the Mumbai buzz

Here’s the deal. As a visitor to the world’s largest democracy, India, if you are in Delhi, you are most likely there as a tourist. If you are in Mumbai, the chances are you are there to do business. For Mumbai—or Bombay, as locals still call it, lovingly clinging on to its older name—is the country’s financial hub. As the richest Indian city, it accounts for over a fifth of the net value added by the industrial sector in the country. Its two major ports ensures its dominance in international trade and exports.

Mumbai traditionally owed its prosperity to its textile mills and seaports. Today engineering, diamond polishing, healthcare, information technology and back-office processing for multinational corporations have taken over. India’s television and satellite networks are here, as well as its publishing houses. It’s the epicentre of the Hindi movie industry, Bollywood, the world’s largest film maker, spawning some 400 celluloid fantasies a year. A spin-off is the animation industry, now a creative resource for Hollywood.

What gives Mumbai its energy is its entrepreneurship. Every kid from rural India who wants to make it gets on a train to Mumbai, for this is the city of gold, the Gateway of India. The result is extreme contrasts: mushrooming slums touch swanky high-rises. Yet, even in the squalour, people are busy making a living. Ragpickers recycle Mumbai’s garbage, selling salvage; Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi, is where international haute couture comes to do its hand embroidery. Given this perspective of paradoxes, it’s hard to be judgemental.

Doing business runs in Mumbai’s DNA, not just in its educated strata, but in its hawkers, taxi drivers, mechanics and other proletarian professionals. Globalisation has brought a new buzz, a feeling that the city is on the verge of stardom. Take just one instance, Mumbai’s 5,000-strong co-op of dabbawalas, who deliver 200,000

dabbas or hot lunch tiffins to a far-flung working population every day. Forbes magazine gave them the highest six sigma rating: one error in 6 million transactions. So impressed was Prince Charles that he invited them to attend his recent wedding!

Truly, what makes Mumbai exciting for a business traveller is that you’re bang in the action. You see it in the previously dilapidated areas like Lower Parel (where old textile mills have morphed into new-age retail bubbles) and in the freshly painted buildings along Marine Drive, where the coast is transformed by new bars and fancy hotels. Yes, the city doesn’t have the infrastructure to cope with its growth, and corruption and inefficiency are still rampant in the local government. Just accept that this isn’t your average First World, smooth-sailing economy. This is organised chaos, where the spirit of colossal opportunity rises above and thrives, despite all odds and common sense. If that doesn’t excite a travelling entrepreneur, whatever will?