case study on logistics in india

This site uses cookies to improve your experience. By viewing our content, you are accepting the use of cookies. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country we will assume you are from the United States. View our privacy policy and terms of use.

• Inventory Management Software
• Forecasting
• Sustainability
• Supply Chain Visibility

Report Indicates Apple India iPhone Output is Now $7 Billion

Supply Chain Matters

APRIL 13, 2023

Our commentary reiterated that over the last three years there were reports indicating that Apple was instructing its contract manufacturers to begin evaluating and seeking out new hardware sourcing outside of China , specifically India and Vietnam , with the former garnering the most attention. All rights reserved.

Case Study: People and Processes Drive Supply Chain Improvements at Honeywell

MAY 8, 2019

While there have been significant advancements in logistics technology, those tools can only go so far in advancing your supply chain. One of our North American plants wasn’t meeting performance numbers, and logistics costs were increasing because shipments didn’t have sufficient lead time.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

• Logistics Viewpoints

Supply Chain Shaman

Talking Logistics

The Logistics of Logistics

• The Network Effect
• SCM Research
• Enterra Insights

Restructuring Global Value Chains & Tariff Reduction – A Continuous Evolution for Supply Chains

The Logistics & Supply Chain Management Society

AUGUST 19, 2022

Feature Article by Dr. Raymon Krishnan – President at the Logistics and Supply Chain Management Society. Southeast Asian countries, Taiwan and India have become alternative manufacturing locales or sources of supply. Raymon Krishnan has over thirty years experience in the Logistics industry as an end user and service provider.

Tata Steel Drives Supply Chain Transformation with Optimization Technology

JANUARY 24, 2019

The company was established in India as Asia’s first integrated private steel company in 1907. We are using several AIMMS-based models to improve our operational efficiency, with a focus in India . Tata Steel uses a lot of advanced software to tackle business requirements, but spreadsheets are still the preferred choice in most cases .

Retailers, Customer Delight is Tied to Exceptional Delivery Experiences

FEBRUARY 3, 2023

According to our research, India ’s e-commerce revenue will reach $113.5 However, India is not the only country contributing to the growth of e-commerce across the world.Southeast Asia has over 222 million users in 2020 and has a growth potential of 411 million by 2025. Download the Case Study 3.

Supply Chain Spotlight on Mexico: Takeaways from Logistic Summit & Expo 2015

APRIL 6, 2015

A clear sign that Mexico is currently in the supply chain spotlight was last month’s Logistic Summit & Expo 2015 in Mexico City, which attracted over 10,000 attendees and almost 200 exhibitors, including leading 3PLs, software vendors, and other supply chain and logistics companies from both the United States and Mexico.

Beyond Asset Tracking: RFID For An Accelerated Supply Chain

DECEMBER 2, 2013

Today’s supply chain and logistics management executives are tasked with managing multiple supply chain configurations, maximizing flexibility and incorporating complex technology systems into the mix. A long line of case study success. Case study examples to support these statistics aren’t hard to come by either.

Supply Chain Planning in Emerging Markets: Four Points to Remember

MARCH 5, 2019

Gartner analyst Debashis Tarafdar says that the large size of a country (like India , China or Indonesia) can mean “significant polarization of population between urban and rural with distinctly different buying capabilities and purchasing preferences. The challenges can be multi-faceted: High logistical costs. Transfer taxes.

Supply Chain Management in Apparel Industry

APRIL 27, 2022

And numerous case studies of businesses show that by investing in better supply chain management , the prospect of business growth improves significantly. This is a huge step that requires the extensive support of groundbreaking logistics that helps distribute the clothing to appropriate locations across the country or countries.

The Localized Supply Chain

APRIL 26, 2018

And as markets become increasingly global, brands have to consider the logistics of selling their products around the world. When the phone’s release in India was announced in 2015, more than 100,000 people placed pre-orders. Case Study . Chinese smartphone startup Xiaomi captured the Indian market by doing just this.

Supply Chain Management:Challenges Faced By E-Retailers in India

Infosys Supply Chain Management

MARCH 30, 2012

Logistics and Distribution. Case Studies . |. Main | Increase in Operational Efficiency through Voice Technology » Challenges Faced By E-Retailers in India . In my previous blog , I highlighted the factors which helped e-commerce retailing develop in India . Communication Services. Consumer Packaged Goods.

How GST (Goods and Services Tax) Has Affected Logistics in India!

Supply Chain Game Changer

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

Right after demonetization, another big thing that came to India was the implementation of GST (Goods and Services Tax). Over time it was understood that this was much needed and it actually helped in organizing and setting up different logistics and transport sectors to speed up their overall processes. Growth and Evolution.

Keeping Inventory Cool: Challenges of Temperature Control

MAY 8, 2016

This requires companies to closely monitor another dataset beyond average supply chain logistics management information. Packaging Digest reported the global health care cold chain logistics market is projected to increase by $3-billion between 2014 and 2018. As markets emerge in India , China and South America, U.S.

Reflections: Building the Network of Networks

OCTOBER 17, 2018

The most advanced work is in India and Japan. Collaborative Logistics . Logistics costs increased greatly in 2018; yet, 40% of trucks are empty. In the case study below, a major manufacturer worked for six months to try to validate over 24,000 suppliers. Why Is It Important? Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Garment Workers in BRICS Countries Cannot Afford Basic Quality of Life

Material Handling & Logistics

SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

Using the Western European clothing supply chain as a case study , the researchers wanted to test a standard as to the ‘fairness’ of that sector’s global supply chains. They analyzed garment industry wages in 2005 in the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China.

MAY 8, 2020

Making 'Cash on Delivery' attractive to E-Retailers - Infosys Blogs

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

Logistics and Distribution. Case Studies . |. It is still early days in India for the Online Retailing industry. Companies like Square Inc (USA), Ezetap ( India ) offer a simple credit/ debit card reader which can connect to a mobile phone/ device and enables the phone to read debit/credit card. Financial Services.

Ethics in Procurement – Simple, but Not Always Easy

Logistics Bureau

NOVEMBER 14, 2018

As bribery is one of the more common forms of unethical or even fraudulent procurement practices, it is worth examining a case study to understand how it typically takes place, but more importantly, how the consequences of what to some may simply be seen as ‘greasing the wheels of business’ are increasing in seriousness. This is true.

Online Grocery Retailing that too in.India - Infosys Blogs

APRIL 30, 2012

Logistics and Distribution. Case Studies . |. But do we purchase grocery online (excluding the perishables) in India . At present buying grocery online in India is not an attractive option, as compared to other categories. Among the top 20 e-retailers in India grocery is sold by just 28%. Financial Services.

Supply Chain Management:The 'Cash on Delivery' Payment Option!

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

Logistics and Distribution. Case Studies . |. Cash on Delivery (COD) as a payment option has existed for a long time, but is fast becoming a popular payment option in some countries such as India . cash on delivery persist, I am not sure if online retailers in India have a choice in the immediate future. Healthcare.

Supply Chain Management:Infosys team at Pulse 2012 - Day 0

MARCH 4, 2012

Logistics and Distribution. Case Studies . |. Had an uneventful journey from India - was long though. Have never spent that much time in air to travel to West coast from India . Communication Services. Consumer Packaged Goods. Financial Services. Healthcare. Hospitality and Leisure. Industrial Manufacturing.

Supply Chain Management:Increase in Operational Efficiency.

APRIL 2, 2012

Logistics and Distribution. Case Studies . |. « Challenges Faced By E-Retailers in India | Main | Best practices for defining Asset Register » Increase in Operational Efficiency through Voice Technology. Improvements in the order picking accuracy are dramatic and in cases an accuracy of 99.9% Healthcare.

Supply Chain Management:SAP acquired Ariba, what does it mean.

MAY 25, 2012

Logistics and Distribution. Case Studies . |. When a colleague forwarded the news of SAP (finally) buying Ariba past midnight India time on Wednesday ( [link] ), my first response was roughly on the lines of "better late to the dance than allow Oracle to steal your partner". Communication Services. Consumer Packaged Goods.

Supply Chain Management:How to make Preventive Maintenance a.

MAY 18, 2012

Logistics and Distribution. Case Studies . |. I started my career as a maintenance engineer in a leading paint manufacturing company in India . Communication Services. Consumer Packaged Goods. Financial Services. Healthcare. Hospitality and Leisure. Industrial Manufacturing. Media and Entertainment. Medical Devices.

Supply Chain Management:Make your Assets Green, as Dollar is.

FEBRUARY 10, 2012

Logistics and Distribution. Case Studies . |. « A New Lens for Supply Chain Roadmaps | Main | Factors which helped e-commerce retailing develop in India » Make your Assets Green, as Dollar is Green. Communication Services. Consumer Packaged Goods. Financial Services. Healthcare. Hospitality and Leisure.

Walmart Says It Can Reduce Emissions in China by 50 Million Tons

APRIL 3, 2018

Over 400 suppliers in China, India , the U.S. To help provide resources to suppliers in China, Walmart has created a digital resource center in Mandarin and English with tools, case studies , and program resources on emissions reduction in the value chain: www.walmartsustainabilityhub.com.

Supply Chain Management:Get,Set,Go-Agile Implementation of.

FEBRUARY 14, 2012

Logistics and Distribution. Case Studies . |. « Factors which helped e-commerce retailing develop in India | Main | Mobile Gift Cards » Get,Set,Go-Agile Implementation of Multi Channel Commerce Solution. Communication Services. Consumer Packaged Goods. Financial Services. Healthcare. Hospitality and Leisure.

How COVID-19 is Battering Australia’s Imports and Exports

MARCH 9, 2020

Aware of the dangers of being over-reliant on a single trading partner, Australia had, even before the outbreak of the virus, started trying to diversify its markets by launching negotiations for free trade agreements with countries such as Indonesia, India , Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.

Supply Chain Management:Factors which helped e-commerce.

Logistics and Distribution. Case Studies . |. « Make your Assets Green, as Dollar is Green | Main | Get,Set,Go-Agile Implementation of Multi Channel Commerce Solution » Factors which helped e-commerce retailing develop in India . Ecommerce is really picking up in India . Communication Services. Healthcare.

Every Shipment Matters With Jim Waters

MAY 19, 2022

We help shippers, carriers, 3PLs, and logistics service providers actively track their shipments so that they arrive on time and in full because it’s all about getting all your stuff on time, not busted up, late, and lost. I’ve worked at a third-party logistics company. We did a case study with GEODIS.

The History and State of Vehicle Routing!

MARCH 30, 2021

On top of that there are more innumerable logistics companies (local, national and international), carriers, couriers, private trucking fleets, contract trucking fleets, and more all available to move these goods.

Unilever Gains Visibility & Control Over the Most Unpredictable Spend Category

JULY 7, 2020

Unilever has research and development facilities in China, India , the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States and does 57 percent of its business in emerging markets. In the transportation and logistics category there are infinite variables and unpredictable circumstances. Download the case study in PDF here now.

Supply Chain Management:Preventing Failed Deliveries.

Logistics and Distribution. Case Studies . |. « Bricks and Clicks - The New Business Model and Supply Chain Capability for Retail Industry | Main | Challenges Faced By E-Retailers in India » Preventing Failed Deliveries. Communication Services. Consumer Packaged Goods. Financial Services. Healthcare.

Stay Connected

Join 136,000+ Insiders by signing up for our newsletter

• Participate in Supply Chain Brief
• How to achieve six-figure benefits from digitizing paper-based supply chain operation
• 2019 Supply Chain Brief Summer Reading List
• Stay At Home Reading List
• Add a Source
• Add a Resource
• 2018 Supply Chain Brief MVP Awards
• 2019 Supply Chain Brief MVP Awards
• 2020 Supply Chain Brief MVP Awards
• 2021 Supply Chain Brief MVP Awards
• 2022 Supply Chain Brief MVP Awards
• Thu. Apr 25
• Wed. Apr 24
• Tue. Apr 23
• Mon. Apr 22
• Apr 13 - Apr 19
• Warehousing
• Procurement
• Transportation
• Supply Chain
• More Topics 

Input your email to sign up, or if you already have an account, log in here!

Enter your email address to reset your password. a temporary password will be e‑mailed to you., be in the know on.

Supply Chain Brief

Expert insights. Personalized for you.

We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 136,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.

Get the good stuff

Subscribe to the following Supply Chain Brief newsletters:

You must accept the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions to proceed.

You know about us, now we want to get to know you!

Check your mail, we've sent an email to . please verify that you have received the email..

We have resent the email to

Let's personalize your content

Use social media to find articles.

We can use your profile and the content you share to understand your interests and provide content that is just for you.

Turn this off at any time. Your social media activity always remains private.

Let's get even more personalized

Choose topics that interest you., so, what do you do.

Are you sure you want to cancel your subscriptions?

Cancel my subscriptions

Don't cancel my subscriptions

Changing Country?

Accept terms & conditions.

It looks like you are changing your country/region of residence. In order to receive our emails, you must expressly agree. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails.

You appear to have previously removed your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions.

We noticed that you changed your country/region of residence; congratulations! In order to make this change, you must accept the Aggregage Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. Once you've accepted, then you will be able to choose which emails to receive from each site .

You must choose one option

Please choose which emails to receive from each site .

• Update All Sites
• Update Each Site

Please verify your previous choices for all sites

Sites have been updated - click Submit All Changes below to save your changes.

We recognize your account from another site in our network , please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.

You must accept the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions to proceed.

This is not me

Case study: How EY optimized the supply chain of a leading Indian MNC

EY helped a leading FMCG company optimize vendor costs, eliminate redundancies, and create a common sales and operations platform.

• Link copied

Ashish Nanda

EY India Business Consulting Leader

The better the question

How can we unlock synergies from two businesses post acquisition?

After acquiring several iconic brands, a leading FMCG company needed to capitalize on the synergistic benefits of the opportunity.

I n 2018, one of India’s leading FMCG companies acquired a consumer business which housed several reputed brands. After the acquisition, the immediate priority for the company was to identify and tap into synergistic opportunities of the acquisition. Supply chain and procurement was one of the primary focus areas for cost, operation and capacity optimization. Both sets of businesses had many overlaps across the supply chain, including suppliers, locations, and raw materials. The company had to quickly identify all existing overlaps and eliminate redundancies.

The better the answer

We optimized the supply chain of the complete brand portfolio

The optimization covered three critical areas ꟷ procurement synergies, logistics and network optimization, and sales and operations planning.

As the company wanted to ensure that it leveraged the benefits of synergies from the acquired entities, it employed EY to optimize the complete supply chain. The core areas of  supply chain optimization  included:

• Realizing procurement synergies and optimizing vendor costs.
• Lowering of warehouse and freight costs by identifying logistics overlaps.
• Integration of sales and operations planning across the complete brand portfolio. 

EY led three critical areas of supply-chain optimization: procurement synergies, logistics and network optimization, and sales and operations planning.

Procurement levers to extract synergistic value

To realize value from various synergistic opportunities in packaging, EY investigated several cost levers and their potential impact. The team deep dived into cost sheets and identified saving opportunities for major packaging material through index-linked buying. In addition, EY also consolidated vendor bases and leveraged scale across key categories for negotiation, besides leveraging different price floors which the two organizations had.

EY also conducted market assessments and index identification for synergistic raw material categories and alternate vendor and price discovery for high priority categories. It also developed a scientific price forecasting model for better indicative price visibility.

End-to-end network optimization from analysis to implementation

EY conducted an end-to-end investigation to identify network cost optimization opportunities. It included, sales gravity analyses, cost and service lever optimization runs, and network footprint implementation. The team also conducted center of gravity analysis for CFAs and hubs and determining cost baseline values and identified a list of several CFA locations and determined their associated cost savings.

The value drivers of the network optimization exercise included warehouse and freight lanes consolidation, price discovery and alternate vendor identification, and primary freight management. EY also piloted the 3PL logistics model in key regions.

Building a common sales and operations planning strategy

Since the two entities had different sales and operations planning approaches, the company needed a common governance model and tech-enabled process to establish visibility and control across the integrated entity’s complete value chain. EY’s intervention was targeted at bringing three crucial components of the sales and operations planning processꟷ demand planning, replenishment planning, and sales and operations planning meetings. These included overhaul to the company’s forecasting processes and reporting mechanisms, improving responsiveness of the entity’s replenishment planning approach, and establishing a formalized decision-making process.

Related article

The better the world works

An efficient supply chain led to lower costs and better value

The company realized lower supply chain costs, more operational efficiency, and better decision-making across the complete brand portfolio.

EY’s approach was premised on several value drivers spread across different cost or value measures across all three optimization categoriesꟷ procurement synergies, network and logistics, and sales and operations planning. It involved investigation of different pricing models, alternate vendor discovery, and rightsizing different logistics costs. As a consequence of the supply chain optimization , the company identified and started implementing synergies across the target areas.

Cost and value improvements which EY’s delivered for an Indian FMCG company

• Procurement synergies

Identified procurement synergies of

across key packaging material categories

• Network and logistics

Optimized network and logistics cost reduction helped in identifying opportunities of

in logistics spend

• Sales and operations planning

inventory reduction potential

(Contributors include Nishit Bhatia, Shreyan Sarkar, Abhijeet Vaidya, Amit Kumar, Shivagurunathan Narayan, Chirag Goel.)

Related case studies

Connect with us

Our locations

Legal and privacy

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients.

EY | Assurance | Consulting | Strategy and Transactions | Tax

EY is a global leader in assurance, consulting, strategy and transactions, and tax services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

© 2020 EYGM Limited. All Rights Reserved.

EYG/OC/FEA no.

This material has been prepared for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be relied upon as accounting, tax, or other professional advice. Please refer to your advisors for specific advice.

Learn more about our supply chain solutions

Send us your queries.

Welcome to EY.com

In addition to cookies that are strictly necessary to operate this website, we use the following types of cookies to improve your experience and our services: Functional cookies to enhance your experience (e.g. remember settings), and  Performance cookies to measure the website's performance and improve your experience . , and Marketing/Targeting cookies , which are set by third parties with whom we execute marketing campaigns and allow us to provide you with content relevant to you.

We have detected that Do Not Track/Global Privacy Control is enabled in your browser; as a result, Marketing/Targeting cookies , which are set by third parties with whom we execute marketing campaigns and allow us to provide you with content relevant to you, are automatically disabled.

