The festive season is just on the brink in India, and India’s gold market is optimistic of high level sales this time of the year, reports say. The World Gold Council predicts sales to be up by nearly 40 percent during the Diwali and Dhanteras festive occasions, when it is a ritual to purchase gold as an optimistic symbolism. This behavior is expected to further step up gold imports for the year 2010. %% Reports state WGC’s outlook that consumers are not deffering their gold purchase decisions, as gold prices have displayed a continuous rise. Also, demand for golds has been strong even during the phase of ‘Shradh’, a period in the Indian calendar when people pay homage to ancestors and avoid purchasing anything auspicious ( gold is usually assoiated with auspiciousness in India). %% Coinciding with the rise in demand, gold imports are also expected to show an upscale. Reportys point at WGC’s optimism that gold imports in the last quarter of 2010 to reach 200 tonnes, while the entire gold imports for 2009 was 539 tonnes. Need for security amidst inflation, the optimism in markets wealth protection have spurred demand for gold. %% Besides jewellers selling gold jewellery and coins and bars, the federal government has allowed 23 state-run and private banks to trade in bullion at the wholesale and retail levels. Also gold exchange traded funds (ETF), are likely to rise in demand from the current 13 tonnes worth of investment to double digit growth, in the near future.