What is happening to Indian men who constitute 52 per cent of the country's population? What changes are evident and where are they headed for?

To know the answers to these questions and gain insights into the subject, Business Today, along with Monitoring and Research Systems (MaRS), has conducted an exclusive survey on the Life, Times and Attitudes of Indian Urban Male.

When BT decided to draw profiles of Indian men, the first requirement was to fix profile dimensions. Background research and piloting followed next. It was then decided to classify five broad-level dimensions considered relevant today.

These are:

1. The profile of Indian man 2. Life, work and everything 3. Man, the consumer 4. Life in their grey years 5. The unmarried man

The survey findings have helped in understanding the nature and pattern as well as providing a set of baselines and values that are applicable to and indicative of the men in the third quarter of 2007.

The study was carried out among urban Indian working men belonging to varied socio- economic classes from all states of India, excepting the north-eastern states and Jammu and Kashmir. The study universe consisted of the entire urban region in the select states with a population of around half a million or more.

The survey was carried out in 35 towns. Systematic sampling at household level was adopted as the sampling methodology with suitably selected random start points. The total sample size was 11,370 across 35 towns.