You may withdraw your consent to cookies at any time once you have entered the website through a link in the privacy policy, which you can find at the bottom of each page on the website.

Review our  cookie policy  for more information.

Customize cookies

I decline optional cookies

Category: Case Studies

Global Air Cargo Tonnages Show Resilience Despite a 5% Y-o-Y contraction in 2023

In a comprehensive analysis of air cargo trends, WorldACD Market Data reports a 5% year-on-year […]

Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) Report 2023 Unveiled: A Comprehensive Overview

On 16th December, the Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal, released the much-awaited […]

CAPA Report Highlights Indian Carriers’ Supply Chain and Engine Challenges

In a stark revelation made by aviation consultancy CAPA India, also known as Center for […]

E-Commerce Surge Propels Global Air Cargo, but Sustainability Concerns Loom

In November, a surge in e-commerce activities from Hong Kong and China drove a remarkable […]

Xeneta Shipping Index (XSI) Records Sharp 62.3% Decline in October

The Xeneta Shipping Index (XSI) experienced a significant drop of 4.7% in October, plummeting to […]

The Vizhinjam Saga: Is the Seaport in Tough Waters?

Remember when a grand ceremony was organized at the Vizhinjam International Seaport, located in Thiruvananthapuram […]

From Fragile to Resilient: Unveiling the Secrets of Damage-Free Shipping

A Dutch bike company, VanMoof, faced a significant problem: a whopping 25% of their bikes […]

IATA reveals first air cargo demand growth in 19 years, but hints at being heedful

In what can be considered much-awaited good news, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) data […]

Container xChange releases report on Russia-China trade dynamics in a post-war era

As Russia grapples with the Western sanctions one year after the invasion of Ukraine, China […]

India’s Exports to EU at risk under the latter’s Green Initiatives

India’s exports to the European Union (EU), valued at USD 37 billion, face significant challenges […]

As the trade deficit widens, does India need a reality check on FTAs?

In the last decade, India has been bullish on signing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and […]

Warehouse Construction Recovery Expected for 2024

Updated research by Interact Analysis – the market intelligence authority for global supply chain automation […]

First-ever knowledge report on the Indian Part Truck Load sector released amidst an august gathering

India’s trucking industry is a complicated one – segmented by destination, freight load, as well […]

ICRIER Report suggests gender mainstreaming at ports for trade facilitation

In an effort to facilitate female participation in international trade, the Indian Council for Research […]

Delhivery using mesh network to ace at various KPIs – Kotak Report

A recent report by Kotak Institutional Equities said that Delhivery Ltd.’s mesh network sets it […]

Big growth on the cards for India’s logistics sector, but challenges persist: GS1 Report

In 1996, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, along with industry bodies like CII, FICCI, […]

IBS Software’s Vision for Seamless Connectivity and Collaboration in the Air Cargo...

Changi Airport’s Air Cargo Operations See Remarkable Rebound

Industry Experts Weigh in On the Impact of Geopolitical Disturbances on SMEs

EU Parliament Approves Measure to Tackle Corporate Abuses in Supply Chains

APSEZ’s Vizhinjam Bags MoPSW’s Approval to Operate as a Transshipment Hub

India’s Pharma Exports Surge to USD 27.9 Billion in 2023-24 Despite Overall...

Essential Goods Stranded: Manipur Bridge Blast Leaves 150 Trucks Stuck

U is for USPS and V is for Victory – UPS to...

Conflict in Red Sea Sparks Surge in Ocean Freight Carbon Emissions: Xeneta

House of Shipping Announces Key Leadership Appointments

Why Complete Digitalization of Air Cargo Remains a Distant Dream

Trial Run of Cargo Handling Operations Set to Begin at Vizhinjam International...

Indian Government’s Ambitious Plan: Capturing 10% of $405 Billion Agri-Exports Market

Inter-Ministerial Committee Reviews Coal Transport Fares to Enhance Coal Evacuation via Coastal...

Emirates SkyCargo Announces Backlog Clearance as DXB Gets Back on Its Feet

As Competition Intensifies, Hemant Badri to Lead Flipkart’s Q-Commerce Operations

Latest news.

Review 2023: The Logistics Perspective

Freight Systems Limited Inaugurates State-of-the-Art Grade-A Warehouse in Gurugram

Unveiling the Future: Noida International Airport’s Cargo Ascent

CWC seeks INR 1,500-2,000 crore investments from private developers for warehouse expansion

MMLPs stirring up investment in India’s logistics sector

Freight rates likely to decline on lower vessel utilization: Sea Intelligence

Adani Logistics acquire ICD Tumb for INR 835 crore

Flying in a turbulent sky of disruptions, air cargo suffers a lack of demand

Allcargo Group unveils Grade-A warehouse at Hosur for automotive OEMs and aftermarket distribution

Why India should consider switching to solar-powered cold storage

‘Economies’ of fuel stumble amid Sri Lankan crisis

Tiger Logistics set to launch its new price discovery and supply-chain automation platform

DSV might take a step closer to sustainable, green technology in India

How are ETAs for food delivery predicted?

With Russia’s imminent march on Ukraine, global supply chains are on shaky grounds

Buyers pull up their socks for DB Schenker’s possible sale

Tracing the rise of Quick Commerce in India

Swim or Sink: Another attempt at Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul railway freight service

AP Moller – Maersk leading the logistics-led transformational journey of Saudi Arabia

Canada lifts ban, allows direct flights from India after 5 months

Supply chain snags may cost automakers $210 billion this year

SpiceJet to transfer logistics business on slump sale basis to subsidiary SpiceXpress

ICMR receives conditional permission to use drones for delivery of medicines

Govt set to notify new duty refund scheme for exporters soon

Port Community System: Marking the evolution of a digital ecosystem

Pirojshaw Sarkari, former chief of Mahindra Logistics, appointed as CEO of Gati Ltd

Electrifying the Last-Mile segment

Portall Infosystems bags deal for building a National Logistics Portal for the govt

Draft Consumer Protection E-commerce Rules keep companies on tenterhooks

Maharashtra Traders turn to PM Modi for relief after lockdown gets extended till June 27

DSV Panalpina set to be the world’s largest forwarder after proposed takeover of Agility GIL

VOC Port handles longest windmill blades, sets new record

How Shyplite is helping online sellers during the COVID crisis

Gati announces its exit from cold chain solutions business

Infusing AI into Logistics: The armour for Freight Rate Optimisation

CBIC amends concessional import duty rules

Allcargo Logistics appoints two new independent directors

How a cryptocurrency is earning popularity as a Logistics Blockchain solution

CBIC eases trade by allowing import, export without furnishing of bonds until June-end

Emirates rolls out India humanitarian airbridge to transport urgent COVID-19 relief aid

UNICEF and DP World send critical medical aid to help India tackle the second wave

Bangalore International Airport: Scaling New Heights

Government allows import of oxygen concentrators bought through post, courier for personal use

What are the key drivers of the booming warehousing demand in India?

Airlines find hope in vaccine cargo as passenger traffic takes a nosedive

Centre allows ICMR to conduct study on using Drones for COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery

Nitin Gadkari flags off Amazon India’s fleet of EVs for last-mile

Air India Express steps up its daily cargo operations

Indian Railways permits transport of liquid oxygen carrying tanks using trains

Etrio partners with Zypp Electric to supply 3-wheelers for last-mile delivery

GMR group announces the launch of Hyderabad AeroCity

‘Geared for Growth’: How V-Trans is making the leap of faith

ESR India to acquire new warehousing projects

At the Precipice of Change: The New Farm Laws

Transporters call for suspension of toll collection following the reverse migration and Maharashtra curfew

Hong Kong Air Cargo declares ban on Vivo phones after pallets catch fire at airport

Centre launches “DGFT Trade Facilitation App” for Providing instant access to Exporters/Importers

Skyways Group appoints new Whole Time Directors to its Management

FM Logistic India introduces EVs in Bengaluru to fulfill delivery commitments within city limits

Flipkart enters into a strategic partnership with Adani Group to bolster infrastructure and logistics

Technology revolutionising the Delivery Processes

GEODIS appoints new Regional Air Freight Director in Asia-Pacific

Air Cargo Demand Up 9% in Feb in comparison to Pre-COVID Levels

Fresh restrictions in Maharashtra may lead to daily loss of INR 315 cr

CWC should double its storage capacity by the end of 2030: Piyush Goyal

Verification of identity mandatory for new importers, exporters : Centre

NHAI readies draft prospectus for first InvIT; aims to raise at least INR 5100 cr

Apollo LogiSolutions enters into strategic partnerships to provide vaccine logistics

Spoton Logistics to invest INR 110 crore on technology upgradation

Freight trains hit new speed record on the newly built Palanpur-Madar section of Western Corridor

Scrappage Policy: Tax rebate of up to 15% on new commercial vehicles

Container ship ‘Ever Given’ shifted from Shoreline, but difficulties for Indian Crew may persist

Chennai Customs Brokers’ Association & ACAAI Southern Region spearhead vaccine drive for logistics warriors

Right technology and infrastructure upgradation is the key to an unbroken Cold Chain: Rahul Agarwal, MD, Kool-ex

India likely to develop dedicated midnight freight corridors under ntfap.

CMA CGM Air Cargo flies First A330-200F Commercial Flight

Xander Group leases 11 lakh sq ft of warehousing space to E-com giants Amazon, Flipkart

BIAL Launches India’s First Dedicated Express Cargo Terminal

Ecom Express receives USD 20 million follow-on investment from CDC Group

Air Canada Cargo launches e-commerce service; strengthens freighter capacity

MMLP Jogighopa: A Revolution in the Making

Experts call for Kerala’s shipping sector to utilise the opportunities offered by coastal waterways

Blue Dart launches first Blue Dart All Women Service centre in India

Boost for India’s exports: First consignment of Assam’s ‘red rice’ flagged off to the US

Proposal for inclusion of Chabahar into the INSTC: A game-changer for India’s export logistics

Transworld Group to invest 200 crore in building container manufacturing facility in Gujarat

Transporters fear major setback if maharashtra goes into another lockdown.

E-commerce giant Flipkart to deploy 25,000 EVs to its fleet

Gati-KWE announces plans to set up Surface Transhipment Centre (STC) in Delhi

Boost For Perishables: Assam CM inaugurates centre for perishable cargo at LGBI Airport

Export potential of haryana, rajasthan and up on the rise.

Tracing the Path of the World’s Largest Vaccine Inoculation Drive

sKart Express launches its first Depot in collaboration with SpiceJet in Noida

Hiranandani Group to invest INR 10,000 crore for industrial, logistics and data centre park in West Bengal

FASTag mandatory from today midnight: Centre

Delhi-Dehradun expressway to cut down commute time to 2.5 hrs

CSC India launches “Turant”- the real-time tracking app for pharma cargo

Need to strengthen Rural Supply Chain grows as demand soars for FMCG brands

In For A Treat: Innovations that will reshape the Supply Chain

Godrej & Boyce launches ultra-low temperature freezers to boost global medical cold chain

Blackstone set to acquire Warburg-Embassy JV Embassy Industrial Parks for $700 million

AAICLAS launches ICMS to facilitate digital air cargo operations at Coimbatore

Pharma exports register 12.43% growth during April-December 2020-21

SpiceJet and SmartKargo renew agreement for Air Cargo Technology

Road construction touches record high of 30 km per day: Nitin Gadkari

BLR Airport partners with Envirotainer to enhance its cold-chain offering

SpiceJet and EFL partner with Tower to deliver COVID-19 vaccines across the country

India joins the World Logistics Passport initiative to boost trading opportunities between emerging markets

Exports record 5.37 per cent growth in january.

Union Budget 2021: Highlights and industry reactions

Experts deliver insights on the opportunities ahead for the Indian Air Cargo

New changes in the E-Way bills upsets transporters’ body AITWA

Why are Heavy Duty Electric Trucks the Future of the Transport and Logistics Industry?

Crystal Logistic inks pact with PLUSS for Covid-19 vaccine delivery solution

After an unprecedented year, an end to the equipment shortage is finally in sight

Allcargo logistics appoints suresh kumar as chief executive officer – india.

Tracing Back the Origin: Cargo-On-Seat Flights

Placing Innovation and Sustainability Above All: In conversation with Devinder Singh, Director, Seros Logistics

Budget 2021: Country’s logistics players expect working capital package in the upcoming Budget

Alcott Global to conduct virtual summit on “Global Access and Distribution of Covid-19 Vaccine”

Maersk moves first ever East-West containerised cargo by rail in India

Reliance Retail looks to leverage Future Group’s network for Logistical needs

Logistics & Warehousing in Gujarat – The Present and The Future

Bangalore airport maintains positive growth in cargo volumes.

Construction of North India’s largest Integrated Multimodal Logistics Hub to commence soon

SpiceJet partners with Adani Ahmedabad International Airport for seamless delivery of COVID-19 vaccine

Additional 400 kms of Dedicated Freight Corridor to be completed by March: Piyush Goyal

India to supply COVID-19 vaccines to 6 nations from today

Trade will recover from the pandemic faster than the 2008 Global Financial Crisis: DP World Survey

Outlook 2021 for the Shipping and Maritime Industry: High Tides and Recovery

Welspun One Logistics Parks launches warehousing AIF of INR 500cr for domestic investors

Budget 2021 to see 5-10% hike in import duties: Sources

Budget 2021: what’s in it for the logistics sector.

Outlook 2021 for the Warehousing Sector: Betting Big on Technology

Warehousing time-sensitive, perishable products: 5 Golden Rules

Outlook 2021: the road ahead for the surface segment.

Mumbai Airport facilitates delivery of Covishield Vaccine across 25 destinations

Newly constructed Hisar Airport inaugurated, welcomes its first flight from Chandigarh

Freight Benchmarking: Elevating Supply Chain Standards

Spicejet enters into strategic partnership with brussels airport to transport vaccine to europe.

Airlines dive into action as vaccine transport starts off across India

Gmr hyderabad air cargo handles 1st covid vaccine consignment.

SpiceXpress launches real-time tracking service ‘SpiceTag’

First truck carrying COVID-19 vaccine consignments set to leave from Pune’s Serum Institute of India

Centre to decide on india’s shipping facilities for the vaccination drive.

World Bank eyes Kolkata as a potential Logistics Hub

Leveraging Data Science in Supply Chain & Logistics

Expected trends in the logistics sector in 2021

Piyush Goyal launches portal to promote Railways’ freight business

Indian Automotive Supply Chains in dire need of realignment: Report

Beluga XL: The transporter beast that’s shaped like a flying whale

2021 in the shadow of 2020 for the Logistics Sector

IIMM Mumbai’s flagship supply chain and procurement event DISHA 2020 held

All eyes on Union Budget 2021 for Economic Recovery

Centre directs states, UTs to conduct vaccine dry run to test logistics, storage capabilities

Impact on economy and EXIM business due to the connectivity of DFC with various ports

Union Cabinet gives nod to multi-modal logistics hub at Greater Noida

The Dedicated Freight Corridor project: A new beginning for Railways

PM Modi criticises previous governments for delaying work on Dedicated Freight Corridor

India extends ban on flights from UK till 7 Jan 2021

How Delhi Airport is Gearing Up for the Race Against Time

Indian warehousing sector to reshape itself in 2021: embassy group, pm modi to virtually inaugurate sections of the eastern dedicated freight corridor on 29 dec.

Mahindra logistics to deploy EVs for last mile operations

DB Schenker and Cargolux launch weekly Indiana charter to support increased demand for pharma shipments

FM Logistic announces plans to double warehousing capacity in next 3-4 years

Skyways and Spicejet announce joint initiative for COVID-19 vaccine distribution

Spicejet signs mou with gmr hyderabad air cargo for vaccine storage.

Standardisation of Warehousing Infrastructure, Grading & Rating necessary to Streamline Logistics Sector: Pawan Agarwal

Centre to set up a container manufacturing hub at Bhavnagar

Abu Dhabi’s Hope Consortium enters into 4 major partnerships spanning 170 countries

New Covid-19 strain: India bans all flights from UK amid fears of new variant spread

Shadowfax partners with SpiceXpress for efficient COVID-19 vaccine transportation

New variant of the deadly coronavirus in Britain triggers disruptions in the supply chain

Railways issues draft National Rail Plan 2030, proposes three new DFCs

Indian Railways eyes to raise freight share by 45% by 2030

Maersk partners with Novo Nordisk on global cold chain logistics and sustainability goals

Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways issues draft ports bill for public consultation

WIPRO and LogiNext enter into strategic partnership to launch Integrated Logistics Platform

With a 14% growth QoQ, India’s containerised export aiding country’s trade recovery, says Maersk

Is Dry Ice the right choice for the transportation of the COVID-19 vaccine?

How Blockchain can be the critical element for effective COVID-19 vaccine distribution

Cargo traffic at 12 major ports fall for the 8th consecutive month in November

The D2C wave: How Direct-to-Consumer model has set off ripples in the Indian Retail landscape

How can sellers optimise costs through smart fulfilment and warehousing solutions?

Supply Chain Control Tower: The game-changer for Supply Chain Management

India’s Open Sky Policy: A Major Bone of Contention

Logistics companies witness 35% increase in shipment volumes

“Our resilience has enabled us to limit the damage of 2020” – Luc Arnouts, Antwerp Port Authority

Ahmedabad fire tragedy that claimed 12 lives calls for focus on Warehouse Safety

How the Punjab crisis highlights the importance of rail freight

Sahibganj: Opening the gates to Eastern India

Cold Chain Warehousing poised to witness significant growth

Maharashtra Government signs MoUs with 15 companies worth INR 35000 crore

Air India Express records its highest ever annual net profit of INR 412.77 crore

Exports, sourcing continue to grow despite pandemic: Walmart

Bangalore Airport records growth in cargo traffic in September

IFC proposes to invest $75 million in SPVs owned by Indospace

India’s first Multi-modal Logistics Park to be built in Assam

Changing scenario of the logistics industry post Covid-19

Customer centricity is a top focus at DACHSER: In conversation with Huned Gandhi, Managing Director

CMA CGM Jacques Saade sets new world record for full containers loaded on a single vessel

Mahindra Logistics adds 10,000+ seasonal Jobs ahead of festive season

Global Air Capacity down by 22%: Seabury

Surge in exports enables India to nearly halve trade gap with China

With the festive season nearing, FMCG sector turns to technology to handle upsurge in demand

“Rail roko” protests over farm bills may severely impact freight operations: Railways

Schiphol Cargo creates task force towards preparedness for the COVID Vaccine

How the ‘Click and Collect’ model is Reshaping the Online Shopping Space

Following on the footsteps of DHL, Blue Dart announces general price increase for 2021

Even in the murkiest waters, Aviation Industry recorded rise in Dedicated Freighters & Swift Cargo Movement at Airports: Vandana Aggarwal

How Indian Logistics is scaling new heights with Multimodal transportation

Blue Dart outshines SpiceJet and Indigo as India’s largest air cargo carrier

Logistics is all about Creativity: In conversation with Yashpal Sharma, Skyways Group

Experts discuss Customs and best practices for EXIM trade during Live session

How a Reliance – Amazon deal could change the game for the retail industry

CSMIA and Siemens successfully integrate their logistics systems for a seamless experience

How much air cargo is required for the COVID-19 vaccine distribution?

