India's Mania for Malls (TIME Asia Magazine)

The article confirms what I observed in Mumbai - the malls are full of people but the shops are nearly empty. Apparently, people visit the malls mainly to hang out and maybe eat in a restaurant but very few people actually buy at the mall shops.

This hasn't deterred the real-estate developers from building new malls - each one shinier than the other. There is concern that there is no civic planning when setting up these malls - they make an already bad traffic situation worse and they have a negative environmental effect. Even some developers have reservations about the success of future malls.

But for the time being it looks like bigger and better malls are here to stay.