BANGALORE: India's love for whisky just seems to be getting stouter, with no signs of anyone remotely saying 'Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum' — a popular phrase from adventure novel Treasure Island.Data sourced from an annual report on alcohol consumption by Drinks International shows that seven among the top 10 fastest growing whisky brands in the world are Indian.Radico Khaitan's Crown clocked in the highest global growth of 75% in the last calendar, followed by Pernod Ricard's Imperial Blue (40%), Allied Blenders & Distillers' Officer's Choice (31%) and United Spirits Ltd's Haywards Fine (30%).Pernod's The Glenlivet single malt was the only global brand to feature in the top five with a growth of 25%.Officer's Choice is presently the largest selling whisky brand globally with 23.8 million cases (of 9 litre each) ousting McDowell's No. 1 to the top spot last calendar. The famed Johnnie Walker is now the third largest selling whisky brand in the world with 20.1 million cases, as per Drinks International data.Only three years ago Diageo's Johnnie Walker was the market leader with volumes of 18 million cases.The other big Indian whisky brands to feature in the top ten list include McDowell's No.1 and Royal Challenge from the USL stable and another of Pernod's regional brand Royal Stag."The biggest factor in favour of Indian whisky is its value. On an average the cheapest whisky globally would be $15, where as in India an expensive whisky would be around that price," said Deepak Roy, executive vice chairman and MD, Allied Blenders & Distillers (ABD).Terming Indian whisky as a 'powerhouse' Drinks International said that of the 17 'millionaire' whisky brands in India, 11 reported robust growth in 2013. Millionaire brands are those selling one million cases or more annually.In India's 310- million cases strong spirits market, Whisky sales overwhelmingly dominate with 175-million cases, accounting for 57% of the market. While the whisky market reported 6.7% growth in the last five years, Rum the second largest spirits category with 23 million in sales volume reported only a 1.3% growth in the same period."This whisky story has been around for decades now in India and I don't see any change to the story in the foreseeable future," said Paul John, CMD, John Distilleries Ltd, whose Original Choice is the eight biggest whisky brand in the world by volume.John said that one factor driving whisky consumption is the country is the 'herd mentality' that exits among consumers. "Even the younger generation has adopted this fueling whisky consumption," added John.Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are the top three whisky markets in the country. India has a large consumer base that is still upgrading from country liquor to whisky.Globally, whisky consumption is on the rise with Euromonitor International estimating that the whisky market will grow at 17% to touch volumes of 387 million cases by 2018. If the growth numbers hold true then whisky as a category will overtake vodka, which is estimated to touch volumes of 381 million cases with under1% growth.