Hi there, I’m Andie. My job as a producer for “Marketplace” has taken me to lots of places I’ve never been before: the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota, a fiber optic cable factory in North Carolina, and most recently Mumbai, India as part of our ongoing series “The Age of Work.” 

“Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal, ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson and I took a small crew to India’s financial center last month. Our mission? To explore what life looks like in the fastest growing major economy in the world, one that continues growing thanks to the abundance of young people there. We’ll start by meeting a recent transplant. — Andie Corban, Marketplace producer

We met Aqeel Tapia more than a year ago in Salt Lake City for our installment of “The Age of Work” in Utah. But that interview never made it to air, because between taping and air, American immigration policy turned upside-down. 

Tapia is a video game developer who came to the U.S. to earn his masters degree. India is the biggest source of international students for American universities, but amid policy uncertainty, fewer Indians are applying to study in the U.S. 

“I think it would be interesting to apply the experiences I’ve gained here [in the U.S.] and apply them to about as diametrically opposite of a culture as I can find,” Tapia told us last year. “Utah is kind of quiet, and I come from Mumbai, which is one of the densest, busiest cities in the world.” 

Tapia has now been living in Mumbai for just over a year. While he’s enjoying the family time, he said he’s not used to life in Mumbai yet. 

“News of layoffs and immigration problems is largely how people in India relate [to the United States], through people like me who might have moved back, which is not a favorable thing,” he said. “I think people are not excited to move abroad as much because the prospect of coming back is just as high.” 

Tapia is currently working on a new video game company alongside former professors from Utah.

India is the fastest growing major economy in the world, but there’s a tremendous amount of inequality there — worse than it was under British colonial rule, according to one study.

While many wealthy Indians pursue higher education abroad, poorer students might not even complete high school before they enter the labor force. That’s where night schools come in. There are at least 100 across the state of Maharashtra. 

“In India, we have a lot of people who cannot afford to study,” said Animesh Singh, the principal of the Model English Night High School. “If you don’t have earning members in your house, if you are economically weak, naturally the child would not come into school rather than working.” 

This night school has students of all ages, starting around 14, completing grades eight through ten. Our team spoke with a 30-year-old named Jyoti. She does clerical work during the day, and works to finish eighth grade at night.

“When I am ten years old, my father expired. So after that, I’m not continuing my school, family problems and all,” Jyoti said. “I want big opportunities, so that’s why I'm learning right now here,” she said. “So I'll be better.”

Yes, just to get it out of the way, this next story is about a company also called MarketPlace. MarketPlace: Handwork of India is the full name. 

Pushpika Freitas cofounded the company in the 1980s while working as a social worker in Mumbai, and she still serves as president today. 

“I remember very clearly, before I started MarketPlace, meeting a young girl, maybe 12, and saying, ‘Hey, why aren’t you in school?’” Freitas said. “And she said, ‘I have to look after my younger siblings.’” 

The experience led her to create the company to foster economic development and empowerment for women in Mumbai’s slums. MarketPlace finds women who want to work, then trains them to sew and embroider. The clothing they make is eventually exported to the U.S. 

Since it was founded, the company has shifted to an employee-ownership model. The women artisans work through eleven cooperatives across Mumbai. 

We visited one of those cooperatives, located deep in a slum in Mumbai’s Santacruz East neighborhood. They met Sara Kambli there as she was sewing a belt. 

“I came to Mumbai right after my marriage, so I knew nobody and this place became like a second home to me,” Kambli said through a translator. “Before this, everybody knew me by my husband’s name. But now, when I’m walking around in the community, they’re like, "This is Sara from work,” so they know me by my own name.”

Our first stop in Mumbai was Crawford Market, a wholesale destination for retailers across India.

“Market almost isn’t the right word.” It’s a whole shopping district, with blocks of microbusinesses devoted to one kind of item — textiles, light fixtures, pots and pans, you name it. 

Our target was Zaveri Bazaar, which is entirely dedicated to gold and jewelry. We visited R. Pukrhaj Jewellers.

“Business is not bad,” owner Anil Jain said. “Since our prime minister has given us a call that for a year, all the Indians are not supposed to buy gold. So we have taken a hit of around 50 to 60% in our business.” 

Along with his request that Indians not buy gold for a year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also asked that Indians not travel abroad and work from home when possible. These are attempts to fight rising prices, a consequence of the Iran War and energy shock. India is the world’s third largest importer of crude oil. 

“We are not complaining,” Jain said. “Country first.”