While India currently spends 9% of its gross GDP on logistics, this is not nearly enough according to Cyrus Guzder, chairman and managing director, AFL Private Limited. At a seminar organized by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) on role the of information technology and infrastructure in logistics, Guzder said this number needs to be doubled to sustain the GDP growth envisaged for India, according to an April 11 report by Business-Standard.com.
Guzder pointed out that while the development of logistics and IT had helped increase linkages with global business making foreign multinationals more competitive, Indian companies were not benefiting.
"The physical supply chain in India lags behind the digital supply chain and the stock outs across board run as high as 30%", Guzder said in the article. He added that turnaround time for ships at Indian ports was six days, as compared to two days elsewhere. And road transport lagged behind countries with developed infrastructure by 350 kilometers per day.
As one possible solution Guzder suggested the use of a radio frequency identification (RFID) system on transport vehicles and goods.
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