I don’t care where I travel anymore. London. Helsinki. Paris. Riyadh. Manila. Every time a delivery bike pulls up, the rider hops off, helmet off, smile on… Indian.
You order food anywhere on the planet today and there’s a high chance the final mile is powered by someone from Kerala, Punjab, or Uttar Pradesh.
And it’s not just food… walk into a Starbucks in Canada. Pret in London. McDonald’s in Dubai.
The front line of global service work has an unmistakable Indian accent. Not anecdotal. Not accidental. It’s a phenomenon.
Why India?
- A workforce that actually moves
- English-speaking by default
- A culture where service work is respectable and progressive
- Remittances as a national economic engine
- A population the size of a continent
India supplies the people. The world supplies the jobs.
Everyone claims “talent shortage”. India calls that “Monday”.
Let’s talk delivery.
Dubai is the world’s food delivery capital. Highest frequency. Biggest density. Obsession with comfort. Disposable income. Low labour cost.
Delivery Hero’s own charts say it loud:
- UAE customers order more than 10 times a month
- >€5bn GMV in MENA from talabat alone
- >85 percent cash conversion
- Category leadership in 8 MENA countries
This region runs on meals that arrive in under thirty minutes. And those meals are arriving on the backs of Indian riders.
Dubai built the perfect economic cocktail: First-world convenience Third-world cost base …and a logistics army from India.
The irony
Tech CEOs boast about efficiency. Investors boast about margins. Founders boast about exits.
But none of that happens without the rider who risks his life between two Land Cruisers on Sheikh Zayed Road so your shawarma stays warm.
One stat rarely gets mentioned: Delivery riders in the Gulf are mostly Indian men supporting 3 to 6 dependants back home.
Global convenience is subsidised by Indian resilience.
The flip side
- No equity upside
- Limited job mobility
- Visa-bound vulnerability
- Heat exposure that’s frankly inhumane
Meanwhile, platforms debate “unit economics”. Try debating that when it’s 47 degrees and you’re cycling for 14 dirhams.
If you ever want to understand the human side of globalisation, stop looking at IPO decks.
Look at the guy sweating in front of your building holding a paper bag.
A simple truth
Indians are not “dominating” the service jobs because the world wants them to.
They’re dominating because they showed up. Everywhere. Relentlessly.
Service work is not glamour. It’s dignity.
And they’ve turned it into a global career path long before the West figured out that “nobody wants to work anymore”.
Where this goes next
India becomes:
- The world’s service class
- The world’s call centre
- The world’s IT back office
- The world’s delivery fleet
- The world’s QSR workforce
A billion people are climbing the same ladder. Not everyone will make it. But the climb itself is reshaping the planet.
The future of work is already wearing a reflective vest.
Next time your food arrives, ask the rider one question.
“Where from in India?”
They’ll answer. Happily. Because they didn’t come here invisible. They came here for a life and your order helped build it.
Moey writes here. 
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