Are you a retail-app junkie?

No celebrity names have cropped up yet. But California's Betty Ford Center, the world's most famous residential addiction-recovery facility, could jolly well open a branch in India now to cater to people suffering from a new 'dependency problem': online shopping. This seems to be the drug of choice for many Indian executives who simply can't stop till they app. The ease with which one can e-shop makes it that much easier — and more insidious — to get hooked to a habit that conflates the 'scoring' of the substance with its 'kick'.

With this latest scourge, Luddites, of course, have a new (non-electronic) stick to hit technology with. With more and more commentaries about the evil of smartphones and how humans are losing their communication skills — clearly forgetting news television and nagging spouses — doing the rounds, online shopping can become the bogey of the affluent person's hooch habit. Reportedly spending the bulk of one's salary on e-shopping has already given birth to a sunrise industry: online shopping de-addiction and counselling programmes. The horrors of penniless executives still pressing 'Buy' on their phones must be kept at bay. So, will the government enter where anti-gadget fools readily tread? Considering that sympathising with suit-boot ki addicts is a bad idea these days, we seriously doubt it.