Mumbai City Profile
Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is a peninsula located on the coast of Western Maharashtria and is the most populated city in India. People stream into this city from all parts of India with aspirations of striking it rich, or at least making a living wage. Many do not have proper work skills and end of living in slums on the outskirts of the city, while others who have better work skills, work hard and prosper. Its a common myth among countryside people, that everyone in the city is rich, and that its easy to make money there. It is true that there are numerous jobs in the city, but people work twelve hours a day and put up with horrendous commutes just to get by with modest salaries. Big city life is not for everyone.
History
Mumbai was historically a fishing colony, and the decendants of the original fishermen are still living there in Mumbai, but their population has been dwarfed by the huge influx of roughly 20 million other human beings from all over. Mumbai was under the control of various local empires, and then colonized by Portugal, and later by Britain. It is now the economic capital of India, or the “New York” of India, as well as being the film capital of India with its huge Bollywood film industry.
Outsourcing
We have outsourcing listings for many types of companies in Mumbai. Companies tend to be more business oriented, but less technically oriented as the technical specialties are better represented in South Indian cities and Pune.
BPO
Call Centers
Data Entry
Economy & Transportation
Bombay residents have higher salaries than in most other parts of India. Major banks, airlines, and other large companies will typically have a head office in Mumbai. The Bombay stock exchange not surprisingly also has its head in Mumbai as well as the national stock exchange of India. However, the cost of living, especially the rent is murderous, leaving many large families living in a single room. They live, cook, eat, and sleep in that same room. The train or local railway (as they call it) is the pulse of the city, connecting people from very far away at rapid speeds. Its common to travel 25 kms to work everyday in a crowded train. The problem is that the trains are so packed, the only way to breathe is to tilt your head up. And if the train jerks to a stop, don’t worry about falling, there will be at least two dozen soft bodies to cushion your fall. Squeezing in the train is another mystery of the East, but all you need is a few square inches to plant one of your feet and something to hang onto and you’ll be fine. Auto rick shaws are only allowed to operate in Northern Mumbai while South Mumbai uses only cabs.
Architecture
Mumbai hosts some beautiful architecture, especially in the Southern parts of town like Nariman Point and Fort. You can see some hybrid British / Indian architecture that doesn’t exist in any other part of the world. Victoria Terminus which is currently known as Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminous is a beautiful architectural feat and worth a visit. Gateway to India is another famous landmark in Nariman point thats worth seeing.
Ports
Mumbai has two major ports including: Mumbai Port Trust and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust which handles 55-60% of the countries container cargo.
Culture
The majority of Mumbaikars (local Mumbai people) are Marathi in origin. Some are indiginous to the local area, while others are from the various rural parts of the state, or Pune, Nasik, or Nagpur. The second most populous ethnic group are Gujarathis which is not surprising as Gujarat is Maharashtrias neighbor to the North. These two groups make up roughly half of Mumbais population and are generally conversant in Hindi. The rest of the population is from all over. Keralites, Biharis, Tamils, Bengalis, and people from many other states inhabit Mumbai. It is noteworthy that there are very few Asiatic looking Indans from the Northeastern states as they prefer to go to Bangalore or Delhi if they leave their homeland. Additionally, there are very few Sikhs in Mumbai too as they prefer to stick to places like Haryana, Punjab, and Delhi.
Religion
There are people of a wide variety of religions in Mumbai. Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and Christians are in large numbers. The Fort area has many Zoroastrians too, and this religion is practiced by Parsis who are people who fled Iran more than one thousand years ago and have been living in India ever since. Mumbai even has had a Jewish population for over one thousand years!
Urban growth
These days, the city is growing outward. The land in Mumbai has been used, and Navi Mumbai across the bridge is being quickly developed with lots of new construction and roads being built. Thane and the area north of it are developing too. It looks like there will be a solid wall of civilization streaming out of Mumbai for hundreds of Kms one day soon if the population there keeps growing. The new trend in India is to try to build industry in remote areas. The land is cheaper, and this will slow down the huge national migration to large cities which causes overcrowding, crime and other serious problems.
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