Paint consumed in India per year
Stock × repaint cycle + new construction — a surface-area problem.
Estimate annual decorative paint consumption in India (litres). This is a surface-area problem wearing a market-sizing costume: housing stock × paintable area × repaint frequency, plus the new-construction flow. (Industrial/auto coatings excluded — clarify that upfront.)
Stock
~300M households; ~220M live in paintable pucca homes. Paintable area (walls + ceiling, interior + some exterior) ≈ 180 m² for a modest home.
Repaint cycle
Urban affluent every 4–5 years (festivals, weddings); rural 10+ → blended ~7 years.
Coverage
Two coats ≈ 8 litres per 100 m² → ~14.4 L per home per repaint.
Repaint demand
220M ÷ 7 ≈ 31M homes/yr × 14.4 L ≈ 450M litres.
New construction
~8M new units + commercial/institutional ≈ +150M litres → total ~600M litres/yr.
How to defend it
The repaint cycle is the sensitivity to flag: one year shorter (7→6) adds ~75M litres — which is why paint companies advertise around festivals: they're not selling colour, they're compressing the repaint cycle.