Well known American daily Wall Street Journal has published an article on Ahmedabad’s informal/underground economy. In simple words hawkers, Laariwalas in Ahmedabad’s Bhadra and Manek Chawk areas are players of informal/underground economy.

Wall Street Journal says “In many American or European cities where major industries died, like Buffalo, N.Y., urban centers fell into decay because there was nothing left to replace them. But Ahmedabad remains a thriving city. Most of the laid-off employees were able to find work in street vending, rickshaw driving, day-wage construction or other informal jobs.”

Quoting Martha Chen, a lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government who has studied the city WSJ article says “Despite the long demise of its signature industry, Ahmedabad today “is vibrant, it has life,” Based on Ahmedabad’s experience, “I think we should see the informal economy as the solution” to urban decay and unemployment, she says, “not the problem.”

-For full article CLICK HERE

-For slide Show on informal economy world wide including Ahmedabad’s CLICK HERE