Harvard students to study Dharavi

Slums of Dharavi have now become the subject of a Harvard Business School case study, which examines the efforts and risks involved in redeveloping the shanty town into an urban locality.

The 25-page case study titled 'Dharavi: Developing Asia's Largest Slum', details the history of Dharavi and examines ongoing efforts to forge a public-private partnership between the state government and for-profit developers to transform the slum into a neighbourhood with residences, improved services and economic opportunities.

The study by HBS assistant professor Lakshmi Iyer, lecturer John Macomber and research associate at the HBS India Research Center Namrata Arora, considers the potential risks and rewards of approaching an area like Dharavi with a new model - "slums as lucrative and socially entrepreneurial business opportunities". It examines concerns like cost of construction, cost of capital, revenues from sale of units as well as political risks, foreign exchange risk, market risk and execution risk.

The case has elicited a broad range of responses from students of HBS' Managing International Trade and Investment course.