The purpose of the Project Team’s preparatory trip from January 2nd – 12th 2018 is getting a first impression of India, meeting the partner companies we intend to visit with our 27-strong delegation (consisting of 23 students and 4 professors) on our onsite seminar in March/April, organizing suitable transfer options, and checking out accommodation and cultural activities.
Destination 3: Mumbai
Did you know that…
- …the City’s official name got changed from Bombay to Mumbai in 1995. However, people still refer to it as Bombay.
- …with more than 2,07 crore (1 crore = 10 million) inhabitants, Mumbai is India’s most populated city.
- …Mumbai is especially known for its financial service industry and for being the center of the Bollywood industry.
- …while visiting tourist sites you can easily turn into becoming the main attraction yourself, so make sure you keep smiling ?
We instantly noticed the fast-paced lifestyle prevailing in Mumbai. Also, the buildings and the cityscape differed quite a bit from the places we visited before. Nestled between shabby colonial buildings and modern skyscrapers, one can find large slum-like areas which visualize the contrasts within society.
On our first day we had the honor to speak to the CEO of Steiner India, Mr. Arun Kumar Singh, who gave us an insight into various projects run by the Indian infrastructure giant HCC (the mother company of Steiner India) and the recent Lavasa Hill City project, based on principles of New Urbanism and incorporates smart city concepts, advanced technology and e-governance principles.
Together with Rise Mumbai, a leading FinTech hub, we will outline an interactive program around digital technologies and their potential to disrupt the way business is done. While buying souvenirs for example, we realized how popular peer-to-peer transactions are in India, even at the most basic street shops you can pay via mobile applications. We are very much looking forward to the session with our delegation in April together with Tejal Khawse, the Hub Manager, and the Rise Mumbai community.
Apart from meeting companies we enjoyed a traditional Indian lunch with Jonas and Hanna, working for the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce, a connection that arouse out of the collaboration with T-Systems. Similarly to the people from Swissnex, which me met in Bangalore, they shared some interesting stories about their work, life and experiences in India with us.
After an intensive time of meeting various partners at different sites, we took the opportunity to explore the vivid local markets and different districts of this enormous city. The preparatory trip was a tremendous experience for all of us and we are excited to come back with the entire Focus India Delegation in April.
Namaste!
Your Focus India Project Team
Amanda, Luca, Samira & Valentin