Railway Minister meets industry leaders to discuss expansion of private parcel services

AAICLAS rolls out domestic Air Cargo operations from Indore

How to Recession-Proof Your supply chain and avert the looming crisis

Festive season likely to aid the Automobile Supply Chain

Decoding the rising trend for In-city Warehousing: Scope and Challenges

Automotive Logistics India: On The Highway To Recovery

Supply Chain Innovation fuelling e-commerce growth in India

Maharashtra continues to shine as the Logistics and Warehousing Capital of India

Custom Bonded Trucking: An extended arm for Air Cargo

Dedicated Freight Corridor project to be further delayed due to COVID

Aatma Nirbhar Madhya Pradesh to push the logistics sector in MP

(Post-Unlock) Sea and Road transport move towards recovery, Air Cargo still adversely impacted: Ind-Ra

Check what steps the govt is taking to support msme freight forwarders & customs brokers in the current challenging time.

E-Commerce enabling On-demand Warehousing to take flight

Shashi Kiran Shetty appointed as new Chairman of Gati Ltd

SpiceJet to operate flights to the US soon; only private airline since Jet to do so

JNPT: First two units at multi-product SEZ commence operations

Is India equipped to handle the logistics of the COVID-19 vaccine?

Amazon India launches pilot programme for skill development via apprenticeship

Technology and Supply Chain Visibility: The Corridors of Power

International Flights set to resume from tomorrow under defined conditions: Hardeep Puri

JioMart joins hands with Whatsapp to propel Kirana stores into an online retail platform

CSL inks contract to build Autonomous Electric Vessels for ASKO Maritime AS

DHL, Fedex recommence selective pick-up of import consignments from China, Hong Kong, Macau

“Earning from Cargo Operations is the Only Silver Lining For Airlines”, says Dr Renu Singh Parmar

Chennai Port Trust increases concession for coastal vessels to boost coastal shipping

Tim Consult launches air cargo market intelligence for Pharma Industry

Geodis recognised as a Leader in Gartners 2020 Magic Quadrant for Third-Party Logistics,Worldwide

With supply chains stabilising, FMCG firms record sales growth in June

International flights to remain suspended till July 31: DGCA

Customs clearing processes have been resolved: Apple supplier Foxconn

Casual workers’ strike at Trivandrum Airport impacts Cargo Operations

Future Group partners with o9 Solutions in their Retail 3.0 journey

Agility’s GRA to distribute Dr. Reddy’s anti-viral drug Favipiravir

India-China Border conflict: FedEx and DHL suspend pick-up of China imports to India

Blue Yonder and FarEye join hands to enhance logistics execution, collaboration and visibility

Blue Water Lines NVOCC pioneers in adoption of electronic bill of lading in India

Reliance eyes on conquering farm-to-fork supply chain by leveraging technology

How to keep track of your Freight Shipments

Exorbitant hike in fuel prices obstructing the revival of the transport sector

Goa – An emerging Logistics hub of India

Allcargo reckons on a debt-free ending after Blackstone deal closure by Dec

“IATA is trying to identify the issues and work with Govts & Carriers to address them in COVID times,” says Hughes, Global Head of Cargo – IATA

Four Key Steps for Navigating Supply Chain Disruption

Port of Rotterdam eyes investment opportunity in the Sagarmala Project

Efforts on to keep Air Cargo out of murky waters

DHL’s Trend Report outlines the potential of Next-Gen Wireless in Logistics

BLR Airport partners with Kale Logistics to develop Air Cargo Community System

Pradeep Panicker takes over as CEO of Hyderabad airport

Pharmaceutical Supply Chain: In Sickness and In Health

CBIC announces 1st phase of All India roll-out of Faceless Assessment

New Delhi airport emerges as a focal point for agricultural perishables amidst lockdown

24×7 Custom Clearance at all sea ports, airports extended till 30 June

National Logistics Policy to be released soon: Mansukh Mandaviya

Global air freight demand witnesses the sharpest fall ever recorded

Logistics and Warehousing to emerge stronger than ever before

Lockdown 4.0: Transporters unhappy with 7pm – 7am curfew; seeks exemption

AIMTC pins its hopes on the Centre for revival of the trucking industry

USD 575 bn investment opportunity in transport infra in next 5 yrs: Report

Amazon forays into India’s online food delivery market with Amazon Food

Cyclone Amphan wreaks havoc at Kolkata Airport

Supply Chain Demand Planning In The Age Of COVID-19

Lockdown 4.0: All states to allow inter-state movement of goods and cargo

Gearing up for recovery in the Post-COVID World

A Robust local Supply chain imperative for a self-reliant India: PM Modi

Breather for Airlines: Resumption of domestic flights on the cards by May 18

Despite drop in demand, Warehousing & Logistics steering towards recovery: Research

How a Digital Freight platform enabled Indian Customers to move shipments during COVID-19

Aimtc warns of supply disruptions as fresh problems worry truckers.

Five Air India pilot who flew cargo flights to China test COVID positive

Container Volumes at Indian Ports to witness a decline of 16% in FY21: CRISIL

Home Ministry to use control room for resolving Trucker’s issues

Warehousing: Maintaining operational efficiency during a pandemic

COVID-19 shows the need for a globally-connected supply chain

Industrial and Warehousing segment will bounce back faster post COVID, says experts

Pawan Kumar Agarwal appointed as the new Special Secretary – Logistics

Post Lockdown: How airports across India are gearing up for resumption of operations

e-Way Bill under GST: Big relief for goods in-transit during lockdown

Debunking post-covid demand surge in the trucking sector.

As industries prepare to open up, spike in freight rates and lack of drivers worry logistics professionals

Responsible Supply Chains: Is COVID-19 a prescription for change?

No restrictions on inter-state and intra-state movement of goods trucks: Govt clarifies

Lockdown Impact: How to achieve Supply Chain Continuity through Risk Mitigation

Acing The Supply Chain Business With A Mix Of Technology

Is the Apparel Industry choosing Sea Freight over Air Freight?

Indian Railways asks cement companies to free up rakes for essentials

Spicejet operates first of its kind cargo-on-seat flights for flying essentials

Centre lifts restrictions on exports of 12 Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients

The Vehicular Lock Jam: An augury of an impending essential commodity crisis

Allcargo gets SEBI’s approval on its open offer to acquire Gati

Global Air Freight Market Demand dips by 3.3% in Jan: IATA

COVID-19 impact: Scarcity of empty containers looms large on Indian exporters

IATA postpones 14th World Cargo Symposium due to Coronavirus outbreak

Embassy Industrial Parks leases 3.5 lakh sq.ft. of warehousing space to Rhenus Logistics

Threat looms over Medical Devices Market as COVID-19 causes supplies to run-out

Cargo Service Center and Mumbai Airport launch world-class facility for handling Pharma and Agro products

Is Kolkata making Headway as the Warehousing Hotspot for the year 2020?

Aviation Minister sees no further hiccups for Air India disinvestment

Indian Warehousing Market records 30% growth in 2019: CBRE Report

Arth Ganga Project and NW development to boost cargo volume and economic activity

Sowing Seeds of a Successful and Efficient Supply Chain

E-comm welcome to work within the framework and the laws of the land: Piyush Goyal

Impact of Coronavirus on the Global Supply Chain

Coronavirus: India among top choices for relocation of production from China

Air Cargo experts exchanged thoughts on ‘Digitisation to Digitalisation’ in ACFI’s event

Coronavirus: A Lesson for Supply Chain Risk Management

Union Budget 2020 speaks of National Logistics Policy with E-Logistics Market

Budget 2020 expectations: national logistics policy, tax reforms and removal of red tapism, dp world cochin flags off new rail service to bangalore, how small businesses can ship freight from china.

Government mulling announcement of National Logistics Policy in Budget 2020

Delhi Mumbai Expressway to be completed in 3 years: Gadkari

Government invites bids for sale of Air India, sets March 17 deadline

JNPT and Antwerp Port Authority discuss initiatives for seamless trade

How Supply Chain Excellence contributes to Brand Building

“End-to-End Visibility across the Supply Chain is of paramount importance for JK Tyres”

An initiative similar to ICEDASH is in offing at AAICLAS, says Keku Bomi Gazder, CEO, AAICLAS

Six Demand Planning and Forecasting Software providers to help you manage your inventory

7 Best Tips to Reduce Logistics Cost in the Year 2020

How LogYcode made Freight Forwarding just a 5-click process

Gaps in Agri Supply Chains impacting Farmers’ Income Negatively: Report

China chooses Delhi Airport as its sole cargo transshipment centre in India

AllCargo likely to acquire an additional 26% share in Gati

Govt to use E-way bills and FASTag to crackdown on bogus GST returns

Indigo, etihad possible contenders for take-over of air india, uk-based hinduja group eyeing to buy jet airways, flat containerised trade indicate global softening & weak domestic demand: maersk india trade report q3 2019, world bank group: online retail sales in india is just 1.6% of total retail trade.

Phase-I of Bharatmala Project to be completed by 2021-2022: Gadkari

Guwahati emerging as a logistics and warehousing hotspot, global aviation industry hopes for better profits in the coming year, iata forecasts net profit of $29.3 billion in 2020, ecom express receives equity investment worth $36 million from uk’s cdc group, govt aims to reduce logistics cost with introduction of road trains, allcargo logistics enters in express business with the acquisition of controlling stake in gati ltd, decline in airfreight volume marks a weak start to traditional peak air cargo season: iata, icao revises the limit of liability for air cargo to 22 sdr, fastag implementation deadline extended till dec 15.

Managing Supply Chain Volatility During Festive Season

S ramakrishna to lead delhi customs brokers’ association, special coverage: day 1 of the 45th annual acaai convention held in phuket, turnaround time at major ports has come down by 23 hours: mansukh mandaviya, mos shipping, “i want to build a strong interface between air cargo industry and government”, delhi and bangalore airport racing with each other to speed up the cargo clearance process, govt launches icedash to fasten customs clearance process, freight forwarders may soon have to give up on extra profit margins, exploring issues plaguing cold chain infrastructure, understanding the supply chain of india’s most loved breakfast brand – kellogg’s, magnificent madhya pradesh investors’ summit 2019: business leaders brainstormed to develop mp as a logistics hub, how jay bharat maruti group maintains a seamless & agile supply chain – an insider view, air cargo flying through challenging times, seamless rural supply chain holds the key to increase farmers’ income, spicexpress starts cargo service from delhi to indore on a trial basis, second half of fy20 will see higher freight volumes: icra, us-china trade war weighs heavily on air cargo, global cargo players losing volumes due to trade war, points out ti insight’s report, govt mulling disinvestment in concor: reports, rising consumer impatience is giving jitters to supply chain professionals, pmo schedules a meeting on oct 3 to discuss draft national logistics policy, dp world envisions hyderabad as a multi-modal distribution hub for domestic cargo, maersk india trade report 2019: india’s containerized trade growth slower than the global average, 37th gst council meeting: gst exemption on air and sea exports extended by 1 year.

Share Market soars as Govt reduces Corporate Tax

National logistics policy is on the way: union commerce minister, fm announces to implement an action plan to reduce turn-around time at airports and ports by december, gujarat tops ease of logistics index 2nd time in a row, exclusive: crippling supply chain in jammu & kashmir, trade war continues to take a toll on global air cargo demand, aai to improve cargo-handling capacity at chennai airport, dgca grants license to first commercial ‘small category’ drone, air india clarifies capa that they are still the market leader, aai staff staged a peaceful protest against airports privatisation across india, govt is determined for 100% privatisation of air india, says civil aviation minister, nationwide survey to improve air cargo delivery to begin on sept 1, isro designed coa system starts real-time monitoring of more than 700 trains.

Exploring how Red Bull gives wings to its Supply Chain

Finance minister’s mini-budget plan: can it reform the indian economy, these software solutions providers are challenging the traditional way of freight forwarding, cathay pacific ceo steps down amid strong chinese scrutiny, hong kong protests likely to affect air cargo operations.

Can Paytm Mall revive with its new business model?

Dedicated elevated corridor for delhi airport to ease movement of cargo, port community system: what it holds for indian maritime trade.

Govt takes on Time Release Study to make trade flow hassle free

Inland waterways: game-changer for the north-eastern states, decoding the mantra for efficient last-mile route planning, india’s global export plummets without warning, trade unions are up in arms against modi 2.0’s disinvestment move.

Attempts to resolve the ongoing trade tussle between India and USA ended without major progress: Report

Indian railways eyes big bucks through freight corridors, why are investors betting big on the warehousing in india, global air freight demand falls consecutively for the 13th time: iata, delhi international airport launches india’s first dedicated ‘transshipment centre’.

Central scheme for Cold Chain may become part of the draft National Logistics Policy: Commerce Minister Goyal

Govt’s push in Logistics likely to take Exports up to $1 trillion in the next 3 years

Centre cracks down on gst evasions; plans to integrate fastag with e-way bill, warehouse space leasing grows by 77% yoy in 2018: knight frank report, zomato, uber eats and the race for drone deliveries.

PM Modi pitches India for a 5 trillion-dollar economy by 2024

‘addressing sustainability and diversity issues will be on top of my mind’ – steven polmans, chairman-designate, tiaca, air cargo industry falling prey to protectionist measures, lufthansa group’s ceo, carsten spohr to lead iata.

Digitalization revolutionizing Customs clearance procedures in India

Iata: ground handlers should focus on safety, global standards & modernization.

India and Japan to develop container terminal in Sri Lanka

Adani group bags lease rights for six non-metro airports.

Modi 2.0: What does it mean for the Logistics Industry

Mahindra logistics seeking dgca nod for using drones, how dow india is redefining hazardous goods transportation, exporters may get automated gst refunds from june, “warehouster ensures annuity and good returns for its investors”, db schenker plans warehousing punch of 7 million sq feet in india.

CONCOR to invest Rs 8,000 crore in the next 5 years

Blockchain: a contraption to increase supply chain transparency & efficiency, india’s biggest port mundra set to turn bigger with quay & breakwater extension, surface logistics industry hit by truck drivers’ shortage.

5 Tech-Logistics Startups in India providing hassle-free delivery to sellers

“supply chain managers must have ‘passion and ownership’ for products they handle”, jet fades into horizon with last flight to amritsar, “new approach of breaking silos is benefiting air cargo,” secretary – moca, india’s exports touch new high in five years, high cargo dwell time increasing supply chain challenges in india, delving deep into godrej’s supply chain processes, robots in warehouse: are cobots the future, how drone policy 2.0 could fuel e-commerce business, national commitment required to boost coastal shipping, we at aurobindo evaluate lsps based on their expertise: gm – warehouse, aurobindo pharma, the jet saga – how india’s first dedicated air cargo service provider ended with bailout, tata buys stake at gmr infrastructure to enter airport business, ups starts deliveries of medical samples via drone in the united states, jet airways chairman goyal decides to hang boots to save the airlines, a team of 100 robots to manage flipkart’s bangalore delivery centre, make way for the ‘first unicorn of 2019’: delhivery crosses $1.6 billion valuation mark, technology redefining supply chain processes, smaller players to reap benefits from new e-commerce policy.

India aiming spot in top 5 global air freight markets by 2025

IBS Software’s Vision for Seamless Connectivity and Collaboration in the Air Cargo Industry

Get notifications on WhatsApp

Logistics Insider

Ad blocker detected.

We have noticed that you have an adblocker enabled which restricts ads served on the site.

Please disable it to continue reading Logistics Insider .

Do You Want Cookie? We Want Yours! 🍪

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection

Freight Traffic Impacts and Logistics Inefficiencies in India: Policy Interventions and Solution Concepts for Sustainable City Logistics

Prasanta k. sahu.

1 Department of Civil Engineering, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad, 500078 India

Agnivesh Pani

2 Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, India

Georgina Santos

3 School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

Associated Data

The data that support the findings of this study are available from Prasanta Sahu ( [email protected] ) upon reasonable request.

Freight traffic fulfils not only the business needs of a region to move goods between producers, manufacturers, and end consumers, but also creates a host of unintended environmental, social, and economic impacts. Despite its importance, freight traffic impacts and associated logistic inefficiencies are largely overlooked in the urban transport discussions in developing economies like India. This paper addresses this research gap by outlining the research progress related to freight transport in India and discusses the key problems related to freight system performance. The published literature in the last three decades (1990–2020), policy briefs and institutional reports are explored to summarize key findings and uncover thematic linkages. We categorize the inefficiencies in the freight system into four aspects: (i) long-haul trucking, (ii) last-mile logistics, (iii) freight distribution (inventory level), and (iv) policies and regulations. Apart from identifying the limitations in policy discourse, this paper also explores the possible solution concepts to improve efficiency in freight transport and mitigate the unintended negative externalities in urban areas. The overall conclusion is that increasing and improving infrastructure and equipment, technology and operations, and policy and regulations will go some way towards making freight more efficient in India and reducing congestion and emissions of air pollutants and GHG. The present paper can be expected to promote further freight research and effective policy instrument design in India.

Introduction

Currently, more than a third of global transport energy consumption (39%) is generated by freight movements [ 1 ]; trucking is responsible for 23%, followed by marine vessels, which are responsible for 12%, and rail and pipelines, which are responsible for 4%. It is therefore an imperative research need to investigate how to ensure that freight activities fulfil their role in economic transaction of goods, while mitigating the associated negative externalities. It is also critically important to understand why, how and where freight activity takes place and what kind of infrastructure and policies need to be provided to respond effectively to the growing logistical requirements of businesses and households [ 2 – 4 ]. The practical requirements to improve the logistics competency and operational efficiency of freight transport have been acting as strong catalysts to stimulate a number of studies towards understanding freight activity at both national and local scales. However, a data-driven summary of the freight system performance in India, expanding on the logistics inefficiencies and negative externalities of freight traffic, are evident gaps in the literature. This discernible research need triggered the present comprehensive review. This review specifically outlines the progress that has been made in freight research, along with possible future research directions and policy guidelines.

