Mumbai, the city that never sleeps, is our last destination of Focus India 2019. Some of our cultural highlights were to have the chance to visit the Dharavi Slum, the Dhobi Ghat and our travel agent. From the business side, as Mumbai is a financial district and startup hub, we had the pleasure learn about digital transformation in the banking industry at HDFC Bank, and have a look around the Rise Mumbai co-working space for FinTech startups from Barclays. We are sad that it has come to an end, yet we cherish the memories and experiences we shared together throughout this journey.
Some memorable cultural highlights in Mumbai
The very well organised Dharavi Slum
Some would say that the Dharavi Slum in Mumbai – the third biggest in the world – is a «5 Star Slum». This has largely to do with the fact that is very well organised community with many businesses and manufacturing processes in place. Mumbai’s population is 20 million, of which approximately 700’000 people live in the Dharavi Slum. Dharavi is seen as one of the most densely populated areas globally with 277,136 inhabitants per square kilometer. And we had the opportunity to be guided around the slum by Rakesh RS and Sagar Pithadia, whom both live in the slum. They walked us through different districts, such as the commercial, market, school and housing area. Some of the products residents are producing are leather wear, pottery and plastic recycled products. It was a very enriching and captivating experience to have the chance to walk around the Dharavi slum, and learning about how the community is organised.
Dhobi Ghat
Another notable visit was having a sight at the Dhobi Ghat, an openair laundromat in Mumbai. The washers, so called dhobis, wash 200 pieces of clothing or sheets a day for 8 to 12 hours. When comparing this to a machine that washes 100 pieces per hour, one can see the amount of work dhobis have each day.
Visiting our travel agent «India Someday»
«Helping you travel your way» this is what our local travel agency India Someday stands for. Harsh and his team welcomed us at their office, providing us with a delightful Indian lunch, and giving a pitch how their company evolved over the last ten years. It all started with friends from Europe, interested to travel to India, and so Harsh organised a trip for them. In the early years, India Someday made around 10 to 15 trips annually, and now there are over 600 to 700 trips a year. Harsh explained that their core expertise lies within being a very close and personal travel agent, and at the same time use innovative digital tools to make communication and booking processes more seamless and efficient.
We had the privilege to visit the HDFC Bank to learn about their digital innovations in the banking industry, a CSR initiative, and a short presentation of two members of our delegation. HDFC aims to transform towards a digital bank and change processes and touchpoints with customers towards digital. This aligns well with the government initiative «Digital India» to enable accessibility to digital tools and a bank account for everyone. One project HDFC Bank is currently working on is a biometric cash withdrawal process.
Parivartan, a CSR initiave of HDFC Bank
Following this interesting introduction, we learnt about HDFC Bank’s CSR initiative Parivartan. HDFC Bank thrives towards reaching out to underprivileged communities to empower them to make something on their own and become independent. One focus area is rural development where micro loans are given to fund certain tools or machines to make a living. One of the success stories the program had was a farm field school to support farmers to improve their cropping practices and increase their productivity. It is sort of a learning hub where mentors support farms to solve their problems.
Delegation pitch on challenges in the Swiss banking industry
Last but not least, Serina Danz and Roman Hofer, two members of our delegation hosted an interactive session on challenges that the Swiss banking industry faces. A common challenge of the Swiss and Indian market was the difficulty of customers to adapt to digital tools. Rajnish Khare, Head Digital Transformation, Social Business & New Media and Mobility mentioned that the HDFC especially struggles to implement digital solutions in rural areas because of lack of infrastructure. Overall, everyone agreed that the banks are slowly transforming towards IT companies.
Rise Mumbai, co-working space for FinTech startups – an initiative by Barclays
Our last company visit of the onsite seminar was Rise Mumbai, the Home of FinTech – A co-working space for B2B start-ups. Barclays aims to bring together the world’s top innovators to create the future solutions of financial services. At Rise Mumbai, startups are provided with working space, mentoring service with subject-matter experts in different areas of their business, as well as support on finding funding with organised investors days. Barclays has several co-working offices like this one in Mumbai also in other locations around the world.