 2026, up about 25% on last year’s ₹1.15 lakh crore. One caution from the analysts: CAIT, the auto dealers’ body FADA and Redseer all count different windows, so their totals overlap and should never be added together.