The objectives of this review paper are therefore threefold: (1) to investigate the various aspects of freight system performance, logistics inefficiencies, and freight traffic negative externalities in India; (2) to discuss the potential solution concepts and prepare a research agenda for future research on sustainable city logistics in India; and (3) to develop insights for policy and practice based on the empirical evidence in the literature and the emerging trends in the logistics market. These objectives are motivated by the lack of practice- and policy-based discussions on improving freight mobility in India and enhancing the ease in moving goods across cities and states in a geographically diverse country like India. Reviewing the inefficiencies and externalities of freight in India will help to provide solution concepts and mitigation strategies to improve the freight system performance. This paper, therefore, addresses the need for a comprehensive review focusing on Indian freight studies and aims to draw inferences from the existing literature and provide guidance for future research in India. The review findings are expected to promote freight research and effective policy instrument design to meet the growing needs to reduce the overall logistics cost for moving goods.

Method Adopted for the Review and Data Collection

Research questions.

The primary aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of the freight traffic impacts and logistics inefficiencies in India, which is an area of significant practical and research interest in the context of coordinated global efforts to reduce transport emissions. The following are the specific research questions explored in this review:

• What is the extent of literature relevant to freight transport planning in India and what is the emerging trend?
• Are there any deficiencies of freight performance in India relative to global benchmarks?
• What are the logistics inefficiencies in India and what are the underlying reasons contributing to them?
• What are the environmentally negative externalities of freight movements and how can they be quantified in India?
• What are the potential solution concepts that can be derived from the literature for addressing the issues related to freight system performance, logistics inefficiencies, and negative externalities of freight movements in India?

An overview of the review questions, methodology and the discussion structure adopted in this paper is presented in Fig.  1 . As can be seen, the first research question (RQ1) is designed to map the extent of literature related to freight transport planning in India through a review of published literature, policy documents, and reports. The second research question (RQ2) follows from the previous question as it is to analyse and discuss the freight system performance in India based on the papers identified and screened as a part of RQ1. The third research question (RQ3) is to discover the underlying reasons contributing to logistics inefficiencies in India as a logical extension of RQ2. The fourth research question (RQ4) is to assess the environmentally negative externalities of freight transport, going beyond the operational efficiency focus in RQ3. The final research question (RQ5) is aimed at discussing the potential solution concepts in practice across the world to improve the freight system performance (RQ2), logistics inefficiencies (RQ3), and negative externalities (RQ4) in India.

Overview of the review questions, method, and discussion structure

Identifying and Screening of Literature

To ensure the review covered the most recent published literature on freight in India, Scopus, Web of Science, and TRID were combined with Google Scholar. The initial search used the general keywords ‘freight transportation/transport’ but this was later narrowed down to ‘India’, and subject areas ‘engineering’, ‘social sciences’, ‘environmental science’, and ‘decision science’. The search process was repeated using additional keywords of interest to this study, such as ‘logistics inefficiencies’, ‘freight traffic’, and ‘freight system performance’. Only peer-reviewed articles (including both review and original papers) were considered but these were combined with grey literature reports and government (e.g. Government of India) and international organizations (e.g. the World Bank) publications. The initial 290 unique records published between 1990 and 2020 were screened and purged down to 49. Many papers were irrelevant to the present study, as they dealt with issues unrelated to the research questions posed, despite having come up in the search exercise. The limited number of relevant papers found in the published literature underline the urgent need to focus on these research problems.

Review Approach and Data

The papers that survived the pruning were papers published in the following journals: Transportation Research (TR) Part A, TR Part B, TR Part C, TR Part D, Transport Policy, Transportation, Transport Geography, Transportation Research Record, Research in Transportation Economics, Travel Behaviour and Society, Sustainable Cities and Society, Transport Reviews, Journal of Cleaner Production, Energy Policy, Transportation Research Procedia, KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, Transportation Letters, and Research in Transportation Business and Management. To quantify the extent of literature relevant to freight transportation in India (RQ1), the number of papers published in each of these journals is presented in Fig.  2 and the total number of publications in each year is presented in Fig.  3 . As can be seen in Fig.  3 , there has been substantial growth in freight studies since 2018. This jump in the number of papers underlines the increased research attention given to this topic area in recent years. Out of the 49 papers, 41 were published in Elsevier journals (83.67%), 3 were published in Springer journals (6.12%), 3 were published in Taylor and Francis journals (6.12%), and 2 were published in SAGE journals (4.08%). The 49 papers can be categorized into four areas: (1) development of disaggregate-level freight demand estimations at seaports [ 5 , 6 ] or urban establishments [ 7 – 11 ], (2) development of aggregate-level freight generation [ 12 , 13 ] or distribution models [ 14 ], (3) design of establishment-based freight surveys [ 15 , 16 ] and zoning systems [ 17 – 20 ], (4) analysis of freight transport parking practices [ 21 ], emissions [ 22 , 23 ], expenditure patterns [ 9 , 24 , 25 ], and logistics sprawl [ 26 ]. Since the relevant statistics on freight system performance (e.g. modal share, logistics cost) or specific logistics inefficiencies related to India were missing in these publications, the review scope was also extended to collect aggregate-level data from publicly available sources, such as the Logistics Performance Index from the World Bank [ 39 ] and the Freight Transport Indicators from the OECD [ 38 ]. Additionally, policy briefs and reports published by government agencies in India were also referred to gain insights into the status of freight transport policies. The Indian Government National Transport Development Policy Report [ 27 ] was reviewed with the aim of capturing the policy discourse. The discussion derived from the identified literature follows the structure shown in Fig.  1 . The thematic discussions on three specific topic areas are provided in the next three sections: freight system performance in India (RQ2), logistics inefficiencies in India (RQ3), and negative externalities of freight traffic in India (RQ4). The solution concepts for the issues identified in the thematic discussions are discussed in the penultimate section. The final section concludes this paper.

Number of papers reviewed from the literature and their respective journals

Number of papers published each year between 1990 and 2020

Freight System Performance in India

In line with the rest of the world, freight transport is undergoing important changes in India, most of which are simply a result of market trends, and most of which are already shaping and will continue to significantly shape the way freight transport performs in the future. This section is devoted to scrutinizing these trends, putting them in context, and understanding their potential impact in the short and medium term.

Unbalanced Modal Mix and Growth in Road Freight

The Indian economy is growing rapidly, partly thanks to its ongoing industrialization. One of the consequences of this is that freight movements are growing exponentially—both in the last-mile and long-haul trucking sector [ 27 ]. A major share of this demand is carried by road transport due to the flexibility provided for first-mile and last-mile logistics. The freight transport sector in India, as a result, is heavily skewed towards road transport with a modal share of 64% [ 28 ]. This compares with 75% in Europe [ 29 ] and 63% in the USA [ 30 ]. The historical trend of modal share between road, railways and inland waterways is presented in Fig.  4 using secondary data publicly available from a report published by the “Sustainable Urban Transport Project”, an organization devoted to the study and promotion of sustainable transport in urban areas [ 31 ]. The rail market share, as it can be seen, has gradually declined over the years. This trend is concerning because the economies of scale for bulk cargoes can be better achieved using a combination of railway, inland waterways, and coastal shipping. In 2018–2019, freight mode share in India stood at 27% rail, 64% road, 5% coastal shipping, 2% inland waterways, and less than 1% air (plus a 2% via pipelines for gas, water sewerage, etc.) [ 28 ]. Considering the less than optimal rail share, Indian Railways, a government entity under the Ministry of Railways that operates India’s national rail system, has set a target of having at least a 50% share of the country’s freight traffic by 2030 [ 32 ]. To achieve this, Indian Railways is investing heavily on network expansion projects and dedicated freight corridors. The strategic planning of these large-scale projects requires accurate freight demand models [ 24 , 25 , 33 , 34 ].

Variation in freight modal share in India over time.

Source: Urban Freight and Logistics: The State of Practices in India [ 31 ]

Achieving an efficient modal share is important for a country and the environmental impacts of different transport modes are evaluated in several studies [ 35 ]. An efficient modal share is one that maximizes volumes transported and does so at the minimum social cost, to include not just time and vehicle operating costs, but also externalities, especially noise, air pollution, climate change, caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and accidents. For example, large, regular flows of goods with low-value density are historically suited for transport by railways, because: (i) origin/destination points tend to remain the same; (ii) commodity fragmentation can be avoided, and (iii) emissions can be minimized. Medium-valued goods are also increasingly transported by railways due to the availability of modern intermodal services around the world [ 36 ]. Due to significant economies of scale, railway or inland waterways have the potential to move these goods at a much lower unit cost than trucks with far lower GHG emissions and cost variability. A recent comparison of freight mode performance in India [ 37 ] suggests that the unit costs of moving goods is highest for road transport (2.58 INR/ton-km or 3.4 US cents/ton-km at April 2022 exchange rates), followed by railway (1.41 INR/ton-km or 1.86 US cents/ton-km at April 2022 exchange rates) and waterways (1.06 INR/ton-km or 1.40 US cents/ton-km at April 2022 exchange rates), respectively. Despite the high unit costs and road freight externalities, freight transport is road dominated in India (and other regions of the world such as Europe and the USA, as already highlighted above) because it offers greater delivery flexibility and shipment size. This trend is reflected in the growth of (road) freight transport in emerging Asian countries, such as China and India, as shown on Fig.  5 . The data were collected from the OECD Freight Transport Indicators Database [ 38 ]. The figure shows a clear growth of road freight in emerging economies, in line with the growth of the freight sector in those countries, and of the economy in general. Freight flows in OECD countries of North America and Europe, on the other hand, have reached a steady-state.

Growth of road freight transport in India and other major OECD countries.

Source: OECD Freight Transport Indicators Database [ 38 ]

Road freight transport offers lower transit times and higher reliability, making it better suited for transport of perishable goods and commodities with high value density [ 17 ]. The other operational advantages of using trucks include saving in packaging costs, ability to track and trace cargoes, door-to-door serviceability, and ability to schedule the delivery. An effective mode share of a country should thus concomitantly satisfy two criteria: (i) minimizing transport costs and (ii) meeting the operational requirements of shippers. While there is no consensus on the “ideal” modal mix for freight transport, India’s geographical features (extensive coastlines, predominance of hinterland economic activity, longer length of hauls) and the need to reduce freight emissions point in favour of rail transport.

Logistics Cost, Performance and Global Benchmarks

Logistics costs are a significant component of total trade costs. The high logistics costs constrain the competitiveness of the economy and are often the result of shortcomings (physical, regulatory, or institutional) in the transport sector. Nearly one-third of India’s logistics costs (~ 4% of GDP) are attributed to inefficiencies in infrastructure. An important logistics measure that can be used to compare the performance of India’s logistics system against its competitors is the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) produced by the World Bank [ 39 ]. The LPI scores are based on data on six dimensions of trade: customs efficiency, infrastructure quality, ease of transporting international shipments, logistics quality and competence, trackability of consignments (also called tracking and tracing), and delivery timeliness [ 39 ]. The World Bank uses the LPI to rank countries [ 39 ], and a summary of this ranking, relevant to the present paper, is presented in Fig.  6 . As it can be seen in Fig.  6 , the logistics infrastructure in India lags behind that in Germany, the USA, the UK, and China. Jumping up the LPI rank, as currently proposed [ 40 ], will require a fundamental reorientation in the way logistics infrastructure caters to freight demand in India.

Global variation in logistics performance index.

Source: Logistics Performance Index [ 39 ]

Pairwise comparisons of LPI scores between major OECD countries and India are given in Fig.  7 , to highlight the deficiencies across different aspects of logistics.

Pairwise comparison of LPI between OECD countries and India.

Changes in Logistics Strategies and Freight Needs

One important challenge in the freight sector is linked to the changes that have taken place and continue to take place in the context of E-commerce [ 41 ]. The purchasing options of consumers in the past were limited to retailers in the city centre, whereas these are now competing with wide-ranging options provided by online retailers. To maintain a competitive edge in the market, shops are increasingly adopting just-in-time inventory practices, which result in stocks being kept to a minimum. Another noticeable change is the increased requirement for better logistics outsourcing service levels [ 9 ]. Many customers expect delivery within 24 h after placing an order [ 10 ]. Retailers are forced to respond and adapt to changing consumer requirements or risk losing them to the nearest competitor. Compounding this challenge is the consumer experience, which has become highly personalized and specialized, thanks to the digital transformation that has taken place since the early 2000s. This implies more customized orders, stricter quality controls, tighter compliance standards, shorter delivery windows and an overall intolerance to delays in shipments. The role of “fulfilment centres” became increasingly important over the first two decades of the 2000s, and is now a component in many supply chains, with a prime example being Amazon. The changes in logistic strategies of many stores (and warehouses) and the expectations from end consumers have had significant impacts on the demand for freight transport as follows: (i) there is a higher demand for goods, (ii) there are higher service levels, and (iii) shipment sizes tend to be smaller than they used to be.

Diversification of Freight Flows

There are different types of freight flows. These are depicted in Fig.  8 , based on the typology suggested in a report by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Rocky Mountain published in 2019 [ 42 ]. As shown in Fig.  8 , there are four different types of shipments: (i) low-value, bulk freight (LVBF), (ii) medium-value, medium-density freight (MVDF), (iii) business-to-business freight (B2BF) for urban consumption, and (iv) business-to-consumers freight (B2CF) for urban residents. LVBF refers to shipments of construction materials (concrete, sand, gravel) and industrial goods (oil and petrochemicals). LVBF accounts for a significant share of freight shipments, especially in cities where the majority of the infrastructure is still in the process of being built. These low-value shipments tend to be shipped in large quantities (and heavy-duty vehicles), which cause high external costs. The next spectrum of shipments refers to MVDF, which are inputs or outputs of light industry (raw material oriented and less capital intensive), such as, for example, paper products, plastic products, leather, and textile products. The B2BF shipments are typically directed towards retailers so that they can be sold to urban residents. These shipments include fast-moving consumer goods, such as, for example, food products, beverages and pharmaceuticals, and they are typically stocked on the shelves of consumer stores. B2BF shipments are characterized by a high frequency of trips, although they are typically transported in light or medium-duty vehicles. Restricting the movement of B2BF shipments is generally contentious, because B2BF shipments directly cater to the needs of urban residents. Instead of reducing the freight volume, restrictions are typically found to force the shippers to move freight in less efficient ways. B2CF shipments typically are of high value and have specialized handling and delivery requirements (e.g. food deliveries, document packages, parcels). These types of freight are transported in light-duty vehicles, vans, two wheelers or even by foot, directly to the end consumer. Formerly a relatively small segment of urban freight travel market, B2CF shipments have become critical in urban logistics with the rise of E-commerce. Much like B2BF shipments, B2CF shipments cater to urban residents and policy interventions should focus on efficiency rather than demand management. While these diversifications are unique in each supply chain, a general conceptualization of urban supply chains is presented in Fig.  9 .

Type of shipments transported by urban freight.

Source: authors’ own conceptualization based on freight flow categories discussed in the report by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Rocky Mountain Institute [ 42 ]

Conceptual layout of urban supply chains.

Source: authors’ own conceptualization, extending the layout in Pani and Sahu (2019b)

B2CF shipments have experienced an important growth in the last few years, mainly due to increased Internet penetration. In the organized retail market, the share of online purchases was 25% in 2019, with forecasts predicting it could reach 37% by 2030 [ 43 ]. The presence of online platforms also enables consumer-to-consumer online markets; this form of E-commerce is rising in popularity [ 44 ]. Due to the influx of online platforms, many traditional retailers feel the need to participate in E-commerce as well, further increasing the urban freight flow levels. Many retailers are choosing to sell goods held in their inventory through E-commerce and Omni-channel delivery systems to offer better options to consumers [ 45 ]. In the context of increasing B2CF flows, reverse logistics of goods are also becoming more important. These streams involve not only the return and exchange of goods purchased online, but also services such as waste collection. As it can be seen in Fig.  9 , shippers also produce additional freight activity in the form of waste and “reverse logistics” of returns and exchanges. Policymakers should therefore customize policy interventions to different types of freight traffic. For instance, shippers or retailers can offer customers (end node of supply chains) unique value by incentivizing reuse of raw or finished materials through a seamless “return” policy. By creating these feedback loops in supply chains, cities can transition towards a circular economy with significant societal and economic benefits [ 46 ]. Classifying the type of goods entering the city through different supply chains can be the first step for understanding the diverse needs of the freight market segments and, in turn, examining what challenges they present. Existing freight studies in India have largely focused on freight flow, and limited attention has been given to reverse logistics and service activities [ 9 , 16 , 47 ].

Infrastructure Investment and Mobility Studies

Productive investment on freight transport infrastructure is vital for improving the freight system performance and, in turn, enabling seamless deliveries and pick-ups of goods in urban areas [ 48 ]. An integrated approach to infrastructure spending, with investment schemes driven by transport policy goals that are coordinated with land-use and industrial development objectives, is critical for India. Since much of the freight movements have a destination in cities where ports or airports are located, infrastructure investment needs to be prioritized in those cities and regions, especially as freight vehicles share road space with passenger traffic. A comparison of infrastructure investment in India over the period 2004–2017 is presented in Fig.  10 .

Growth in infrastructure investment.

Source: OECD Infrastructure Investment Database [ 49 ]

There have been several initiatives for increasing capacity, such as for example, the construction of dedicated freight corridors (DFCs). DFCs are expected to ensure that long-haul freight demand is catered efficiently in existing trunk routes on the eastern and western corridors (Howrah-Delhi and Mumbai-Delhi), which are currently saturated with line capacity utilization of 115%–150% [ 27 ]. The diversion of freight traffic from the long-haul trucking sector to DFCs on truck routes is expected to decongest the existing highway network for passenger movement. However, appropriate transport supply improvements require a demand assessment toolkit which is still missing for India [ 18 ].

