Venue: Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

Attendee: Mr. Aritro Dasgupta

Segments

There were 2 segments of the Summit:

• Conference
• Exhibition

Details

Conference

On Friday, 27^th February, the following sessions were held:

GST Impact & Preparing for Post GST Scenario

The table below lists the panel members in the discussion along with their respective roles in the session.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) has become a buzzword in the business and economics circles these days due to the great liberating potential that this tax has. This tax has the potential to become an all-inclusive one which will reduce the logjams presently so common across all state borders and business corridors. The entire panel felt that the tolls and VAT can get reduced and thus this is a positive step.

Impact of Revised Land Acquisition Act on Logistics Infrastructure Growth

The table below lists the panel members in the discussion along with their respective roles in the session.

A picture shown in one of the presentations in this session perfectly illustrates the conundrums within which the logistics and the broader infrastructure sector needs to work within. There are always way too many stakeholders involved in any major project dealing with transport, roads, railways, cargo etc. The picture showed a person who is symbolic of the logistics sector, trapped in between two giant elephants. The person has to work within these 2 extremes to somehow deliver the results intended.

The old Land Acquisition Act was developed during the period of British rule and the primary tone of that act was to enable industrial development often at the cost of local people. But due to the marginalization of local people especially tribals and the inefficient method of compensation to the land owners, this act came under scrutiny. Thus there was a need for such a new act which finally came up in 2013.

The representatives from the logistics and supply chain industry feel that in either case, the impact on them is not very positive. Rather there still remain the extremely long lines at border crossings which render transport of goods from one part of the country to another rather inefficient and painstaking. One of the speakers questioned whether it would ever be possible in an ideal world to completely get rid of tolls. He also mentioned that the Goods & Services Tax (GST) was a positive step towards accomplishing this.

One of the speakers meanwhile stressed on the importance of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and how they in the future will be able to contribute much more to an efficient logistics sector. He was full of praise for the Golden Quadrilateral road that has been constructed to link the four major metropolitan cities from the four corners of India. He mentioned that the Golder Quadrilateral has reduced travel time by a substantial percentage.

Impact of Enhancing Regional Transport Links in South Asia

The table below lists the panel members in the discussion along with their respective roles in the session.

One of the most important sessions of the summit was this one which dealt with the transport links in the entire SAARC (south Asia) region and what impact those have on the logistics. One of the speakers posed a rhetoric question to the audience: he asked how many of us are wearing Bangladeshi T-Shirts. He further asked that among those who are knowingly wearing them, how many of us will proudly acknowledge so. Therein lay the paradox. The speaker stated that Bangladesh is a manufacturing giant especially in footwear and apparels. He explained how apparel and footwear giants got a lot of their products made in Bangladesh at cheap rates, then got them imported to North America or Europe at marked up rates and then re-exported to the other parts of the developing world including India at much pricier rates. Indians assumed these products were made in America or Europe whereas they were produced by our next door neighbouring country.

The panelists also spoke at length about the logjam regarding trade within the SAARC region and how it was actually cheaper to export to Europe or east Asia than south Asia as there were too many bureaucratic hurdles and much corruption on the borders. Also a very important point was made regarding the fact that trade over sea or air was more efficient than road as sea and air ports were linked with the bigger cities of our neighbouring countries as opposed to land borders where mainly small towns or border outposts only were present and these did not have modern amenities. Another faux pax in our relations within south Asia was highlighted by the fact that trade between India and Pakistan faces many hurdles and so it needs to be directed via places like Dubai.

Another key observation made by one of the speakers was that Afghanistan was a particular basket case within this group. While south Asia overall can be considered backward on most socio-economic parameters, Afghanistan’s statistics are particularly dismal. Thus the overall group’s bargaining power internationally comes down due to this particular case and even now very few business groups are seriously looking at trading ties with the country

Finally one more observation made by a speaker in this session was the peculiar case where international cooperatives are formed with the purpose of business and economic growth. Yet, it is politicians of respective member countries who sign deals, often with limited understanding of what is appropriate for the business perspectives. The speakers in the session feel that such decisions must be made by the business community and not the political ruling class as then politics overrules all other matters.

Impact of e-Commerce on Logistics Sector

The table below lists the panel members in the discussion along with their respective roles in the session.

Mr. Sukhwinder Singh started this session by pointing out to us a few usual headlines on a normal working day from the business paper- Economic Times. The idea of showing us the same was to make us realize how on any normal day, e-business or e-commerce has such a massive coverage on newsprint. And the graph is always on the up. Words like ‘rise, 30% increase, upswing, exponential growth’ etc. keep popping up throughout the business papers regarding these streams of business.

Another speaker mentioned how the return supply chain which never existed before has increased exponentially due to the concept of goods being returned by the end user. This has led to complications along the chain. The panel also discussed how today the likes of Snapdeal, Flipkart, Jabong and Amazon have become household names.

Exhibition

The exhibition was quite grand and had stalls from major players in the logistics and supply chain industries. Some of the players with stalls at the exhibition included:

• Adani Group
• Volve Eicher
• Agarwal Packers & Movers
• Air India Cargo
• Roambee
• Trans-reporter
• Bar Code India Ltd.
• VRL Logistics
• Distribution Logistics Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.
• LMJ Logistics
• Watrana Traction
• Far Eye
• GITH
• Puma Lift Trucks Pvt. Ltd.
• Total Shipping & Logistics
• Geotrackers
• Schaffer
• Indian Railways Cargo
• TCI XPS
• TVS