The widespread pandemic which hit most countries across the world has sent most business establishments into a downward spiral during the initial days. Most industries were standing at a never-ending tunnel and there was no light visible at the other end staring at lost opportunities, but some however, did not get ramified by what was happening around them due to the pandemic, they look at the opportunities that were present. To capitalize on this opportunity, one had to wear the thinking cap of creativity and look around. This creative thinking cap enabled some of the business enterprises to suddenly feel as if they were like Alice in wonderland because there were innumerable opportunities flying all around them, one such opportunity was to re-design the supply chain & logistical bandwagon.
The Covid pandemic has completely over-turned the way people perceived or looked at their supply
chains or logistical functions pre-pandemic because they have come to realize that even during pandemic like situations, supply chains and logistical functions will co-exist, the reason is very simple, to get products moving, be it essential commodities or medical supply, the end customers will need the help of supply chain and logistics to make this happen. Local supply chains and logistical functions played a key role during the Covid pandemic to ensure that there were not much disruptions in either the essential commodities or medical supply, we even saw that eCommerce companies successfully carried out their yearly sales by evolving to change their robust supply chain networks to work around the limitations that they faced and also planned a way around to implement a well-planned logistical system that took care of customer satisfaction.
Here are some of the significant developments that transcribed in the supply chain and logistical arena during the pandemic situation especially in India. PM Modi chairs a high-level meeting to ensure multimodal connectivity to economic zones Prime Minister Narendra Modi during pandemic has been pushing his agenda of “Make local vocal” and his pet project to empower Indian SME’s & MSME’s to start producing locally made products and encouraging Indian citizens to strictly use “make in India” products recently conducted a virtual cabinet meeting with Union Ministers including Nitin Gadkari (transport), Piyush Goyal (trade and railway), Nirmala Sitharaman (finance) and Hardeep Singh Puri (aviation). The agenda of this high-level ministerial meeting was to review the master plan preparations in order to improve multimodal connectivity to various industrial hubs and economic zones.
The Indian government has taken a large number of steps to reduce logistics cost in the country in order to fuel growth. These include making a robust network of inland waterways and streamlining coastal transport system to transport cargo in a cost-effective manner along with strengthening other modes of transport by with better infrastructure and digitization. “This is an important endeavour, that will boost productivity, infrastructure, economic progress and opportunities for our youngsters” Prmie Minister Narendra Modi India, Japan and Australia – The Trio nations came together to launch a supply chain initiative to take on China. The trade ministers of India, Japan and Australia said that they plan to launch an initiative to build a resilient supply chain in the Indo-Pacific region later this year. These three nations are looking to work together to counter China’s dominance on trade, plus other nations in that region were also invited to be a part of this initiative.
The trio nations look forward to creating a free and transparent trade including digitalisation of trade procedures and investment environment like capital expenditure. Mr. Piyush Goyal Union Minister of Commerce and Industry in India mentioned “The initiative couldn’t have come at a more opportune time in the post-COVID scenario when there is a likelihood of rechurning of supply chains in the Indo-Pacific region and it’s incumbent on us to take the initiative”. Bengaluru International Airport inaugurates India’s first on-Airport Public Bonded Warehouse.This new development with a warehouse capacity of 10,000sqft makes Bengaluru airport asought-after cargo hub. Bengaluru has been the hub for many start-up’s in the past and iscalled the Silicon Valley of India when majority technological companies named this city astheir next destination out of home ground, in the same manner supply chain companies aremaking this metropolitan city as the supply chain and logistical hub. This new facility willplay a significant role in numerous ways. The first and foremost is it will be a launchpad toboost the economy which is in doldrums right now due to the pandemic situation, the nextwill be job creation in the region.
The warehouse will also serve as a good network point tomany supply chain companies and a gateway to connect to the different markets aroundthe world. As a bonded warehouse, this facility will act as a secured area in which dutiablegoods can be stored, or used for manufacturing operations, this will also assist in re-exportof goods quicker, long term storage of bonded cargo and will allow value-added servicessuch as packing and labelling “At BIAL, our vision is to make BLR Airport a cargo hub, equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure and cutting-edge technology to deliver efficient operations. In order to simplify processes and meet customer demands with the help of key stakeholders,including the Bengaluru Customs, BIAL has taken this step to set up India’s first on-campusPublic Bonded Warehouse. This demonstrates BIAL’s commitment to support the Airportcargo community, as well as bolster the growth of BLR Airport as a cargo hub.” Mr.Satyaki Raghunath, Chief Strategy & Development Officer, BIAL.
These are just a few projects that are rigorously taking place in India sets to prove one thing, India as a nation is gearing up to raise up its manufacturing standards, flex its muscles byoffering better infrastructure and investment opportunities to both domestic and foreigncompanies, apart from creating humongous opportunities to job seekers in the supply chainand logistical sector at all levels in the industry, it also opens doors to various otherindustries to mushroom alongside this growth that is scheduled to happen in the supplychain and logistical sectors. Understanding the magnitude of growth that is expected in thesupply chain, logistics, procurement, transport and warehouse sectors, we at Laurus Institute for logistics, always keep a close watch at these events shaping/ changing the paradigms of supply chain empower our associates with the latest know-how and train them accordingly to evolve and adopt to this changing environment.
