Overview

Beginning on Saturday, I will be traveling to Mumbai, India to do some consulting on regional economic development with the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority. I'll be using this space to collect my thoughts and insights.

My brother, Hunter, I will be focusing on issues of how older industrial regions adjust to the challenges of globalization. Between the two of us, we have an interesting collaboration emerging between Youngstown State's Center for Urban and Regional Studies and the Purdue Center for Regional Development. Hunter brings the perspective of the planner (publicly-led, privately supported strategies), while I bring the perspective of economic development (privately-led, publicly supported strategies).

Youngstown, Northeast Ohio, Kokomo, Flint, North Central Indiana, Western Michigan, Milwaukee, the Great Lakes: We are all facing the same sets of pressures.

Surprisingly, Mumbai, once a global textile center, has failed to adjust quickly to the economic reforms launched in India in the early 1990s. Textiles have migrated to lower cost locations in Asia. Unlike Bangalore, Mumbai has failed to execute a clear strategy for the next phase of its regional economic development.

They are looking at higher end services in finance, health services and IT. There are also, interestingly, looking at entertainment and digital media. Adjustments in manufacturing will require them to connect their port facilities with lower cost locations in the hinterland -- not unlike Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta.

Now Mumbai leaders are adjusting. In the process, they are trying to learn what other regions are doing. (There's no textbook, after all.)

They see Shangai and Pudong as models, but there is one problem: India is a democratic state, and reforms cannot be easily dictated. (An effort in 2005 to clear away 300 acres of slums touched off a firestorm of opposition.)

We'll be in Mumbai for a week, and we'll bring back some interesting perspectives from the front lines of global competition.