Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is one of the most populated cities of the world. It is India’s financial center, fashion center, and film center, although it is not the capital.
 
Mumbai (Bombay) has been called the “New York of India” since at least 1900. The November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai highlighted the city’s international exposure, and the nickname “New York of India” was often used.
 
 
Wikipedia: Mumbai
Mumbai, formerly Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the financial capital of India. With an estimated population of thirteen million, it is one of the most populated cities in the world. Along with the neighbouring suburbs of Navi Mumbai and Thane, it forms, at nineteen million, the world’s fifth most populous metropolitan area. Mumbai lies on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbour. Mumbai’s port handles over half of India’s maritime cargo.
 
Mumbai is the commercial and entertainment centre of India, generating 5% of India’s GDP and accounting for 25% of industrial output, 40% of maritime trade, and 70% of capital transactions to India’s economy. Mumbai is one of the world’s top ten centres of commerce by global financial flow, home to important financial institutions such as the Reserve Bank of India, the Bombay Stock Exchange, the National Stock Exchange of India and the corporate headquarters of many Indian companies and numerous multinational corporations. The city also houses India’s hindi film and television industry, known as Bollywood. Mumbai’s business opportunities, as well as its high standard of living, attract migrants from all over India and, in turn, make the city a potpourri of many communities and cultures.
 
Google Books
Light in the East:
India
Malaysia
The Phillipines
By Bishop J. M. Thoburn and Bishop F. W. Warne
Chicago, IL: Missionary Campaign Library
1900
Pg. 115:
The latest enterprise of the kind is found in Bombay — the New York of India.
   
1 March 1914, Washington (DC) Post, magazine section, pg. 2, col. 2:
From Bombay, the New York of India and the “melting pot” of the races, to Udaipur, where the Maharana’s aversion to anything European has prevented even the touch of Western modernity, no contrast could be greater.
 
24 September 1922, The Oregonian (Portland, OR), “Hindu Savant to Speak; Professor Joshi Will Discuss Islamism as World Factor,” pg. 16:
“The Indian Christian converts from Hinduism, who are called upon to make grea sacrifices in accepting Christ, particularly in the city of Bombay, the New York of India, are in an utterly hopeless position for want of the sinews of war to carry on aggressive Christian warfare among their non-Christian countrymen.”
           
Google Books
The Orient Steps Out:
Teacher’s Manual ; Prepared in Cooperation with the International Association of Daily Vacation Bible Schools
By Mary Jenness, International Association of Daily Vacation Bible Schools
Published by Abingdon
1931
Pg. 29:
...people surge to and fro in every kind of costume worn anywhere in the country, for Bombay is the New York of India
 
2 August 1937, Clearfield (PA) Progress, “Stories in Stamps,” pg. 5, col. 4:
New York Of India
CITY of great size, countless races, innumerable tongues, Bombay is in many respects the New York of India. Known as the Gateway to India, Bombay, like New York, is the principal coastal city and is, moreover, built upon a small island, shaped much like Manhattan. It has nearly 1,000,000 inhabitants.
     
Google Books
The monetary and fiscal policy of India
By Kollenparampil C. Chacko
Published by Vora
1957
Pg. 6:
The existence in Bombay of the main office of the Reserve Bank of India, the head offices of many of the leading commercial banks, the most active stock exchange in the country, a well-established government security market, the bullion exchange, the cotton exchange — all these have made Bombay the New York of India, and it has become the most important financial centre of the nation. 
 
Harvard Crimson
HBS Plans New Center in India
Published On Tuesday, April 06, 2004 12:00 AM
By JOSEPH T. SCARRY
Crimson Staff Writer
Within the next year, Harvard Business School (HBS) may open its sixth overseas research center—this one in India.
(...)
“Mumbai is the New York of India, and Bangalore is the Silicon Valley,” Vietor said.
   
amunix (Livejournal)
Amarendra Godbole (amunix) wrote,
@ 2005-04-05 11:52:00
New York of India.
Mumbai is the New York Of India.
     
7 April 2005, Anniston (AL) Star:
Bollywood is located near Mumbai (formerly Bombay), which many Indians affectionately call the New York City of India.
       
New York (NY) Daily News
THOROUGH-FARE. Indian street food makes inroads in New York City
BY ROSEMARY BLACK
Sunday, April 24th 2005, 1:82AM
Last week at Bombay Talkie, a four-month-old Indian restaurant in Chelsea, Rina Sander and three of her friends were seated in comfortable chairs, but they were eating street food: rice and lentil flour crepes, crispy fish and egg-washed flatbread stuffed with chicken and served with chutney.
(...)
“Our food is very Bombay-specific,” Phul says. “Bombay, which is on the west coast, is the New York of India.”
     
Buzzle.com
Mumbai Real Estate – Some Useful Insights
By Daniel Marshel
Published: 7/16/2008
(...)
Commonly referred to as ‘New York of India’, Mumbai offers a chance to all classes to invest in its property market
   
...Globetrotting
Sunday, August 3, 2008
the new york of india
(...)
Anyway . . . ever since reading Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (a book I finished at the beginning of my internship—I highly recommend it, it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read), I’ve wanted to visit Bombay, or Mumbai। It’s a city with a culture all its own . . . with a population of 13 million (21 million if you count the suburbs), it’s the second largest city in the world after Shanghai.
 
One of my friends from Bombay, when I asked him what I should do when I was there, told me that Bombay wasn’t about places or events or touristy sightseeing—that it was about the feel of the city. I didn’t understand until I got there and discovered the reality of Mumbai: a truly international city, and completely different than anything I’ve experienced in India thus far. It’s a city that draws you in, that makes you want to be a part of its thriving, vibrant community. It’s attractive to both natives and foreigners alike—this is the first time this summer where I felt like I could blend in and that I belonged. There were tourists and travelers everywhere, from every country and every possible walk of life, all exploring and wondering and drinking it n: the crazy melting pot that is Bombay.
 
Bombay is—I have no more refined way to say it—cool. It really is the New York of India in many ways, and it’s more than just the fact that they are both major tourist destinations. In India, Bombay is viewed as the must-see city. “You’ve got to go to Bombay,” people say. People from Bombay have a sort of automatic popularity/respect, just like people from New York. They talk differently: the Hindi in Bombay has a sort of swagger to it. Even the little I could understand was noticeable.
   
Blommberg.com
Indian Forces Try to Free Hostages at Mumbai Hotels (Update2)
By Subramaniam Sharma and Chitra Somayaji
Nov. 27 (Bloomberg)—Indian commandos battled to free hostages held by gunmen at two luxury hotels in Mumbai, after terrorist shootings and blasts across the city killed 101 people and left 287 injured.
 
Militants armed with grenades and rifles stormed into the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel and the Oberoi Trident complex at about 10 p.m. local time yesterday, saying they were targeting Americans and Britons, according to witnesses.
 
“The terrorists are still hiding,” said Mumbai Police Sub-Inspector S.D. Tarwadkar as security forces swept through the hotels. The officer said he didn’t have details of the number of hostages or their nationalities.
 
Targeting foreign nationals at key tourist hotels and restaurants adds a new dimension to a wave of bombings in India this year that has killed more than 300 people. Multiple attacks have rocked India’s cities with bombs planted in markets, theaters and near mosques.
 
“Mumbai is the New York of India and this is a clear attack on Westerners,” said Clive Williams, a terrorism specialist at the Australian National University. “The targeting of British and Americans means there is a new modus operandi.”