Indian logistic industry: current scenario and future outlook
Solutions to some of the challenges
Infrastructure is the backbone of every country’s growth and prosperity and for the logistics industry to flourish special emphasis has to be on building world-class road networks, integrated rail corridors, modern cargo facilities at airports and creation of logistics parks which need to be given a status equivalent to Special Economic Zones.
It is necessary to realize that the benefits which can bestly be practiced in logistics industry can be brought about by the companies by establishing training intuitions, so that there is improvement in the overall service quality of the sector. Good storage and Warehousing facilities are important for the growth of the logistics industry. With the increase in the transportation of perishable products, the logistics agencies needs to give a lot of importance to enhancing the Warehousing facilities.
Warehousing is required to go to the next level taking into account the changing dynamics of JIT manufacturing, global procurement and new models of sales and distribution. Emphasis on research and development is potent mainly because it encourages the use of indigenous technology which can make the industry cost competitive and can also bring about improvement in services thereby using better, effective and efficient services. Particular focus has to be on research in process excellence which can help to eliminate inefficiencies and bring Indian logistics on par with global practices.
Future prospects
The logistics firms are moving from a traditional setup to the integration of IT and technology to their operations to reduce the costs incurred as well as to meet the service demands. The growth of the Indian logistics sector depends upon its soft infrastructure like education, training and policy framework as much as the hard infrastructure.
To support India’s fast paced economy growth of logistics industry is very essential. It is estimated that the Indian logistics industry will continue to show robust growth of 10-15% annually, leading the pace of growth of the economy at large.
The global economic outlook, indeed that of India is expected to significantly improve as India Inc begins to tackle the economic downturn. With a new government many policies are expected to be implemented which will give a fresh impetus to India’s growth engine particularly in the corporate and SME sector which in turn will expand demand for the logistics sector.
With the implementation of GST, the logistics companies, which are currently forced to set up many small warehouses across multiple cities can set up just a few, big warehouses region wise and can follow the hub-and-spoke model for freight movement from the warehouses to the different manufacturing plants, wholesale outlets, retail outlets and the various POS. This growth is backed by the boom in the e-commerce sector and expansionary policies of the FMCG firms.
This has increased the service geography of the logistics firms but they also have to meet the demands of quick delivery and tight service level agreements. The industry has moved from being just a service provider to the position which provides end to end supply chain solutions to their customers. Thus, all this has paved the way for further growth of Logistics and Warehousing industry in the coming years.
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