Thanks to GST, a dim Diwali for Dharavi's small-scale biz

In Asia's largest slum and the home to countless small factories, units that were previously busy, especially in festival times, are now silent

With Diwali around the corner, shops should be buzzing with customers and factories, small and big, should be humming with activity to produce goods. But the mood in the markets is sombre — this becomes clear in one of Mumbai’s busiest small-scale production centres.

Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum and home to countless small factories, has gone quiet. The sewing machines have stopped humming and units that were previously busy, especially in festival times, are now silent.

Akbar Ali Abdullah, 48, who runs a garment production unit, explains why. At his rickety workshop at the corner of a narrow passage, the bespectacled Abdullah,