Indian Lunch Runners Become Business Gurus

Feb. 3, 2006
Two of Mumbai's "lunch runners" who help feed hundreds of thousands of workers every day will teach management techniques to steel executives in India, a report said Feb. 3. The two "dabba-wallahs" will run a three-day workshop for 2,000 employees of the ...

Two of Mumbai's "lunch runners" who help feed hundreds of thousands of workers every day will teach management techniques to steel executives in India, a report said Feb. 3. The two "dabba-wallahs" will run a three-day workshop for 2,000 employees of the Bhilai steel plant in central India, teaching "accuracy and precision," according to the Times of India.

Dabba-wallahs have been acclaimed internationally by management consultants for their system of delivering more than 200,000 homemade lunch boxes -- called "dabbas" -- every day using nearly 5,000 carriers in Mumbai.

The system was started more than a century ago and allows staff to stay at the office rather than travel home at lunchtime through the clogged streets of the densely populated western Indian city.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006

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