Logistics Inefficiencies in India

There are a number of inefficiencies in both freight transport and freight policies in India. These inefficiencies can be broadly categorized into four areas: (i) long-haul trucking, (ii) last-mile logistics, (iii) freight distribution (inventory level), and (iv) policies and regulations. Reducing these inefficiencies will reduce the generalized cost of moving goods and the externalities of road transport. It will also improve the satisfaction of urban residents.

Inefficiencies in Long-Haul Trucking

The inefficiencies in trucking costs are driven by three factors: (i) avoidable running costs created by empty backhaul of trucks, (ii) usage of trucks with reduced fuel economy and (iii) insufficient fleet size and mix of logistics providers, which lead to inefficient utilization of trucks for forwarding shipments. The root cause of these inefficiencies is related to the inability of trucking firms to achieve economies of scale, thereby resulting in low productivity and efficiency. This is partially linked to the rise of small trucking firms, which attempt to reduce logistics costs through overloading, service violations and poor maintenance. These unlawful logistic operations artificially lower the price of trucking services and make the traditional carriers with large efficient fleets unable to continue operations. Large trucking firms, on the other hand, can achieve economies of scale through efficient dispatching and scheduling, which is critical to increasing fleet utilization and reducing empty running. Another important contributor towards inefficiency is the suboptimal load size observed in emerging countries [ 37 ]. The highways in India are also inadequately maintained, inconsistent in road width and heavily congested [ 27 ]. These infrastructure shortfalls underline the need for targeted capacity increase to improve the inefficiencies in long-haul trucking.

Inefficiencies in Last-Mile Logistics

Last-mile logistics involves delivering packages to end consumers or retail shops in urban centres. It typically follows different trip patterns, uses different vehicle types and has a different spatial extent of travel, compared to long-distance trucking. Due to the nature of multi-stop delivery tours carried out in last-mile operations, priority is given to maximizing the amount of freight delivered in an average tour. This is in contrast with the priorities given to achieving improved shipment size in long-distance trucking. The importance of last-mile logistics, despite being the shortest link in supply chains, stems from the fact that it constitutes up to up to 13%–72% of total logistics costs in many supply chains [ 50 ], and up to 55% in supply chains involving E-commerce [ 37 ]. The variation in costs is because of several potential causes of inefficiencies that exist in last mile, as explained below.

• Fragmentation of receivers: In India, as in many emerging markets, the demand for freight can be somewhat fragmented. The reason for this fragmentation is the informal, even impulsive, ordering behaviour of “nano stores” [ 51 ]. This ordering behaviour affects the performance of the whole supply chain, as it triggers actions upstream in the supply chain [ 51 ].
• Fragmentation of carriers: Planning delivery tours is a complex optimization problem, which needs to maximize delivery quantities, minimize time and distance whilst reaching all destinations, considering delivery windows and traffic patterns/congestion . Logistic providers in developing countries like India often lack the fleet size and technical tools to dispatch delivery trucks on optimal tours.
• Fragmentation of delivery points: In the era of E-commerce and highly personalized freight orders, fragmentation of delivery points is an important barrier to last-mile logistics efficiency. The discretization of delivery points is a more pronounced issue in urban areas than the fragmentation of receivers. This is a problem common to both developed and developing countries, but in countries like India, the impacts are more evident, probably because of the higher traffic congestion levels that prevail in most cities.
• Logistics sprawl: Due to high land values in cities, warehouses and distribution centres tend to migrate towards the suburbs. This phenomenon, known as “logistics sprawl”, increases the duration of delivery tours and the resultant traffic increases congestion levels, both going into and out of the cities [ 52 ]. Transportation is intrinsically linked to the urban growth phenomenon and the associated logistics sprawl [ 53 , 54 ]. Another implication of logistics sprawl is that it reduces the number of delivery points accomplished in a single tour. The evidence for logistics sprawl in major Indian cities is already available for industry sectors such as the timber market [ 26 ].

Inefficiencies in Freight Distribution

Inventory is a critical element of logistics costs, as it requires facilities for storage and holds up the working capital of firms (i.e. receivers) in a freight system [ 55 ]. To reduce these costs, firms typically attempt to minimize inventory levels without compromising their ability to serve end consumers. Due to uncertainty in lead times (i.e. time taken by shipper to deliver goods), excess inventory costs are typically incurred by shippers in the freight system, thereby increasing the overall logistics costs. The reduced reliability in transit times leads to higher buffer stocks to guard against uncertainty. The highly fragmented and inefficient distribution system poses major challenges to buffer stock reductions. Another challenge is the limited digitization of links connecting the stakeholders in a freight system, which restricts the ability of retailers to reduce cycle stock (i.e. the inventory held in shelves to satisfy normal sales demand). The ability to implement just-in-time (JIT) ordering practices that can accomplish reductions in cycle stock hinges on two factors: (i) digital capabilities to track inventory drawdown and (ii) digital links to distribution centres and supplies to avail dynamic replenishment of products. Due to limited advances in JIT systems in India, efforts to reduce the total amount of inventory in the distribution system and the amount of inventory lost have not been very successful [ 37 ].

Inefficiencies in Policy Framework

Policies intended to reduce the negative externalities or inefficiencies from freight can actually backfire and yield the opposite result. The National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) in India acknowledges that freight traffic will grow substantially [ 31 , 56 ]. Timely and seamless freight movements are also mentioned as a priority for the economic development of the country [ 31 , 56 ]. The freight-related policy measures recommended in the NUTP report can be summarized as follows: (i) using off-peak hours for freight deliveries, (ii) restricting the entry of heavy-duty trucks into cities during daytime, (iii) building bypasses through public–private partnerships so that long-haul trucks can go around the city, instead of adding to the city traffic, (iv) reorganizing land use by locating wholesale activities in the periphery of cities, along the interstate highways, rather than in city centres, (v) building truck terminals and parking facilities outside the city limits to encourage the shifting of wholesale activities, (vi) provisioning parking space at appropriate locations for on/off street with the use of intelligent transport systems, (vii) planning ring roads to relieve traffic congestion in central areas, and (viii) implementing auto-fuel policies that call for tighter emission regulations and fleet upgrades [ 31 , 56 ]. Following the recommendations of the NUTP report [ 31 , 56 ], some cities, including Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Kochi, have set up committees, known as Unified Metropolitan Transport Authorities (UMTAs), charged with the mission of integrating the functioning of agencies associated with passenger and freight mobility. These top-down policies may deliver positive impacts and help achieve more efficient freight movements in urban areas.

Another policy that has been suggested is the implementation of time-based or cordon-based restrictions. These restrictions have been introduced in some cities in India [ 7 ]. They can entail, for example, banning vehicles exceeding 7.5 tons during specific time periods of the year or specific times of the day [ 7 ]. Delhi has also banned non-destined transiting trucks (heavy, medium or light-duty vehicles) from passing through certain regions in Delhi [ 23 ] and has imposed entry time restrictions to freight destined for Delhi. Shifting freight travel into times of minimum residential use can force deliveries at night, greatly increasing the share of last-mile cost in total logistics cost. Furthermore, it can, and it has, resulted in good deliveries by vans or three wheelers, which are not subject to bans, and this can, and indeed has, in turn, increased overall traffic.

In addition to the above, the imposition of pollution taxes can help freight face the environmental costs they cause. Delhi, for example, introduced a pollution tax in 2015, payable by trucks passing through Delhi [ 23 ]. The tax is 700 INR and 1400 INR (USD 9.24 and USD 18.49 at April 2022 exchange rates) for light-duty vehicles and heavy-duty vehicles, respectively. Reorganizing land use by moving wholesale markets to outer town suburbs or satellite towns can help reduce the pressure from freight movements. Mumbai did exactly this to reduce traffic levels in the congested south part of the city. Another initiative is that of Urban Consolidation Centres (UCCs) [ 57 ]. These schemes aim to reduce the number of goods delivery vehicles in urban areas by consolidating multiple shipments at centres located in the city periphery [ 58 ]. There are several informal examples of such centres in India, especially in the perishable product sector (e.g. Azadpur vegetable market, sabzi mandi in Delhi). Another example of consolidation is the ITC e-Choupal project in which internet-based kiosks reach out directly to farmers and eliminate the middleman in agri-business supply chains [ 31 ]. Finally, many cities, such as for example Chennai, are planning to have truck terminals and parking zones on the city periphery [ 31 ]. However, there are several institutional, practical and legal barriers for long-term success in UCCs implementation, as reported in some European cities like Oslo [ 57 ].

Despite the publication of the NUTP and the setup of UMTAs in some cities, freight transport policy in India is still in nascent stage [ 42 ], in contrast with passenger transport policy. Save for the policy initiatives aimed at increasing capacity and building facilities (truck terminals, consolidation centres), freight policies in India have largely been restrictive in nature [ 23 ]. A scenario building approach, perhaps taking into account individual perspectives [ 59 ], has the potential to yield participatory decision-making outcomes related to freight policies.

Negative Externalities of Freight Traffic in Indian Cities

The negative externalities from freight traffic in India are only expected to increase in magnitude, bearing in mind the trends mentioned in previous sections. Negative externalities from freight can be defined as the costs imposed by freight on freight and other traffic, and society in general. These costs are not borne by those causing them, and are not reflected in any economic transaction (i.e. when the good is produced, transported or consumed). These external costs can be broadly categorized into three [ 60 , 61 ]: (i) environmental impacts, (ii) social impacts and (iii) economic impacts, as explained below.

Environmental Impacts

The environmental impacts from freight transport include air pollution, climate change caused by GHG emissions, noise, and water pollution. A multimodal emission assessment shows that the emissions from transport are expected to grow by 4.1–6.1% per year, leading to an increase of seven times by 2050 [ 62 ]. Air pollution is caused by emissions of particulate matter (i.e. microscopic solid or liquid particles in air), carbon monoxide, ozone and hazardous air pollutants such as benzene, which causes cancer and other serious health effects. Most trucks run on diesel, which is more polluting than petrol. Climate change is caused by GHGs. Excessive noise can negatively impact human health, disturb sleep, and cause cardiovascular and psychophysiological problems [ 63 ]. Most of the external costs from trucks in Europe come from noise [ 64 , 65 ]. Water pollution can result from freight transport when there are spills, leakages, or disposal of cargo material in water bodies. Although freight traffic constitutes merely 3% to 15% of total traffic in urban arterials and expressways [ 66 , 67 ], it is estimated to be responsible for up to 50% of road transport emissions [ 68 ]. In the case of noise pollution and vibration hindrance, in general, road freight has a much larger impact than cars [ 64 , 65 ]. Compounding these impacts is the fact that freight trucks used for urban deliveries are generally older and more polluting than trucks used for long-haul shipments [ 69 ]. Finally, land-use changes associated with freight flow and transport infrastructure development are an increasing source of concern as they can cause visual intrusion on environmental landscape, and destruction of habitats and species loss.

Social Impacts

The main negative externality from freight with social impacts is accidents. A significant share of road accidents can be attributed to trucks, as shown in Fig.  11 , based on crash data published by the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi [ 70 ]. The vehicle types include motorized two wheelers (MTWs), three wheel scooter taxis (TSTs), buses, cars, trucks, and others. As it can be seen in Fig.  11 , 72% and 65% of fatal crashes in six-lane national highways and urban highways are associated with trucks as one of the impacting vehicles.

Proportion of impacting vehicle type in fatal crashes (2015–2018).

Source: Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Report, Table 10 [ 70 ]

Economic Impacts

The main externality from road freight that has economic impacts is congestion. Congestion caused by road freight has become a common problem in cities around the world [ 71 ]. In Europe, most of the external cost from trucks comes from congestion (and noise) [ 64 ]. Trucks take between two and four times the road space that cars take, and their speeds also tend to be lower. In addition, due to scarcity or inadequate configuration of loading or unloading bays/zones, freight trucks often double park during their delivery tours [ 72 ], thereby blocking the road for other vehicles. Traffic congestion has substantial negative impacts in terms of reduced productivity and wasted fuel. A high-level estimate of the economic loss resulting from congestion in major cities in India is over 22 billion USD per year [ 61 ]. Two conflicting interests emerge regarding congestion—public authorities aim to reduce freight traffic to improve the attractiveness of their city to residents as well as tourists, while private companies seek to operate at lowest cost with quick deliveries to satisfy consumers’ expectations in a highly competitive market [ 61 ]. The regulations and restrictions brought by public authorities can cause “detour” of delivery vehicles through narrow streets and unsafe delivery areas with low vertical clearance, further exacerbating traffic congestion [ 73 ].

Solution Concepts for Sustainable City Logistics

Considering the past trends, future projections of freight movement in India, a portfolio of solution concepts needs to be proposed and implemented to address negative externalities and inefficiencies in freight transport. We provide a broad overview of these solution concepts in this section and do so under four categories: (i) physical assets such as infrastructure and equipment, (ii) technology and operations, (iii) policy and regulations, and (iv) logistics-driven changes. The first two classes of solution concepts are part of long-term planning and require significant investment and changes to transport infrastructure. The latter two classes are part of short-term planning and they aim to reduce the impact of freight transport within the existing expanse of transport infrastructure. These categories of solution concepts are explained in the next subsections.

Infrastructure Solutions

These solutions include improving the quality and capacity of the road and railway networks and providing multimodal hubs and warehouses. Analyses of commodity movements and freight demand are critical decision-making tools for provision of infrastructure solutions. These solutions are imperative for developing a balanced modal mix and reducing the overall logistics cost, as explained below.

• Improving freight distribution and last-mile logistics: The infrastructure facilities that need to be provided to improve freight distribution and last-mile logistics in urban areas are: (i) curb-level parking infrastructure and loading bays, (ii) exclusive truck lanes and dedicated routes, (iii) urban freight consolidation centres, and (iv) urban logistics spaces and (v) smart lockers. Parking and loading bays are critical for reducing the cruising time for truck traffic since delivery locations in urban areas often lack parking infrastructure. As a result, the inability to find an unloading spot or off-street parking lot leads to double parking and congestion [ 74 ]. Development of reversible lanes (off-peak reorganization of lanes in dense business districts), developmental lines and land-use ordinances are some of the effective solutions for improving parking efficiency [ 72 ]. Exclusive truck routes help for “detouring” freight deliveries away from residential areas in urban areas. These routes need to be designed for anticipated truck traffic levels in terms of vertical clearance, turning radii, sight distances and gradients. Provision of exclusive truck routes helps to streamline freight traffic in such a manner that the operational efficiency of other roads can also be improved. UCCs allow for greatly enhanced loading and routing efficiency in last-mile logistics efficiency. UCCs implementation can reduce freight travel by up to 50% in urban areas [ 37 ]. Urban logistics spaces (ULS) present a less intrusive way of achieving shipment consolidation than UCCs. Logistics operators and shippers typically welcome ULS compared to UCCs since the former are perceived to cause less disruption to lead times and delivery frequency. Smart lockers, or pack stations, are banks of lockers placed in activity centres such as transit stations, malls, grocery stores, to allow end consumers to collect their orders during their daily activity travel pattern, instead of taking delivery at home locations.
• Achieving a balanced modal mix: There are two complementary targets in the roadmap for achieving a balanced modal mix in a country like India where rail freight is having a suboptimal share. One is to look at potential solutions that can foster a modal shift towards rail transport and the other is to facilitate better intermodal transfer between road and rail [ 75 ]. The former category of solutions includes the following: (i) increasing rail network capacity, and (ii) resolving gaps in rail network connectivity. The latter category of solutions includes developing intermodal logistic parks in tandem with dedicated freight corridors, and/or promoting double-stack clearance (stack containers one above the other) of intermodal corridors.
• Reducing inventory costs: Two major solutions exist for reducing inventory costs, a major component of total logistics costs. The first is to improve the quality of warehousing, and the second is to reorganize warehouses to optimal locations. As for the first solution, the quality of warehousing can be improved by investing on automation, cross-docking facilities and refrigeration systems.
• Improving trucking efficiency and productivity: The most important solution to improve trucking efficiency is to ensure that the current highway network keeps in pace with growing freight demand. Another avenue is to standardize logistic practices (e.g. harmonization of pallet and truck standards) and inventory data (e.g. inventory management for better dispatching of trucks).

Technological Solutions

To enable logistics chains, reduce costs, and improve services for customers, freight systems need to be enriched in various technologies. Digitization, coupled with adequate technological support and targeted investment schemes, can integrate the supply chain from demand forecasting stage to shipment consolidation, truck routing and dispatch scheduling [ 76 ]. The potential solutions through these technological, digital and operational advancements can be explained on seven fronts: (i) developing more accurate demand forecasting models through enhanced inventory visibility, (ii) automation of warehouse processes, (iii) deploying inventory data insights in distribution network design to deal with demand volatility, (iv) implementation of just-in-time inventory systems and fostering lean ordering behaviour among establishments, (v) achieving efficiency in truck routing and dispatch through real-time information, (vi) implementing intelligent transport systems (ITS), such as weigh-in-motion systems, delivery space booking systems, and route planning systems, and (vii) promoting carrier collaboration and accomplishing higher levels of operational efficiency through “Internet of Things” applications. These technological solutions are increasingly explored by the new third-party logistics providers, freight forwarders, and trucking companies emerging in the Indian market. For instance, driver relay models are increasingly adopted to reduce the continuous driving time of truck drivers to less than a day, and in turn reduce the turnaround time on long-haul routes (eliminating the driver idling time in the prior operational models). Increased adoption of location tracking solutions and growing presence of fulfilment centres in Indian cities have been helping the emerging logistics companies to eliminate the inefficiencies in the traditional hub-and-spoke model of delivering parcels. By utilizing distributed delivery models (i.e. each arc in the network acting as a hub and a processing centre by itself), the delays in routing the shipments through a hub before reaching the spoke can be avoided with the help of technology. As a result, most of the emerging logistics companies are positioning themselves as supply chain enablers with their own in-house order management systems. The challenges faced by small fleet owners have also come to the focus of the emerging market players in the logistics space with a vast number of software-as-a-service (SAAS) companies working towards hassle-free truck bookings and real-time vehicle tracking. The ongoing efforts as a part of Government of India’s Gati-Shakti national master plan to develop a unified logistic interface platform (ULIP) are expected to further accelerate the efforts of trucking companies and SAAS providers to reduce the overall costs of logistics and time in India.

