Logics of logistics.

With Indian economy galloping at 7-8% growth rate, the time has come for the government to realize the importance of logistics as a major contributor to the country’s growth dynamics, specially when the country is becoming a prime global destination. It is unfortunate though that till today there is no specific government policy to integrate the entire major infrastructural component link to the development of ‘Logistics’ as industry.

Logistics is wide and multidimensional in nature. It encapsulates chain of transportation communication which includes the roads, railways, airports and sea ports. For smooth flowing economy and greater vibrancy to business any country must have a firm and well oiled logistics systems in place for the most efficient and cost-effective movement of goods and services at both domestic and international level.

India with its evolving and fast forward economic policies must have upbeat policies to develop the logistics industry. Government’s policies have a direct impact on the business, even roadways, where fuel prices are controlled by the government. The reality speaks that the state of the basic infrastructure i.e., rail, road, waterway, coastal movement, port infrastructure is overloaded and expansion/investment has not been done as per the requirement.

Need of the hour is to gear up to meet the global challenges. Experts say there are some key value-added services that logistics providers in India need to address. Some of these issues include: end to end supply chain management, point to point global reach of service delivery, ability to customize services as per client’s need, and proactive status updates. In this scenario, experts believe that though all the modes of transportation need equal treatment, the airports and sea-ports require the maximum infrastructure development. The greatest challenge facing the transportation and logistic industry in India include the development of infrastructure, ability to attract and retain good talents, price sensitive market and the use of latest technology.

Another major aspect of logistics is the quality Supply Chain Management that needs to be addressed on priority basis. India lags behind as compared to the rest of the developed world. The primary factor is the fact that infrastructure is sorely lacking. However, this should also be viewed as an opportunity to provide a global standard SCM solution by a private entity.

India is now second hot destination for manufacturing hub, the onus lies on the government to appreciate the fact and come up with some extensive plan to develop the basic infrastructure, which may help the logistics companies to provide state-of-the-art services.