India has potential to grow as a logistics hub - The Hindu BusinessLine

India has potential to grow as a logistics hub. Granting of infra status will ensure flow of institutional finance to the sector. We remain optimistic on the India growth story. Rising consumer demand, growth in the e-commerce sector and boost in manufacturing activity haveput the spotlight on the domestic logistics sector in India. Logistics players are ready to leverage this massive growth potential. We expect the economic revival to sustain and gain momentum in 2018. India remains one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and with ambitious tax reforms like GST, we anticipate more logistics players to shift from a fragmented, unorganised structure to an organised business model. The Indian logistics sector is a sunshine industry and is undergoing a transformative phase. The industry is preparing to face the changing logistics sector dynamics, which are expected to traverse a consolidation curve. The granting of infrastructure status to the logistics sector is a landmark initiative which will ensure inflow of institutional finance in the form of long-term maturity loans at easy lending terms. Logistics cost is expected to reduce substantially and it would also lead to large-scale employment generation by the sector. Focus will continue to be on improving the ‘ease of doing business’ in India and lowering the logistics cost over a period of time. Consumption-driven demand will receive a huge boost with a rise in private investments for setting up industrial parks and warehouses. The warehousing sector in the country is in a consolidation mode and large players in the segment are all set to capitalise on this trend by expanding their warehousing capabilities in the form of large-format warehouses, providing value-added services. Digitisation is the pivot around which the efficiencies of logistics, both in India and globally, will be concentrated in the near future. The government needs to place increased emphasis on rolling out key policy initiatives with a robust IT infrastructure back-up, for charting a seamless digital roadmap for the Indian logistics industry. This sector is on the cusp of a higher level of growth and development and the country has the potential to emerge as a global logistics hub. Allcargo has an India-focus and a global operational footprint with a large chunk of its market share in Europe, North America, China and India. We intend to chart the organic and inorganic routes to expand our share in existing markets and leverage business synergies to achieve the 2020 vision of $2 billion. (The author is ED & COO of Allcargo Logistics)