Policy Interventions

Policy interventions play a crucial role in translating the first two solution classes into action, both in terms of energy demand and economic consequences [ 77 ]. Government departments, such as the Ministry of Shipping and Logistics, can employ a wide-range of policy measures, ranging from taxation instruments (e.g. fuel taxes, excise taxes and tolls) to financial incentives (e.g. tax rebates for supporting greener modes, capital grants) and regulation orders (e.g. vehicle design, entry time, emission standards), as explained below.

• Taxation: Apart from the typical taxes levied on petroleum products (24–25% by the central government and 20–25% by state governments), additional charges such as the ‘green surcharge’ (up to INR 2/litre, or US cents 2.6/litre at April 2022 exchange rates) exist in India, although they do not include diesel vehicles. Introducing such differential charges for trucks can favour a switch to alternate modes, such as electric trucks or rail and water. The political challenges of introducing a carbon tax in developing countries are well known [ 78 ] and require more coordinated efforts in the future to foster a nationwide change to low carbon logistics.
• Financial incentives: The financial support provided by the government varies from initiatives such as off-hour deliveries to incentives for shifting to greener freight modes such as electric trucks. The extent of financial support depends on external factors such as (i) differences in service and infrastructure ownership, (ii) competition policy, (iii) nature of freight market, and (iv) regulations governing financial aid from governments. Incentives also include capital grants to develop rolling stock or vessels for intermodal transfer and terminal development. Depending on the contribution to achieving government-level goals of sustainability, many services and infrastructure provisions can avail discounted infrastructure payments, operating subsidies or revenue supporting grants.
• Supply chain digitization: As discussed in the previous section, digitization of supply chains and enforcement strategies can improve trucking efficiency. For instance, weigh-in-motion (WIM) implementation helps to penalize shipments that are exceeding the allowable limits and helps to identify the defaulters in the freight system; this also allows for effective checkpost clearance since trucks do not need to stop for inspections. The introduction of the electronic way (e-way) bill under tax-reforms like GST has improved clearance times across various states in India.
• Zoning for freight operations: Land-use planning needs to develop designated locations for intermodal facilities such as inland container terminals, which can reduce urban congestion and foster a shift towards smaller commercial vehicles [ 18 ]. For this purpose, premium city space may need to be made available for logistical development near significant freight generating areas [ 19 ]. Another important aspect of land-use planning is to encourage spatial clustering of manufacturing firms that can achieve economies of density, which can lower transport costs down and improve delivery efficiency.
• Zoning for logistic sprawl: Due to increasing land values in city cores, logistic land uses tend to locate farther from the city centre [ 79 ]. This sprawl of logistic facilities increases daily truck kilometres travelled, as well as congestion on urban arterials. By developing an efficient zoning policy for reserving suitable land uses in city centres (e.g. creation of urban logistics spaces or ULS near major retailing chains), logistics sprawl can be reversed. By bringing ULS to city centres, urban residents can also benefit in terms of superior access to goods and services.
• Low emission zones: Low emission zones (LEZ) are geographic areas that limit access to those vehicles meeting certain emission standards [ 80 ]. The purpose of LEZs is to restrict or put a price on the most polluting vehicles if they enter areas in close proximity to urban residents. LEZs are typically proposed in areas where air quality levels are hazardous to society.
• Delivery vehicle restrictions: These are among the most common policy responses taken by public authorities when freight traffic is sharing the same right of way with passenger traffic [ 81 ]. Implementation of these restrictions without the provision of ULS or UCCs are found to have negatives impacts on the regional economy. Besides, these restrictions often turn counterproductive due to increased delivery activity using small vans and three-wheelers. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, delivery vehicle restrictions have received increased attention due to the rising delivery activity in residential areas, largely driven by the emergence of grocery and food delivery companies. As the delivery start-ups are primarily focusing on faster deliveries and increased convenience for consumers, fulfilment/distribution centres are being deployed in the middle of dense urban neighbourhoods and delivery drivers are incentivized to achieve 10-min or 15-min delivery windows. The traffic safety concerns resulting from these delivery vehicles have thus been receiving notable coverage in the newspapers, underlining the requirement of data-driven delivery vehicle restrictions and centralized self-service delivery lockers as a mitigating solution.

Market-Driven Solutions

The final class of solution concepts is related to the market-driven changes that can be implemented in the freight transport sector. These solutions include three broad categories: (i) technological advances, (ii) crowd shipping on transit (COT) programs, and (ii) planning and cooperation initiatives, as explained below.

• Electric and autonomous freight vehicles: A number of technological advances in the freight transport sector have been made in the field of vehicle technology [ 82 – 84 ]. These advances are increasing the fuel efficiency of trucks and reducing emissions through emission filters. Continuous improvements are being made with respect to noise reduction and safety hazards. Furthermore, electric trucks (ETs) and connected and autonomous trucks (CATs) are becoming more scalable and viable alternatives relative to diesel powered trucks [ 85 – 87 ]. Analysis of the passenger transport sector already shows that the policy push for e-vehicles will only reduce GHG emissions if the electricity generated to power these vehicles is produced in a clean manner, i.e. the electricity generation mix needs to have a large share of renewables [ 88 ]. Fostering the replacement of traditional truck fleets with ETs and CATs through incentive schemes and tax reductions will significantly reduce the negative externalities of freight transport. Autonomous delivery robots (ADRs) are another emerging technology in retail and are projected to be a crucial step towards low-carbon last-mile deliveries [ 89 ]. With various tests underway, researchers believe that ADRs could revolutionize the system and reduce delivery costs by 80% to 90%. Although the current state of autonomous delivery still faces substantial challenges, the capabilities of the technology are promising for a country like India, with a fragmented delivery system. There has also been conclusive evidence that autonomous delivery robots (ADRs) can bring carbon emissions down compared to traditional van deliveries, especially when the delivery areas are near to the depot [ 90 ]. The existing policy framework in India, however, does not allow testing of autonomous technology and significant research is required to assess the implementation challenges in enabling CATs, ETs, and ADRs in India. Recent policy initiatives by the Indian government, such as ‘Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles’ (FAME), are a valuable step towards fostering technology advancements in freight transport.
• Crowdshipping on transit: Crowdshipping on transit (COT) is a concept that incorporates the underutilized passenger transport mode capacity and related infrastructure to cover the last mile and deliver freight packages [ 91 ]. Packages are delivered with the help of commuters and other trip makers, who drop the packages off at designated places on their way, for the packages to then be picked up by another trip maker and delivered to the customer at the final destination. While large-scale formal crowdshipping programmes have been missing in Indian cities, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has put a sudden spotlight on introducing COT for enhancing non-ticket revenue of transit systems [ 92 ]. For instance, the public transit agency in Kerala, a Southern state in India, has recently initiated COT programs for parcel service in an attempt to overcome the fall in revenue following the pandemic-induced lockdowns and heightened risk perceptions [ 93 ]. Further research is required to scale up COT programs with the required infrastructure and operational efficiency for last-mile delivery.
• Planning and cooperation initiatives: Business establishments can achieve higher logistic performance by cooperating with other stakeholders in the freight system, utilizing resources more efficiently [ 94 ]. This cooperation can either be horizontal (between same types of establishments active in the same stage of supply chain, such as carriers) or vertical (between different establishments positioned upstream and downstream of a supply chain, such as shippers and carriers). Despite the potential benefits of collaboration among logistics service providers, there is little effective collaboration in practice. In the era of the sharing economy, logistics collaborations have great potential in a country like India towards on-demand logistics, freight consolidation, facility sharing, and warehousing.

Conclusions

This paper has reviewed Indian freight transport research and policies in terms of logistic performance and solution approach for mitigating externalities. What emerges from the discussion is that freight transport is growing substantially in India, mainly due to its growing economy. However, like in Europe and the USA, the share of road transport seems too high, especially bearing in mind the higher negative externalities that road freight causes relative to its main competitor, rail freight. Decreasing this share is not easy because of the fragmentation of receivers and carriers in India. The penetration of the Internet has also triggered, like in most developed and many developing countries, an increase in B2CF, which only increases air pollutant and GHG emissions, and congestion. To make matters worse, some of the policies intended to reduce the externalities from road freight in India are proving counterproductive. Restricting areas or hours of freight deliveries, or banning big trucks, has increased, rather than decreased some externalities. The response has often been to fragment deliveries even further by, for example, using smaller vehicles and making more trips, or delivering during the night when time restrictions do not apply.

A portfolio of solution concepts to overcome the inefficiencies has also been presented. Although there is no one solution that will solve all the problems discussed, the following policy interventions have the potential to make freight more efficient in India and reduce emissions of air pollutants and GHG. Long-term planning and significant investment in infrastructure, including parking and loading bays, exclusive truck routes, consolidation centres, urban logistics spaces and pack stations, increasing road and rail network quality and capacity, could go some way towards integrating road and rail freight and reducing traffic congestion. Short-term planning to reduce the impact of freight transport within the existing expanse of transport infrastructure, including the development of intermodal logistic parks in tandem with dedicated freight corridors, and the promotion of double-stack clearance (stack containers one above the other) of intermodal corridors, would also help to increase the efficiency of the freight transport system in India. Additional interventions could entail developing more accurate demand forecasting models, automating warehouse processes, deploying inventory data insights in distribution network design to deal with demand volatility, implementing just-in-time inventory systems and fostering lean ordering behaviour among establishments, achieving efficiency in truck routing and dispatching through real-time information, implementing intelligent transport systems (ITS), delivering space booking systems, and route planning systems, and promoting electric delivery trucks.

The coordination and implementation of these actions are likely to require financial and time resources, and to encounter some degree of stakeholder backlash. This review has outlined the progress in freight research related to India and provided a framework of solution concepts. India is in a position to leapfrog and make important advances in policy implementation and doing so will increase the efficiency of freight transport, with consequent positive impacts on the economy and the environment.

Funding was provided by the Research Initiation Grant (RIG Head 06/03/302), Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, Hyderabad, India.

Data Availability

Declarations.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Contributor Information

Prasanta K. Sahu, Email: moc.liamg@222uhastnasarp .

Agnivesh Pani, Email: moc.liamg@inaphsevinga .

Georgina Santos, Email: ku.ca.ffidraC@GsotnaS .

• Transportation & Logistics ›

Logistics industry in India - statistics & facts

Road transport, covid-19 impact on the sector, key insights.

Detailed statistics

Size of the logistics industry worldwide 2018-2028

Number of cargo vessels sailed in major ports across India FY 2010-2022

Average warehousing rent in India FY 2022, by city

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Current statistics on this topic.

Size of logistics market in India 2022-2030

Vehicles & Road Traffic

Length of national highways in India FY 2003-2023

Rail Freight

Average railway freight rate per metric ton in India FY 2006-2022

Related topics

Recommended.

• Road and rail infrastructure in India
• Railway industry in India
• Air transportation in India
• Water transportation in India
• Coronavirus (COVID-19) - economic impact on India

Recommended statistics

• Premium Statistic Global logistics market size by region 2020
• Premium Statistic Third-party logistics (3PL) revenue by country 2020
• Premium Statistic Size of logistics market in India 2022-2030
• Premium Statistic Distribution of total logistics costs in India 2022, by type
• Premium Statistic Share of freight logistics in India 2022, by mode
• Premium Statistic Per metric ton kilometer cost of different modes of logistics in India 2021

Global logistics market size by region 2020

Size of the global logistics market in 2020, by region (in billion U.S. dollars)

Third-party logistics (3PL) revenue by country 2020

Third-party logistics (3PL) revenue in 2020, by major country (in billion U.S. dollars)

Size of logistics market in India between 2022 and 2030 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Distribution of total logistics costs in India 2022, by type

Distribution of total logistics costs in India in 2022, by type

Share of freight logistics in India 2022, by mode

Share of freight logistic in India in 2022, by mode

Per metric ton kilometer cost of different modes of logistics in India 2021

Per metric ton kilometer cost of different modes of logistics in India in 2021 (in Indian rupees)

Road and rail

• Premium Statistic Size of road logistics market in India FY 2019-2025
• Premium Statistic Freight movement by road transport India FY 2001-2020
• Premium Statistic Share of road logistics market in India FY 2019-2025, by type
• Premium Statistic Volume of freight carried by Indian railways FY 2010-2022
• Premium Statistic Commodities carried by Indian Railways as a share of production plus imports FY 2022
• Premium Statistic Average railway freight rate per metric ton in India FY 2006-2022

Size of road logistics market in India FY 2019-2025

Size of road logistics market in India in financial year 2019 and 2020, with a forecast for 2025 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Freight movement by road transport India FY 2001-2020

Freight movement by road transportation in India from financial year 2001 to 2020 (in billion metric tons per kilometer)

Share of road logistics market in India FY 2019-2025, by type

Share of road logistics market in India in financial year 2019 and 2020, with a forecast for 2025, by type

Volume of freight carried by Indian railways FY 2010-2022

Volume of freight carried by Indian railways from financial year 2010 to 2022 (in million metric tons)

Commodities carried by Indian Railways as a share of production plus imports FY 2022

Major commodities carried by Indian Railways as a share of total production plus imports in financial year 2022

Average freight rate per metric ton in Indian railways from financial year 2006 to 2022 (in Indian rupees per kilometer)

Air and water

• Premium Statistic Air freight traffic at Indian airports FY 2014-2022, by sector
• Premium Statistic Leading Indian airports FY 2023, by volume of freight
• Premium Statistic Volume of air freight carried to India FY 2022, by leading origin
• Premium Statistic Volume of air freight carried from India FY 2022, by leading destination
• Basic Statistic Total volume of cargo handled in ports across India FY 2008-2022
• Basic Statistic Volume of total cargo handled in India FY 2022, by major port
• Basic Statistic Cargo traffic at Indian ports FY 2022, by type of commodity

Air freight traffic at Indian airports FY 2014-2022, by sector

Air freight handled at Indian airports from financial year 2014 to 2022, by sector (in million metric tons)

Leading Indian airports FY 2023, by volume of freight

Leading airports in India in financial year 2023, by volume of freight (in 1,000 metric tons)

Volume of air freight carried to India FY 2022, by leading origin

Volume of air freight carried to India in financial year 2022, by leading origin (in 1,000 metric tons)

Volume of air freight carried from India FY 2022, by leading destination

Volume of air freight carried from India in financial year 2022, by leading destination (in 1,000 metric tons)

Total volume of cargo handled in ports across India FY 2008-2022

Total volume of cargo handled in ports across India from financial year 2008 to 2022 (in million metric tons)

Volume of total cargo handled in India FY 2022, by major port

Volume of total cargo handled across India in financial year 2022, by major port (in million metric tons)

Cargo traffic at Indian ports FY 2022, by type of commodity

Volume of cargo handled across Indian ports in financial year 2022, by type of commodity (in million metric tons)

• Premium Statistic Warehousing transaction volume in India FY 2022, by city
• Premium Statistic Existing stock for warehousing in leading cities India FY 2022
• Premium Statistic Share of warehousing transactions in India FY 2023, by sector
• Premium Statistic Demand drivers in warehousing in India 2022, by sector
• Premium Statistic Vacancy rate in warehousing stock in leading cities India FY 2022
• Premium Statistic Average warehousing rent in India FY 2022, by city

Warehousing transaction volume in India FY 2022, by city

Annual warehousing transaction volume in India in financial year 2022, by city (in million square meter)

Existing stock for warehousing in leading cities India FY 2022

Existing stock for warehousing in leading cities across India in financial year 2022 (in million square meters)

Share of warehousing transactions in India FY 2023, by sector

Share of warehousing transactions across India in financial year 2023, by sector

Demand drivers in warehousing in India 2022, by sector

Demand drivers in warehousing in India in 2022, by sector

Vacancy rate in warehousing stock in leading cities India FY 2022

Vacancy rate in warehousing stock in leading cities across India in financial year 2022

Average warehousing rent in India in financial year 2022, by city (in Indian rupees per square meter per month)

• Premium Statistic Volume of courier, express and parcel market in India 2014-2021
• Premium Statistic Revenue of third-party logistics industry in India 2017-2028
• Premium Statistic Cold chain industry size India 2022-2027
• Premium Statistic Number of parcels delivered by India Post FY 2016-2022, by type
• Premium Statistic Number of packets delivered by India Post FY 2016-2022, by type

Volume of courier, express and parcel market in India 2014-2021

Volume of courier, express and parcel market (CEP) in India from 2014 to 2021 (in million pieces)

Revenue of third-party logistics industry in India 2017-2028

Revenue of third-party logistics industry (3PL) in India from 2017 to 2024, with forecasts until 2028 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Cold chain industry size India 2022-2027

Size of cold chain industry in India in 2022 with a forecast for 2027 (in million U.S. dollars)

Number of parcels delivered by India Post FY 2016-2022, by type

Number of parcels delivered by India Post from financial year 2016 to 2022, by type (in millions)

Number of packets delivered by India Post FY 2016-2022, by type

Number of packets delivered by India Post from financial year 2016 to 2022, by type (in millions)

• Premium Statistic Leading logistics companies based on net sales in India 2024
• Premium Statistic Leading logistics companies based on market capitalization in India 2023
• Premium Statistic Leading shipping companies based on net profit in India 2024
• Premium Statistic Leading courier companies based on market capitalization in India 2024
• Premium Statistic Market share of e-commerce logistics providers India FY 2023, by provider

Leading logistics companies based on net sales in India 2024

Leading logistics companies based on net sales in India as of March 2024 (in billion Indian rupees)

Leading logistics companies based on market capitalization in India 2023

Leading logistics companies by market capitalization in India as of July 2023 (in billion Indian rupees)

Leading shipping companies based on net profit in India 2024

Leading shipping companies based on net profit in India as of March 2024 (in billion Indian rupees)

Leading courier companies based on market capitalization in India 2024

Leading courier companies based on market capitalization in India as of March 2024 (in billion Indian rupees)

Market share of e-commerce logistics providers India FY 2023, by provider

Market share of e-commerce logistics players in India in financial year 2023, by provider

Further reports Get the best reports to understand your industry

Get the best reports to understand your industry.

Mon - Fri, 9am - 6pm (EST)

Mon - Fri, 9am - 5pm (SGT)

Mon - Fri, 10:00am - 6:00pm (JST)

Mon - Fri, 9:30am - 5pm (GMT)

Mahindra Logistics Case Study

Team thecodework.

Mahindra Logistics, a subsidiary of the Mahindra Group, is a prominent player in the logistics and supply chain management industry in India.

