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'Manufacturing, infra push to boost logistics'
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SME Times News Bureau | 11 Jan, 2021
The logistics sector is at the cusp of the next phase of growth on the
back of the push for manufacturing and infrastructure development in the
country, market players feel.
With the country emerging out of
the pandemic, and technology taking a whole new meaning in this
post-Covid world, they feel, automation will be the next big thing in
logistics.
"Multinationals and global supply chains in the
reviving times are finding India an attractive location to establish
their manufacturing base which will certainly prove instrumental for our
economic growth and will have direct impact on the growth of logistics
industry," said Pawan Jain, Founder & Chairman, Safexpress.
He
added that government initiatives like 'Atmanirbhar Bharat', setting up
of logistics corridors, giving infrastructure status to the industry
among others are driving economic growth of the country.
"Resilient
and adaptive systems and proactive readiness for future, triggered
through technology and automation will be the key approach for 2021, an
outcome based on the learnings of 2020 after getting exposed to our
weaknesses and gaps during the pandemic," Jain said.
Lancy
Barboza, MD of Flomic Global Logistics noted that logistics and freight
forwarding segment saw a dip in business volumes during the month of
April 2020, mainly due to the pandemic spread out followed by the
nationwide lockdown, but once the restrictions on the movement of goods
were eased, it picked up steadily.
He was of the view that the
year 2020 has taught many lessons to entrepreneurs and business leaders
who would implement these lessons in their business strategy for 2021
and beyond.
"One learning will be to adopt digitalisation of
transactions. May it be banking transactions, foreign exchange
remittances, or even the internal working in the organisation which till
Covid was heavily paper-oriented. The paperless, faceless initiative
introduced by Indian Customs will be a game-changer in the coming days
in the faster and smoother clearance of import and export cargoes,"
Barboza said.
Ambrish Kumar, Founder of Zipaworld and Group CEO
of AAA 2 Innovate Private Ltd was of the view that 2021 is ought to see
more digital transformation to facilitate the new normal, be it small
and medium enterprises or large enterprises.
He also noted the
pivotal role likely to be played by the logistics sector in the
distribution and transportation of Covid-19 vaccines.
Noting
that several countries are banking on India in terms of supply of
vaccines, he said: "However, due to the supply chain challenges like
capacity crunch and shooting up of air freight prices coupled with the
container shortage scenario for ocean freight, India seems like losing
the opportunity and lagging in the competition."
In 2021,
according to Soham Chokshi, CEO and Co-founder at Shipsy, the major
themes which will dominate will be vaccine procurement and distribution
along with supply catching up with the demand as economic activities
come to full swing.
"We expect demand to keep building up till
the Q2 of this calendar year with rates normalcy kicking in towards the
end of summers. The record low interest rates globally would help
businesses, as also witnessed in rising commodity prices, it looks like
2021 will bring in strong positivity and economic growth," Choksi said.
Naman Vijay, CEO and Co-founder of ClickPost, emphasised impact of the e-commerce business on the logistics sector.
"E-commerce sector has seen unprecedented adoption of technology during
the pandemic and we see three major trends that will dominate logistics
in 2021. Firstly, online retailers will prefer working with multiple
courier partners to increase reach and reduce shipping costs," Vijay
said.
Secondly, the online shoppers will expect real-time
shipment tracking for their orders, and thirdly, e-commerce companies
will invest significantly in automating logistics processes to improve
long-term profitability, the ClickPost CEO said.
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