Quick to grow, slow to change

By admin February 11, 2013 10:07 am IST

Growth is throwing up some new, unusual challenges for logistics in India as well as highlighting familiar problems. New challenges include a sharp increase in sales going to rural areas, and OEMs making commitments to many after-sales service points. The continuing problems include poor infrastructure, weak central government, local corruption and inadequate multimodal logistics.
Amid recent uncertainty about economic growth there remains confidence that, despite not being able to accurately forecast it, India is still on its way to 5 million annual car sales within a handful of years. That compares with an expected 2.6 million for 2012, and will move the country up to being the world’s third-biggest car market, after China and the US.
Overall, India is “nearing an inflection point” at which its economic growth will increase rapidly, says consultancy Roland Berger. Having started its economic liberalisation about 15 years after China, the next 15 years will see “dramatic” reductions in poverty and put India on course to be the world’s third largest economy in terms of purchasing power by 2020.
These were the key takeaways from the 6th-annual Automotive Logistics India conference, held in Pune. The event was characterised by a new level of openness and debate among the 300 delegates, and a genuine wish to move on from recitals of familiar problems to engaging together to solve them.