It provides third-party logistics services in India & Internationally and operates through two segments, Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Enterprise Mobility Services.

Mahindra Logistics Limited was incorporated as a Public Limited Company on 24th August 2007 and It was granted the Certificate for Commencement of Business on 15th October 2007 by the Registrar of Companies.

Technological Solutions of Mahindra Logistics

• LOGIONE: It integrates all the technology applications under one roof and provides business intelligence about operations, compliance, safety and other aspects.
• CATAPULT: It’s an incubator program that offers a platform to support, enable, accelerate, and empower the logistics startup community.
• LOGIFREIGHT: It’s a Transport Management System (TMS) that is used to plan, execute, and optimize transport processes.
• LOGIEDEL: This is an IoT-enabled last-mile delivery platform for electric vehicles.

Logistics Market and Revenue

The logistics market in India is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years, driven by the growth of e-commerce and the increasing demand for efficient supply chain management.

• Indian freight and logistics market is estimated to grow at 8.8 per cent annually to  USD 484.43 billion by 2029  from USD 317.26 billion in 2024.
• In 2022, the Indian logistics market was valued at around $274 billion and is estimated to grow to $563 billion by 2030 , at a compound annual growth rate of 9.4 percent . 

This case study highlights the Technological features of Mahindra Logistics, the Industries they provide services to, the geographic locations they are in, the business and revenue model of the company and the Marketing Strategies used by the company.

Let’s develop the next generation of technology for your logistics company just like Mahindra Logistics and shape the future of the industry together.

Contact us now to unlock the full potential of your logistics operations.

Our Content Team at TheCodeWork believes in quality content. We write everything related to startups and products at large. We publish our blog every Wednesday. Subscribe to our newsletter to get notified on our awesome content.

• Noatum Group
• Get to know us
• Our Leadership
• Recognition and awards
• Our history
• Certifications
• Maritime Containers
• Air Containers
• Conversion Tables
• Dangerous goods labels
• Goods tariff code

Freight Management

• Contract Logistics / Warehouse & Distribution
• Customs services
• International Supply Chain Management
• Project cargo logistics
• Reefer Logistics

Automotive & Aerospace

Chemical industry, construction.

• Consumer Electronics
• Industrial Manufacturing

Oil and Gas

• Pharma & Healthcare

Renewable Energy

Case studies.

• Location & Contact
• Maritime containers
• Air containers
• Get a quote

Home / Case Studies

Case Study – Air transport services for mining industry

Our client needed to transport a total of 8 cable reels of 23 tons each from Shanghai. The challenge was to make the shipment in the shortest possible time with reasonable costs.

Case Study – Air Charter for Healthcare

The start of the Covid-19 vaccination campaign was imminent and our client needed regular shipments of syringes from China, where the factory was located, to Peru so they could ensure the vaccination campaign ran smoothly.

Case study – Air charter for the mining sector

Our client needed to urgently ship two conveyor belts from Santiago de Chile to Lima. These conveyor belts are used to move the mineral extracted from the mine into the storage area. Due to their size and weight, more than 60 tonnes, it was necessary to study in detail what would be the best transport solution to deliver in the shortest possible time.

Case Study – Automotive logistics

To create a cost saving solutions with enhanced service levels, whilst maintaining existing structures and warehouse facilities.

Case Study – Retail logistics: LG Harris

When understanding the LG Harris supply chain requirements, Noatum Logistics quickly identified that their buying terms were CIF (cost, insurance, freight) across the majority of their supply base. This prevented shipment visibility for LG Harris until the goods arrived into port. Accounting for over 1,000 TEU per annum was a major headache. The supply chain model was completely reactive with little or no reporting or key-performance-indicator (KPI) management. This created high demurrage charges, inbound-inventory and stock-control challenges at the LG Harris distribution centre (DC) located in the Midlands (UK).

Case Study – Personal care logistics

The customer felt its supply chain was working fine. No pain, no need to change! However, having worked with Noatum Logistics in the past, and experienced improved operations, the new leader was willing to let us review the company’s pricing and route information on outbound shipments to the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and Australia.

Case Study – Outdoor retailer logistics

The retailer faced major challenges with days-in-inventory and capacity at its distribution center (DC). Days-in-inventory time continued to increase over the prior five years The single distribution center experienced overly high storage levels, delays with unloading railcars and shipping containers, and an overall worsening in port-to-DC transit times (hovering around 40 days).

Case Study – Oil & Gas industry

With each unit weighing approximately 32,000 pounds, the company faced high shipping costs for the pumping units sourced from China.

Case Study – Oil and Gas logistics

The customer suspected they were being overcharged for shipping. They were not using freight forwarders, instead allowing manufacturers to arrange for the ocean-freight shipping of the oilfield equipment from China to Canada. Cargo was shipped using fixed load plans with no optimization for larger batches.

Case Study – Mining logistics

An initial assignment was for the movement of Autoclave and Flash Vessel pieces from their manufacturing plant, located 30 miles inland from the Shanghai port, to the mining project 90 miles east of Lima, Peru. The equipment pieces were over size and over weight, requiring special loading/unloading procedures; ocean, rail and ground transportation; and infrastructure modifications.

Case Study – High Tech logistics

With a significant segment of the semiconductor wafer foundry base moving to Asia, our customer decided to relocate operations closer to their end user. Our customer opened an equipment integration facility in Singapore near their customer who provides wafer fabrication equipment. Unfortunately, this move created an increase in real estate and labor costs, thus denying our customer the warehouse space to stage components for assembly and integration.

Case Study – Pharma&Healthcare logistics

Sourcing product from Korea, the customer initially used Noatum Logistics to assist with international freight forwarding and the custom clearance process for shipments to the U.S. As the customer grew their customer base and product offering, it was apparent their outsourced warehouse solution in the U.S. could not keep up with their needs. The end customers’ orders frequently required special packing, rush deliveries, and special project handling, straining the customer’s inventory management practices.

Case Study – Fashion industry logistics: Gant

Capitalise on the retail expertise and capabilities of Noatum Logistics, including our robust warehouse management technologies and local capacity. The benefits of greater inventory visibility and control would cascade into other supply chain functions including transportation, warehousing, distribution and customer service.

Case Study – Consumer Electronics logistics

A leading manufacturer of cell phone accessories was in a crisis. Issues with an overseas partner completely shut down their supply chain. They needed a new logistics services provider to quickly step in and get shipments moving. The manufacturer also recognized the need to rethink its supply chain to gain better control over vendors, reduce costs and achieve more efficient handling of orders.

Case Study – Apparel retailer logistics

A retail client of Noatum Logistics for international freight forwarding services sought additional assistance for improving control over its global supply chain. The client recognized that greater visibility to purchase orders and shipments would lead to better purchasing, transportation and distribution decisions.

Case Study – Industrial Manufacturing logistics

Our customer is a leading multinational manufacturer of automobiles and agricultural machinery. The company entered the U.S. market in 2000; since 2002, Noatum Logistics has handled the company’s customs brokerage at Noatum Logistics’ Houston branch.

Case Study – Fashion industry logistics

Founded in 1920, New Era Cap Company is an American headwear company headquartered in Buffalo, New York. Best known for being the official on-field cap for Major League Baseball, the official sideline cap for the National Football League, and the official on-court cap for the National Basketball Association.

Case Study – High tech firm

The customer, a global provider of secure IP/Ethernet switching solutions, sources products from South China and Taiwan for sales in the United States. They identified cost containment objectives and wanted to improve the overall performance of their supply chain.

Logistics Services

• Freight management

Logistics Solutions

Key industries.

• Automotive Logistics
• Chemicals Logistics
• Construction Logistics
• Fashion Logistics
• Food Logistics
• Furniture Logistics
• Mining Logistics
• Oil and Gas Logistics
• Retail Logistics
• Renewable Energy Logistics
• Case studies

Noatum Logistics is a company of Noatum group

Reach out: [email protected] Whistleblowing: Online portal

© Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved.

• Livro de reclamaçoes
• Privacy Policy
• Legal warning
• Cookies Policy
• All our business are subject to Noatum Logistics USA LLC Terms & Conditions

Select your country

To read this content please select one of the options below:

Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, 3pl practices: an indian perspective.

International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

ISSN : 0960-0035

Article publication date: 1 October 2006

To carry out a comprehensive survey on 3PL practices in India and to establish the impact of usage of third party logistics services on business results.

Design/methodology/approach

Begins by analysing the studies carried out on 3PL practices and establishing a research framework. The input variables to the research framework depict the organization‐specific characteristics, such as the extent of usage of 3PL services, the reasons for outsourcing and the impact of the usage of 3PL services. The output function of future usage of 3PL services is influenced by the three input variables. Data collected through survey questionnaire on the input and output variables are used to establish impact of usage of 3PL services on business performance through statistical analysis.

The usage of 3PL services reveals positive and significant impact on business performance though 3PL practices are still at a nascent stage in India. Additionally, results clearly indicate that significant increase in outsourcing has been planned across all activities of the logistics function in the next 2‐5 years.

Research limitations/implications

Further research work should focus on managing 3PL relationships; selection and contract management of 3PL service providers for building collaborative supply chain partnerships; and identifying critical success factors for 3PL implementation and establishing performance measures for long‐term 3PL relationships.

Practical implications

Detailed study to motivate supply chain managers to outsource and use 3PL services to focus on the core business, drive logistics cost reduction, and improve supply chain efficiency. These indicators should also help the 3PL service providers plan the depth and scope of their service offerings to user organizations in India.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the current 3PL and supply chain practices and the emerging trends in 3PL services for achieving improved business results and supply chain efficiencies.

• Supply chain management
• Outsourcing

Sahay, B.S. and Mohan, R. (2006), "3PL practices: an Indian perspective", International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management , Vol. 36 No. 9, pp. 666-689. https://doi.org/10.1108/09600030610710845

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles

We’re listening — tell us what you think, something didn’t work….

Report bugs here

All feedback is valuable

Please share your general feedback

Join us on our journey

Platform update page.

Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates

Questions & More Information

Answers to the most commonly asked questions here

Porter Case Study

Porter improves open rates and saves significant sms costs migrating to sendbird notifications.

Customer Porter

Product Notifications

Vertical Marketplace

Country India

Drive growth and reduce costs with omnichannel business messaging

Porter: Increasing time and cost savings with Sendbird's notification service

Founded in 2014, Porter is one of India's leading logistics companies providing intra-city and inter-city services. Working towards the company's vision of 'moving a billion dreams, one delivery at a time,' Porter has serviced over 1 crore (ten million) customers across 19+ cities in India, with a workforce of 2,600 employees. The company strives to improve the lives of over 5 lakh (500,000) driver-partners by providing them with financial access, affordability, and financial independence. Founded by Pranav Goel, Uttam Digga & Vikas Choudhary, Porter has disrupted various logistics domains by launching an on-demand marketplace for trucks, bikes, and Packers & Movers.

Business Challenge: Scaling communication by using a notification service

Porter's rapid growth meant that the company needed to communicate with existing driver-partners while also onboarding new drivers daily so that drivers could find and act on important messages when required. Today, Porter sends approximately 10 million messages per month across their 5 million monthly active users. These include transactional, operational, and marketing messages such as how much driver-partners will be earning, payment forms and amounts, incentives for delivering a minimum amount of orders, logging in from particular areas, responding to ads, etc.

The company used standard mobile communications channels to reach its driver-partners, such as push notifications, SMS, and WhatsApp. However, the team responsible for driver communication saw signs that drivers were receiving but not actually digesting communications, such as increased support tickets and incentive programs.

SMS and WhatsApp were expensive channels, with each unread or undelivered message adding up quickly while not achieving desired outcomes. SMS was a "black box," according to the product team. WhatsApp faced specific challenges as the opt-in nature of the app is a significant blocker, combined with the abundance of spam that dissuades users from opening promotional messages. Porter knew their messages were being delivered to driver-partners, but they had no way of knowing if they were being read or acted upon by driver-partners.

Push notifications were ephemeral, meaning once dismissed, the message was lost forever, and driver-partners could not reaccess important messages. Even after receiving operational messages over Push or SMS, driver-partners would still need to call customer support teams for information related to delivery assignments. Such fragmented and ineffective communication affected customer support bandwidth and increased costs — affecting the bottom line.

Porter's product team saw an opportunity to communicate directly with driver-partners in-app but did not have a way to do this without investing in building a persistent in-app communications experience. The company looked to find an existing enterprise-grade, white-label solution to send operational, transactional, and marketing messages. This would ensure driver-partners could find and act on important messages when needed.

Why Sendbird's in-app notifications?

To draw inspiration for solving its notifications delivery and communication challenges, Porter's product team looked to how other leading businesses regionally and globally were solving similar issues. In this search, Porter found Sendbird, an enterprise conversations platform serving thousands of companies worldwide.

Sendbird Notifications could quickly integrate into Porter's existing app and enable the business to send a high volume of always-accessible messages to its driver-partners in a familiar user experience. Porter Product Manager Apurva Shetty said that with Sendbird Notifications, "messages sent directly to driver-partners persist in a dedicated part of the app, so users know exactly what is being sent to them, where to find these messages, and more easily track important correspondence and notifications. This is what we needed for our delivery at Porter."

Shetty elaborated that the additional functionality with Sendbird to display messages by type in a customized view was exciting for the product team to help successfully communicate a high volume of messages to driver-partners.

"The ability to segregate different types of messages was a huge wow factor for us and would really bring more insight and clarity into our driver-partners' lives," states Shetty.

Results of scaling with Sendbird's in-app notification service

The Porter team successfully migrated its core operational and transactional messages to driver-partners from SMS to in-app with Sendbird. Shetty explains how choosing to build with Sendbird benefited his team, “Buying Sendbird instead of building Notifications from scratch ourselves saved a huge amount of engineering bandwidth on our end because all we had to do is just create one channel for every user, which could be created on the fly using your APIs.”

In addition to developer time-savings, Porter also experienced significant cost savings by migrating operational and transactional messages from SMS to within the Porter app using Sendbird's in-app notifications service. So far the team has calculated that the switch off of SMS to Sendbird has saved the company 30% in operational costs. Additionally, the Porter team expects to see a decline in costly contact center calls by delivering a better in-app messaging experience for its driver partners. 

Sendbird Notifications enables Porter to offer an engaging and flexible user experience to communicate with driver-partners. Driver-partners will be able to easily view multimedia notifications, such as CTAs when wallet money is running low, the announcement and training of new features as they're launched, SLA messages to hold driver-partners accountable, add-on services such as insurance for vehicles, microfinance loans, and much more.

For example, when a driver needs to be credited money to their wallet, they would previously receive a notification over SMS or push. These messages would get lost, leading to increased support costs. With Sendbird, Porter will now deliver these messages in-app, creating one place for drivers to receive and reread important messages at any time.

"The flexibility that Sendbird provides allows us to create a dedicated space in our app to deliver these messages and create a familiar experience for users to easily find messages that need their attention, again and again." With Sendbird, messages will no longer go unnoticed or lost. Already the team has seen Sendbird Notifications drive a 78% open rate among its driver-partners .

All of these proponents unify with Porter's core goal of modernizing delivery across India. As adoption continues to increase between customers and driver-partners, Porter plans to explore other Sendbird Notifications features, such as pinned notifications, to make finding and acting on notifications even easier.

Shetty concludes, "With an amazing support team in our region and our specific Notifications use cases addressed out of the box with the extremely flexible solution, Sendbird was an easy decision for us."

Since day one, Sendbird has partnered with AWS to establish itself as a leading conversations platform that enables a secure, global, and scalable in-app conversation experience. Sendbird is an AWS advanced tier technology partner operating 45+ AWS native services in 9 regions. Thanks to Amazon’s AWS Auto Scaling and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud services, Sendbird manages massive digital traffic sending billions of messages monthly. Using Elastic Load Balancing and Amazon Route53 geolocation functions, Sendbird ensures reliable global traffic distribution. Sendbird also leverages AWS CloudFormation to automate its servers’ management in each region efficiently. Lastly, AWS Elasticache and Amazon Aurora allow Sendbird to achieve millisecond latency and data storage for over 300 million monthly active users. Sendbird’s world-class conversation platform architecture and technical foundations are certified by AWS.

Related Case Studies

Ready for the next level.

Advancing the entrepreneurship ecosystem of India: A qualitative study with Chevening Fellows

• Published: 26 December 2023

Cite this article

• Kamal Gulati 1 ,
• Amrik Sohal 2 ,
• Tharaka de Vass 2 &
• Nrupal Das 3  

268 Accesses

Explore all metrics

Using social cognitive theory as a guide, this research seeks to explain the perceptions of current and aspiring Indian entrepreneurs. A multiple case study approach using 19 interviews with intellectuals provided qualitative data to conduct a cross-case analysis of the two groups with the qualitative analysis software NVivo. Rare insights from current and aspiring opportunity-motivated entrepreneurial Chevening Fellowships from a predominantly necessity-motivated context offer valuable insights into entrepreneurship in India. The findings reveal what entrepreneurship means to established entrepreneurs, their motivation for embarking on the entrepreneurial journey, the skills they require to be successful, the challenges they face and their strategies to sustain are mostly different to what aspiring entrepreneurs believe how it would be. Compiled recommendations may help strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem, particularly in developing economy contexts, to help improve the 10% startup success rate.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Entrepreneurship: Practice-Based Theorizing

Social Entrepreneurship and Social Learning: The View from Mount Nebo

Foundations for Social Entrepreneurship: An Integrative Indian Perspective

Abosede, A. J., & Onakoya, A. B. (2013). Intellectual entrepreneurship: Theories, purpose and challenges. International Journal of Business Administration , 4 (5), 30.

Al Halbusi, H., Soto-Acosta, P., & Popa, S. (2022). Entrepreneurial passion, role models and self-perceived creativity as antecedents of e-entrepreneurial intention in an emerging Asian economy: The moderating effect of social media, Asia Pacific Journal of Management , 1–32.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-022-09857-2

Al-Shaikh, F. N. (2013). Opportunities and challenges of entrepreneurship in developing countries: The case of Jordan. Journal for International Business and Entrepreneurship Development, 7 (2), 163–178.

Article   Google Scholar  

Amit, M., Carpenter, M. K., Inokuma, M. S., Chiu, C.-P., Harris, C. P., Waknitz, M. A., Itskovitz-Eldor, J., & Thomson, J. A. (2000). Clonally derived human embryonic stem cell lines maintain pluripotency and proliferative potential for prolonged periods of culture. Developmental Biology, 227 (2), 271–278.

