Mumbai10/1/2007
Mumbai’s largest slum, Dharavi, contains approximately 1 million people. These are functioning “cities within cities”, where the residents do not own property and have to purchase water and electricity through a black market. Greater Mumbai relies on the labor and cottage industries that are generated in these places. Dharavi is where much of the city’s leatherworking is done and one can purchase high quality jackets, purses and wallets within its boundaries. Most people buy them through a vendor on the street, since navigating this type of environment is not appealing. Surprisingly, one billion of the 6.5 billion people in the world live in squatter settlements like these. This is projected to increase to one third of the world’s population by 2050, when three out of the nine billion people on the planet will reside in these urban slums. My impression changed, however, once I landed. I walked down the steps of the plane, boarded a bus that took me across the tarmac to the baggage claim area, where my suitcases greeted me on the conveyer belt. My hotel driver was a short walk away, waiting patiently with an orderly group of his peers near a large parking lot. Literally within 25 minutes of landing I was in a new car on my way to the hotel. Since I was traveling with people who could expense their accommodations, I again stayed in a 5 star hotel, the Leela Kempinski Mumbai. As usual, it was stunningly beautiful with enthusiastic employees waiting on our every need. However, a This neighborhood was adjacent to a large field containing two ponds, one larger than the other. Each morning I watched men and women make their way down a dirt path carrying a bucket that they filled with water before returning to their homes. Throughout the day, people walked down other nearby paths, where they used the field as a restroom. Because cows also use the water for their daily needs, infant mortality and life expectancy rates for this portion of India’s population is at levels that compare to the less developed countries in the world. Although rural villagers have very low standards of living, the urban poor seem to live under worse conditions. The next day provided a glimpse of a different India, when I met Yogesh, a friend of a friend and owner of a biotech company in Mumbai. Yogesh is one of India’s, and the world’s, intellectual elite who have brought India worldwide attention. I had the great fortune of meeting another rising star in New Delhi, Prashant Sahni, who as a 28 year old saved an online booking company by creating a captive BPO, or outsourcing company, in India and later sold it for hundreds of millions of dollars. His story is now a case study at MIT and Harvard. Yogesh and Parashant are two of many Indians who are putting India on the economic map. They are confident and proud, with good reason. They are brilliant. Yogesh took me to the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, one of seven “IIT’s” which are some of the best science and engineering schools in the world. Although the campus buildings were not up to western standards, the talent within the halls that lacked air conditioning is continuously sought after by the likes of Google, Yahoo, Amazon and Microsoft. I was able to meet with several people, all of which impressed me tremendously. The first encounter was with two young graduates who are taking part in the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) program. This is a non-profit organization for students and alumni of IIT whose business plan proposals were accepted by external reviewers to gain entrance. They are given federal grants, office space and computer equipment for a period of three years. The two gentlemen I met have a patent pending for a cell phone that uses alternative energy: hand power. Like the new flashlights that shine when a handle attached to the unit is turned, these cell phones can be recharged in areas, like much of India, that do not have access to electricity.
Another young entrepreneur, Rohit Nalwade, is the youngest CEO of SINE and one of the stars of IIT, a feat in itself. Rohit had lunch with us and enthusiastically described how he started his first business weeks into his freshman year at IIT. His father found out and made him stop. Like many Indian parents, his father’s dream was for Rohit to become an engineer, not His latest venture is a “smart card” that allows stores to recognize when a consumer comes into the store. It uses technology in the form of a chip that contains data storing the purchase history of the individual, thereby allowing them to create an individualized shopping experience for them and increasing the chances that they will buy something. The card also uses GIS technology that allows the store to know if the customer entered one of their locations. For example, if I walked into a store, I might go to a kiosk where I would hear a greeting, “Good morning Mr. Manning. Welcome to ________. Please choose from the following coupons we have printed here that provide discounts on many of the items you seem to enjoy.” As I walked through the store, various flat panel displays would advertise the products I might like, because the sensor on my card would interact with these displays and recognize when I was there. Needless to say, Rohit anticipates selling his company for $400 million in three years. After a fantastic lunch at a campus establishment, Yogesh then took me on the long way to a great restaurant in the part of Mumbai where many of Bollywood’s elite hangs out. India is the world’s leading producer of films, surpassing Hollywood, and the movie industry is called Bollywood. Yogesh asked if I wanted to see the surface of India or the layer underneath. I told him that the latter was what I came here for and he smiled. We took an auto rickshaw through traffic and breathed in the We also experienced a train station just after rush hour. Seeing people jump on and off moving trains, squeezing onto the crowded car is a treat, when you are traveling in the other direction. Yogesh laughed and told me this was 50% capacity. He said that when you are on the platform during peak times, you get bounced around as the mass of humanity carries you from spot to spot. I liked the fact that we were a bit too late to see it. We finished dinner at midnight. Indians tend to start their day late and therefore end it late. Although this varies, it is common for them to get to work by nine and leave by six, but dinner is often started after nine in the evening. It was a wonderful dinner though, started off by having the waiter place a square metal basket of hot coals within a hole in our table. Kabobs were placed over the basket so that we could roast them to our liking. Like the entire experience so far, Indian food is fantastic. |
After 2 short days in New Delhi, I was off to Mumbai, formerly called Bombay and India’s financial capital. My first impression of the city came as our plane was landing, and seemed to scrape the rooftops of the largest slum I have ever seen. The sea of corrugated steel mixed with blue tarps and crumbling concrete is one of many urban slums found in India.
familiar sight greeted me as I looked out my window, where I saw another slum just outside the gate. Every morning as I connected to the Internet and took my morning coffee via room service, I watched the residents next door go about their morning routine. 
an entrepreneur. Rohit eventually started another successful company, inventing digital controls for washing machines that replaced cumbersome mechanical dials. He and his partners did this while attending one of the premier schools in the world, and eventually sold it. 
fumes of Mumbai through the open vehicle as we traveled through neighborhoods and side streets.