THE SUPPLY CHAIN IS THE FULCRUM OF ECONOMIC GROWTH

The National Logistics Policy 2022 will establish a single-window e-logistics market. It aims to help development, uplift MSMEs and enhance India's market and in skills export competitiveness

- Srinath Sridharan

IN THE GLOBALLY INTERLINKED, or rather intertwined, society that we live in, supply chain efficiencies can be amatter of life or death for an economy. Just as we saw during the Covid lockdown, the ability to move cargo as much as the population, isa civilisational prerogative. Itis also an economic compulsion in the geopolitically sensitive times we are in. Historically kings and emperors had shown the way to use waterways, much before roadways. They had even conducted global trade, using the power of the solar system, the seas, and human ingenuity.

The modern variant of this is the adaptation of digital, policy, trade and commerce. It is also one of the increasingly complex web of interactions between people, businesses, governments, scattered supply chains across countries and regions, and even in smaller geographic units. Competing in the modern day global trade needs efficient connectivity along roads, rail, sky and sea, and also in technology and digital, financial services and telecommunications. Supply chains have a huge impact on the way economies shape up, the way nations are built, and importantly, on how human behaviours are shaped. Imagine, how the world would have been impacted by a shortage in the Covid vaccine! We saw how we suffered and behaved when we had ashortage of oxygen tents and hospital beds. It comes down tothe humble unseen unsung supply chain!