Amorós, J. E., Cristi, O., & Naudé, W. (2021). Entrepreneurship and subjective well-being: Does the motivation to start-up a firm matter? Journal of Business Research, 127 , 389–398.

Atiase, V. Y. (2017). Impact of credit risk management practices on micro financing the poor for poverty alleviation in Africa: Insights from Ghana . Central University of Technology, Free State.

Google Scholar  

Baron, R. A. (2013). Enhancing entrepreneurial excellence: Tools for making the possible real . Edward Elgar Publishing.

Book   Google Scholar  

Chevening Fellowships. (2023). Available at: https://www.chevening.org/fellowships/

De Vass, T., Nand, A. A., Bhattacharya, A., Prajogo, D., Croy, G., Sohal, A., & Rotaru, K. (2023). Transitioning to a circular economy: lessons from the wood industry. The International Journal of Logistics Management, 34 (3), 582–610.

Diandra, D., & Azmy, A. (2020). Understanding definition of entrepreneurship. International Journal of Management, Accounting and Economics, 7 (5), 235–241.

Eniola, A. A. (2021). The entrepreneur motivation and financing sources. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity , 7 (1), 25.

Frank, A. I. (2007). Entrepreneurship and enterprise skills: A missing element of planning education? Planning Practice and Research, 22 (4), 635–648.

Ghafar, A. (2020). Convergence between 21st century skills and entrepreneurship education in higher education institutes. International Journal of Higher Education, 9 (1), 218–229.

Goyal, S., Sergi, B. S., & Jaiswal, M. P. (2016). Understanding the challenges and strategic actions of social entrepreneurship at base of the pyramid. Management Decision, 54 (2), 418–440.

Hassan, A., Anwar, I., Saleem, I., Islam, K. M. B., & Hussain, S. A. (2021). Individual entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention: The mediating role of entrepreneurial motivations. Industry and Higher Education, 35 (4), 403–418.

Hessels, J., & Naudé, W. (2019). The intersection of the fields of entrepreneurship and development economics: A review towards a new view. Journal of Economic Surveys, 33 (2), 389–403.

Human Development Report. (2020). https://hdr.undp.org/system/files/documents/hdr2020pdf.pdf . (Page No. 405).

IBEF. (2023). India Brand Equity Foundation 2013 . Available at: https://www.ibef.org/

Jha, S. K. (2018). Entrepreneurial ecosystem in India: Taking stock and looking ahead. IIMB Management Review, 30 (2), 179–188.

Kalyanasundaram, G. (2018). Why do startups fail? A case study based empirical analysis in Bangalore. Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy, 7 (1), 79–102.

Kapinga, A. F., & Montero, C. S. (2017). Exploring the socio-cultural challenges of food processing women entrepreneurs in Iringa, Tanzania and strategies used to tackle them. Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 7 (1), 17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40497-017-0076-0

Kuratko, D. F., & Audretsch, D. B. (2009). Strategic entrepreneurship: Exploring different perspectives of an emerging concept. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 33 (1), 1–17.

Murnieks, C. Y., Klotz, A. C., & Shepherd, D. A. (2019). Entrepreneurial motivation: A review of the literature and an agenda for future research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 41 (2), 115–143.

Naradda Gamage, S. K., Ekanayake, E. M. S., Abeyrathne, G. A. K. N. J., Prasanna, R. P. I. R., Jayasundara, J. M. S. B., & Rajapakshe, P. S. K. (2020). A review of global challenges and survival strategies of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Economies, 8 (4), 79.

Ratten, V. (2014). Encouraging collaborative entrepreneurship in developing countries: The current challenges and a research agenda. Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, 6 (3), 298–308.

Sariwulan, T., Suparno, S., Disman, D., Ahman, E., & Suwatno, S. (2020). Entrepreneurial performance: The role of literacy and skills. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 7 (11), 269–280.

Shastri, S., Shastri, S., Pareek, A., & Sharma, R. S. (2021). Exploring women entrepreneurs’ motivations and challenges from an institutional perspective: Evidences from a patriarchal state in India. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, 16 (4), 653–674.

Smallbone, D., Welter, F., & Ateljevic, J. (2014). Entrepreneurship in emerging market economies: Contemporary issues and perspectives. International Small Business Journal, 32 (2), 113–116.

Stam, E., & van de Ven, A. (2021). Entrepreneurial ecosystem elements. Small Business Economics, 56 (2), 809–832.

StartupBlink. (2023). Startup Ecosystem Report 2022-2023 . Available at: https://lp.startupblink.com/report/

Sun, S. L., Shi, W., Ahlstrom, D., & Tian, L. (2020). Understanding institutions and entrepreneurship: The microfoundations lens and emerging economies. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 37 (4), 957–979.

World Bank. (2023). Ease of doing business rank 2019-2023 . Available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/businessready

Wurth, B., Stam, E., & Spigel, B. (2022). Toward an entrepreneurial ecosystem research program. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 46 (3), 729–778.

Yin, R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods (Vol. 5). Sage Publications.

Download references

Acknowledgements

Authors gratefully acknowledge the support of Chevening fellows who consented to participate in this study, Chevening Secretariat, Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office, Prof. Richard Briant, University of Oxford, Prof. John Hoffmaire, Chairman, Oxford Pharmaceuticals, Ms. Sarah Fallon, Regional Director, Science and Innovation, British High Commission New Delhi, Ms. Supriya Chawla, Head Chevening Scholarships India for their support.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Centralized Core Research Facility, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

Kamal Gulati

Department of Management, Monash Business School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Amrik Sohal & Tharaka de Vass

Paysafe, Jacksonville, FL, USA

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amrik Sohal .

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Gulati, K., Sohal, A., de Vass, T. et al. Advancing the entrepreneurship ecosystem of India: A qualitative study with Chevening Fellows. Asia Pac J Manag (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-023-09940-2

Download citation

Accepted : 19 November 2023

Published : 26 December 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-023-09940-2

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Entrepreneurship
• Cross case analysis
• Motivations
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

Advertisement

Supported by

Hot Oceans Worsened Dubai’s Dramatic Flooding, Scientists Say

An international team of researchers found that heavy rains had intensified in the region, though they couldn’t say for sure how much climate change was responsible.

• Share full article

By Raymond Zhong

Scenes of flood-ravaged neighborhoods in one of the planet’s driest regions stunned the world this month. Heavy rains in the United Arab Emirates and Oman submerged cars, clogged highways and killed at least 21 people. Flights out of Dubai’s airport, a major global hub, were severely disrupted.

The downpours weren’t a total surprise — forecasters had anticipated the storms several days earlier and issued warnings. But they were certainly unusual.

Here’s what to know.

Heavy rain there is rare, but not unheard-of.

On average, the Arabian Peninsula receives a scant few inches of rain a year, although scientists have found that a sizable chunk of that precipitation falls in infrequent but severe bursts, not as periodic showers. These rains often come during El Niño conditions like the ones the world is experiencing now.

U.A.E. officials said the 24-hour rain total on April 16 was the country’s largest since records there began in 1949 . And parts of the nation had already experienced an earlier round of thunderstorms in March.

Oman, with its coastline on the Arabian Sea, is also vulnerable to tropical cyclones. Past storms there have brought torrential rain, powerful winds and mudslides, causing extensive damage.

Global warming is projected to intensify downpours.

Stronger storms are a key consequence of human-caused global warming. As the atmosphere gets hotter, it can hold more moisture, which can eventually make its way down to the earth as rain or snow.

But that doesn’t mean rainfall patterns are changing in precisely the same way across every part of the globe.

In their latest assessment of climate research , scientists convened by the United Nations found there wasn’t enough data to have firm conclusions about rainfall trends in the Arabian Peninsula and how climate change was affecting them. The researchers said, however, that if global warming were to be allowed to continue worsening in the coming decades, extreme downpours in the region would quite likely become more intense and more frequent.

Hot oceans are a big factor.

An international team of scientists has made a first attempt at estimating the extent to which climate change may have contributed to April’s storms. The researchers didn’t manage to pin down the connection precisely, though in their analysis, they did highlight one known driver of heavy rain in the region: above-normal ocean temperatures.

Large parts of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans have been hotter than usual recently, in part because of El Niño and other natural weather cycles, and in part because of human-induced warming .

When looking only at El Niño years, the scientists estimated that storm events as infrequent as this month’s delivered 10 percent to 40 percent more rain to the region than they would in a world that hadn’t been warmed by human activities. They cautioned, however, that these estimates were highly uncertain.

“Rainfall, in general, is getting more extreme,” said Mansour Almazroui, a climate scientist at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and one of the researchers who contributed to the analysis.

The analysis was conducted by scientists affiliated with World Weather Attribution, a research collaboration that studies extreme weather events shortly after they occur. Their findings about this month’s rains haven’t yet been peer reviewed, but are based on standardized methods .

The role of cloud seeding isn’t clear.

The U.A.E. has for decades worked to increase rainfall and boost water supplies by seeding clouds. Essentially, this involves shooting particles into clouds to encourage the moisture to gather into larger, heavier droplets, ones that are more likely to fall as rain or snow.

Cloud seeding and other rain-enhancement methods have been tried around the world, including in Australia, China, India, Israel, South Africa and the United States. Studies have found that these operations can, at best, affect precipitation modestly — enough to turn a downpour into a bigger downpour, but probably not a drizzle into a deluge.

Still, experts said pinning down how much seeding might have contributed to this month’s storms would require detailed study.

“In general, it is quite a challenge to assess the impact of seeding,” said Luca Delle Monache, a climate scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. Dr. Delle Monache has been leading efforts to use artificial intelligence to improve the U.A.E.’s rain-enhancement program.

An official with the U.A.E.’s National Center of Meteorology, Omar Al Yazeedi, told news outlets that the agency didn’t conduct any seeding during the latest storms. His statements didn’t make clear, however, whether that was also true in the hours or days before.

Mr. Al Yazeedi didn’t respond to emailed questions from The New York Times, and Adel Kamal, a spokesman for the center, didn’t have further comment.

Cities in dry places just aren’t designed for floods.

Wherever it happens, flooding isn’t just a matter of how much rain comes down. It’s also about what happens to all that water once it’s on the ground — most critically, in the places people live.

Cities in arid regions often aren’t designed to drain very effectively. In these areas, paved surfaces block rain from seeping into the earth below, forcing it into drainage systems that can easily become overwhelmed.

One recent study of Sharjah , the capital of the third-largest emirate in the U.A.E., found that the city’s rapid growth over the past half-century had made it vulnerable to flooding at far lower levels of rain than before.

Omnia Al Desoukie contributed reporting.

Raymond Zhong reports on climate and environmental issues for The Times. More about Raymond Zhong

• Skip to page navigation
• Skip to main content

Fast E-Commerce Logistics That Meet Expectations

European fulfillment network enables fast, scalable launch for b2c food and beverage business.

Its mission is to curate an extensive range of high quality exotic food brands from countries around the world for customers who enjoy wholesale prices.

As a relatively new entrant to the e-commerce market, Jamoona attaches great importance to providing exceptional customer service in fulfilling online orders.

Customer Challenge

• Lacked e-commerce experience and expertise
• Required fast implementation
• Needed ability to scale

DHL Supply Chain Solution

• European Fulfillment Network – standardized B2C e-commerce service
• Next-day deliveries in key European markets
• Fast implementation within three months

Customer Benefits

• Leveraging DHL e-commerce expertise
• Enables business growth
• Speed of delivery
• High standards of customer service

Owned by an established and successful B2B wholesaler which had grown quickly, Jamoona is its distinct B2C brand and web store.

Jamoona was created in order to directly supply its products to end customers online. It therefore needed to accelerate the e-commerce launch and quickly start selling online via its own web stores in Europe. A partner was needed that could implement its plans quickly, that had significant expertise and knowledge in e-commerce and that could help make the launch a success.

Jamoona had a clear vision of how it planned to move into e-commerce, but lacked the expertise and experience in e-fulfillment operations to execute this vision.

The company planned to launch initially in Germany, before rapidly scaling up business in other European markets.

Jamoona’s key requirements were ideally suited to the capabilities of the DHL European Fulfillment Network (EFN) and it became one of the first customers of this new, standardized B2C e-commerce service.

The EFN enables next-day deliveries to be made in all the key European markets, via its distributed footprint of over 30 specialized e-commerce sites. These are independent of, but able to compete with, the e-commerce giants and marketplaces.

Especially relevant to Jamoona was the EFN characteristic of fast implementation. Businesses can be up and running within three months, using standardized processes and systems, and even faster node activation is possible once part of the Network.

The service is also scalable – another important requirement, given Jamoona’s fast growth plans. Market expansion, agility and growth are all supported by the EFN’s pay-per-use commercials and volume-based rate cards.

DHL was able to execute the Jamoona vision as a result of its expertise in e-commerce, logistics and transport, the last mile services it could provide for end customers and the speed of delivery that’s expected of today’s e-commerce businesses.

The EFN has enabled Jamoona to scale up its B2C business in line with its needs and strategic priorities.

Its first site in Langenfeld, Germany launched successfully, and will soon be followed in 2021 by its second site in the UK, before expanding into other European markets.

The network’s flexible scaling and transactional commercials are enabling and supporting business growth, and Jamoona is delighted with the solution and performance.

It is currently looking to further upscale both its volumes with the EFN and its relationship with DHL.

• European Fulfillment Network Enables Fast, Scalable Launch for B2C Food and Beverage Business pdf 259.0 KB

• India Today
• Business Today
• Reader’s Digest
• Harper's Bazaar
• Brides Today
• Cosmopolitan
• Aaj Tak Campus
• India Today Hindi

Indian students are choosing Canada over US for education. Here's why

A study by the national foundation for american policy (nfap) shows a significant shift in the destination indian students are choosing for education. canada saw an increase of 5,800% in the number of indian students, while it was 45% in the case of the us..

Listen to Story

• After studies, international students gain permanent residency in Canada in a few years
• US has limits on employment-based green cards, and Indians have to wait for decades
• The pandemic hit enrolment numbers in the US, but Indian student numbers have bounced back

Recent years have witnessed a surge in enrolment by Indian students at Canadian universities, according to a study by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP). The report highlights a remarkable increase in the number of Indian students opting for Canada over the United States for higher education.

Indian enrolment at Canadian universities rose more than 5,800% in the last two decades, according to the NFAP. The number of Indian students in the US, in comparison, grew by just 45% between 2000 and 2021.

The NFAP is a non-profit policy think tank.

The NFAP study says that after finishing studies, international students in Canada can become permanent residents in a few years.

But in the US, there are limits on employment-based green cards, meaning educated people from India might wait decades for permanent residency.

The Trump administration made getting H-1B status harder and talked about adding new restrictions or removing Optional Practical Training for students, which might have discouraged international students from going to US universities, according to NFAP.

In January, Canada announced a two-year cap for international students , which was later expanded.

For the first time, starting in September, Canada will limit the number of 'temporary residents' it will admit.

This includes temporary foreign workers, those admitted under humanitarian and asylum programmes.

Before this, only annual targets were set for permanent residents.

Additionally, there might be a short-term impact on Indian student applications due to diplomatic issues between India and Canada.

PATHWAY TO PERMANENT RESIDENCY

The research underscores the attractiveness of Canada's immigration policies for international students. Graduates in Canada have the opportunity to gain permanent residency within a few years after graduation, unlike the US, where the process can entail long waiting periods, according to NFAP.

The number of Indians moving to Canada has gone up a lot since 2013. Between 2013 and 2023, the number rose from 32,828 to 139,715, a 326% increase. This increase was fuelled by more Indian students going to Canadian universities.

The number of international students at Canadian universities went up from 62,223 in 2000 to 400,521 in 2021, a 544% increase. International students have been really important for Canadian universities. Since 2000, 45% of the growth in enrolment at Canadian universities is because of international students.

The increase in Indian students has played a big role in the rise of international students coming to Canada. Over the last two decades, the number of Indian students at Canadian universities went up by over 5,000%.

Specifically, Indian enrolment went from 2,181 in 2000 to 128,928 in 2021, an increase of 126,747 or 5,811%. This increase accounts for 37% of the overall rise in international students at Canadian universities from 2000 to 2021. However, there might be fewer visas issued to Indian students in the short term due to a diplomatic issue.

Over the same period, the number of international students in the US also went up, but at a slower rate compared to Canada. Between 2000 and 2021, the number of international students in US universities increased from 526,809 to 763,760, a rise of 236,951 or 45%. This is less than the over 500% increase seen in international students at Canadian universities during the same time.

In January 2015, Canada started the Express Entry program, which gives preference to skilled professionals who have studied in Canada or worked there temporarily. Then, in June 2017, Canada launched its Global Skills Strategy to attract top foreign talent and encourage foreign investment by making it easier for companies to set up offices in Canada.

LONG WAITS FOR PERMANENT RESIDENCY

Highly skilled Indians often face long waits for employment-based immigrant visas, sometimes lasting decades. More than 1.2 million Indians, including their families, are waiting in line for these visas, as the annual limit of 140,000 green cards and the per-country limit have led to these lengthy waits. These limits have not changed since 1990.

The pandemic affected enrolment numbers in the US, but Indian student numbers might have bounced back somewhat. In 2021, there were around 130,994 Indian students, similar to the 129,135 in 2016. In 2022, Indian student enrolment (excluding OPT) was 199,861, likely due to lower enrollment during the pandemic. The average enrolment for Indian students during the fall from 2020 to 2022 was 141,612, which was 29,661 or 26% higher than in fall 2019.

Indian graduate students at US universities saw a decline of 28% in computer science and 35% in engineering between 2016-17 and 2019-20.

In 2020, Indian graduate students in engineering and computer science continued to decline. In 2022, Indian student graduate-level enrolment in engineering was 33,820, lower than the 39,470 in 2016 but much higher than the levels in 2019 (25,470) and 2020 (18,390).

Indian enrolment at Canadian universities went up a lot from 2,181 in 2000 to 128,928 in 2021, a big increase of 126,747 or 5,811%. This rise in Indian students makes up 37% of the total increase in international students at Canadian universities from 2000 to 2021, according to NFAP. Published By: Girish Kumar Anshul Published On: Apr 25, 2024