Ruf and Tuf jeans have stolen a march over Levis or any other `top of mind' jeans brand you could think of. Action shoes score over Reebok or Nike and Maruti still ranks as the number one auto brand among Indian kids aged between 7-18! These and other inetersting facts about Indian kids comprsie the findings of New GenerAsians 2000.

The survey conducted by AC Nielsen is the largest one of its kind in Asia encompassing 14 countries and 29 cities, 10 of these cities are Indian. The survey covered about 7,700 children in India through one on one interviews.

Children belonging to homes with a TV set were selected to form the sample. "We commissioned the study since we felt there was a lacuna in this area as far as information goes" says Celia Chong, senior vice-president, TNT and Cartoon Network, Asia-Pacific Region. "Since the last survey in 1998, we decided to lay emphasis on two new elements, these being brands and the Internet" she adds.

"One of the key findings of the survey has been that Indian kids show a much stronger preference for local brands than kids anywhere in the world" stated Anthony Dobson, executive director for research and strategic planning at Turner Entertainment Networks.

As far as the usage of the Internet in India goes, kids in Bangalore have the highest PC/Internet access with 60% of Bangalore kids interviewed having access to the Net. Ahmedabad is second with 55% followed by Mumbai at third place with 52% of kids interviewed having access to the Net.

Indian kids rate school work and exams as the `best thing about their lives' as opposed to kids in Australia who say it's friendhsip and social life or Japanese kids who say its hobbies.

As far as their favourite commercials go, while Pepsi remains consistent at number one since 1998, Colgate has snatched the number two slot from Coke. Salman Khan, A R Rahman and Sacin Tendulkar enjoy the highest ranking as far as national icons go and the Indian kid spends just 53% of his pocket money as opposed to a kid from Phillipines who spends about 76% of it and the kid from Vietnam who spends 71%.Just for the record though, its the Chinese who are the thriftiest of the lot spending just 38% of their pocket money.

These and countless other glimpses into the world of Asian kids comprise the subject matter of the study whose details are available on www.newgenerasians.com.

"It will be of tremendous benefit as a comprehensive refernce guide for marketers and advertisers to help them better guage childrens' consumer habits" says Dobson.