Formalizing Mumbai's Meal Couriers

I am fascinated by the rise of entrepreneurship in many developing countries and the existence of the Dabawallas in India is worthy of more incisive study. To the extent that I can tell from the article in the New York Times, it is an altogether efficient even if informal courier service that delivers hot meals from homes to specific areas in Mumbai city. I surmise from the article that it does an excellent job of ensuring that the meals are safely conveyed and the containers returned through a color code on the containers. The rest of it is pretty labor intensive and thrives because the cost of labor in Indian cities such a Mumbai is comparatively low.

This business idea must have survived from delivering excellent value to its clients as the article traces its existence to the period of the British Empire. While I would classify it as an informal business that delivers high value and quite efficiently, it is apparent that it is only partially merged with aspects of the formal economy such as the railway and infrastructure network in Mumbai and its innovative use of text messaging and e-mail.

I consider that further value could inhere from the adoption of bar coding, standardized containers and a database of deliveries and GPS in addition to expansion beyond the delivery of meals.