Aamchi Mumbai

Mumbai is the glamour of Bollywood cinema, cricket on the maidans (open grassed areas), bhelpuri (a spicy sweet Mumbai snack) on the beach of Chowpatty, outstanding colonial architecture and red double-decker buses

Today Mumbai
• Covers an area of about 437.71 Sq.Km.
• Merger of 7 islands in city area and 4 islands in suburbs.
• Houses about 11.9 Million people (Census 2001)
• Population density of about 27,209 people per Sq.Km. (Census 2001)

Though once dominated by the cotton textile industry, Mumbai's economic base is now diversified and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region accounts for about US$ 15 billion out of Mahrashtra’s economy (NSDP) of about USD 37 billion. Textiles still remain important, but the city's industries include IT, Telecommunications, petrochemicals, automobile manufacturing, metals, electronics, engineering, food processing. Approximately 40% of the capital investment in Large and Medium industries in Maharashtra are cornered by Mumbai. More specialized economic activities are diamond cutting, computers, and movie making (in sheer numbers, Mumbai, or "Bollywood," produces more movies than any other city in the world, including Hollywood).
Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is the financial capital of India, contributing greatly to the Indian economy. The city accounts for over 10% of factory employment, 40% of income tax collections, 60% of customs duty collections, 20% of central excise tax collections, 40% of foreign trade and INR 40,000 crore (US $1 billion) in corporate taxes. Some of the key sectors contributing to the city’s economy are:

Financial & Commercial Centre - Mumbai, which has a stated aspiration of becoming a world-class city in the next 10-15 years, has already been ranked tenth among the world's biggest centres of commerce in terms of the financial flow volumes by a survey compiled by MasterCard Worldwide. Mumbai alone hosts two of the largest of the 131 approved SEZs in Maharashtra with a total area of 14, 000 hectares. Post the launch of Gulf Finance House promoted over US$10 billion Mumbai Economic Development Zone the city now also boasts of hosting the state and country’s only Economic Development Zone. Additionally, Maharashtra’s pro-investor and pro-industry policies coupled with its strategic position within key business and industry sectors in the country, has also made the state of Maharashtra and Mumbai the largest recipient of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country.
Mumbai today also boasts of
• Largest City Rail & Road Networks
• Amongst the largest trading ports (JNPT & MPT combined) in the country. In fact JNPT has been acknowledged as the busiest port in the country
• The country’s largest planned retail outlay and India's biggest networks in the food, clothing and hospitality industry initiatives
• Headquarters of a number of Indian financial institutions such as the Bombay Stock Exchange, Reserve Bank of India, National Stock Exchange, the Mint
• Headquarters of numerous Indian companies such as the Tata Group, Essel Group, Vedanta Resources and Reliance

Gems & Jewellery – Mumbai’s contribution towards Gems & Jewellery has risen from INR 50 billion in 1990 – 91 to INR 450 billion in 2003-04. Additionally SEEPZ (a Special Economic Zone located in Mumbai) alone handled import of INR 20 billion (2003-04) of rough diamonds, gold bars, stones, C&P diamonds, silver bars and platinum.

Leather: Mumbai, with its comfortable raw material base, skilled labour and already well established leather/leather goods industry, is and will continue to be a major centre for leather and leather products in Western India
IT & ITES: Mumbai is at the forefront of Maharashtra’s IT/ITES thrust that has now spread to other major cities in the state such as Pune etc. The city also boasts of some of the finest educational institutions in the country ensuring a steady supply of trained technical manpower for the IT/ITES industry. The state accounts for more than 30% of India’s software exports, 35% of the country’s PC’s and 32% of internet subscribers

Textiles: The largest contributor to Mumbai’s economy in the past the textile sector, which also currently accounts for 27% of India’s total exports, in the city still continues to play an important role

Entertainment Sector – The acknowledged centre of Indian film industry, especially ‘Bollywood’, Mumbai, which also hosts the head offices of various media groups such as ZEE TV, Times Group, Sony, UTV, Rediff, etc. is also one of the largest centers for Print, Television, Radio and other media related industries. The city also boasts of one of the largest number of committed retail space and is well poised to emerge as the retail capital of the country.

Furthermore, guided by the vision of transforming Mumbai into a world-class city the government has already initiated a slew of mega development projects. Besides the state urban development department and the civic body, agencies such as the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, JNPT and state pollution control board are involved in implementation of the projects which include
• Bandra-Worli sea link
• Sewri-Nhava sea link
• Mithi river project
• Eastern freeway (through JNPT)
• Brimstowad
• Mumbai urban transport and integrated development projects
• Dharavi redevelopment, the largest such programme in the world
• Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission schemes
• New Mumbai International Airport

In addition to the government projects the private-sector is also leading an array of mega development projects currently under way in Mumbai including
• Maha Mumbai SEZ & Navi Mumbai SEZ with a combined development value in excess of INR 140 billion
• GFH Mumbai Economic development Zone
• Badra - Kurla Convention Centre
• Versova – Ghatkopar Metro Project
• Re-development of the current Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport

Mumbai is also home to the Bhabha Atomic Research Center, and most of India's specialized, technical industries, having a modern industrial infrastructure and vast, skilled human resources. Rising venture capital firms, start-ups and established brands work in aerospace, optical engineering, medical research, information technology, computers and electronic equipment of all varieties, ship-building and salvaging, renewable energy and power.

Last but not the least Mumbai also houses the Western fleet of the Indian Navy, which is key to India's maritime security.