By R. Dinesh, Chairman, TVS Supply Chain Solutions
Over the past seven decades, India’s commercial vehicle industry and logistics sector have evolved from serving a largely domestic economy to enabling one of the world’s fastest-growing manufacturing and consumption markets. As Motor India celebrates its 70th anniversary, it is also an appropriate moment to look beyond the milestones of the past and consider a more important question: will India’s supply chain sector simply keep pace with economic growth, or will it emerge as one of the world’s most efficient supply chain ecosystems?
When India celebrates 100 years of Independence in 2047, besides our aspiration to become a developed economy, we should strive to build an efficient supply chain network that will make India globally competitive for decades to come.
An efficient supply chain network does far more than reduce transportation costs. For manufacturers serving both domestic and global markets, supply chain excellence is no longer just an operational advantage. It has become a strategic capability that determines resilience, speed to market and long-term competitiveness.
Yet the development of infrastructure alone will not make India a global benchmark in logistics efficiency.
India does not need twice the logistics infrastructure to become twice as efficient. It needs to become twice as intelligent in using the infrastructure it already has.
Road transport carries nearly 70% of India’s freight, yet nearly a third of trucks run empty on return trips. Overall fleet asset utilisation typically ranges between 60% and 70%, well below the 90% levels that an efficient logistics network should aspire to. Every empty kilometre represents lost economic value, avoidable fuel consumption and carbon emissions. Similar opportunities exist across warehouses, containers and multimodal assets.
Improving asset utilisation is perhaps the single biggest opportunity before us. This will require manufacturers to move beyond conventional outsourcing towards value-added partnerships with supply chain providers. As supply chain players take on greater responsibilities, they can drive better load consolidation, integrated planning, network optimisation enabling existing infrastructure to deliver far greater productivity.
Technology as invisible infrastructure
Technology will play an equally important role as the operating system of modern supply chains. Artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and intelligent automation are helping organisations make better decisions, anticipate disruptions and optimise resources in real time.
For manufacturers, this means shorter lead times, greater production flexibility and the confidence to serve customers not only across India but across global markets with consistency and reliability.
It’s real impact, however, lies in enabling multimodal logistics. Today, ULIP (Unified Logistics Interface Platform) integrates 44 government systems across 11 ministries and has already enabled over 200 crore digital transactions. By creating a common digital backbone across road, rail, ports and air cargo, it can allow cargo to move more seamlessly across transport modes. Manufacturers can choose the most efficient transport mode, reduce dwell times at logistics nodes, improve inventory planning and respond more quickly to changes in demand.
People Remain the Greatest Enabler
Ultimately, infrastructure, technology and digitisation can only deliver results when enabled by people. India’s logistics sector is projected to require an additional five million skilled workers by 2030. At the same time, the nature of work across supply chains is changing rapidly. According to the World Economic Forum’s ‘Future of Jobs Report 2025’, nearly six in ten workers globally will require reskilling or upskilling by 2030 to keep pace with advances in automation and other emerging technologies.
While automation will increasingly handle repetitive tasks, the rapid growth of value-added supply chain services, including kitting, sub-assembling, product customisation, etc., is creating new categories of employment that demand higher skills, and closer customer engagement. Preparing this workforce cannot be the responsibility of Government alone. Supply chain companies must work closely with academia, industry bodies and skilling institutions to develop industry-relevant curriculum, apprenticeships and continuous learning programmes that equip people for the jobs of tomorrow. Investing in people, therefore, is not separate from investing in infrastructure; it is the enabler that allows every other investment to realise its full potential.
Embedding sustainability into operations
The same principle applies to sustainability. Too often, sustainability is viewed as a separate agenda or a compliance requirement. In reality, the most sustainable supply chains are often also the most efficient ones. Better asset utilisation means fewer trips, lower fuel consumption and reduced emissions. Outsourcing and utilisation of digital technologies enable smarter routing, predictive planning and lower waste. Sustainability, therefore, should not be viewed as an afterthought; instead, it should be designed into the way logistics networks are planned and operated from the outset.
India’s warehousing landscape is also becoming significantly more sustainable. Green-certified warehouse is expected to grow from about 65 million square feet in 2024 to nearly 270 million square feet by 2030. While this represents significant progress, it must accelerate further if logistics is to meaningfully contribute to India’s long-term sustainability aspirations by 2047. Combined with renewable energy initiatives and the transition to electric and hybrid material handling equipment, the next generation of logistics infrastructure can substantially reduce the sector’s carbon footprint.
By 2047, India’s strength should not be measured only by the competitiveness of what we manufacture, but by the excellence with which we move goods – swiftly, reliably, efficiently and sustainably. If we achieve that, supply chains will become a source of enduring value for every enterprise, a catalyst for national productivity and one of India’s defining strengths in the global economy.
This is not a responsibility that government alone can shoulder. It calls for a collective effort, from policymakers creating the right enabling environment, manufacturers embracing strategic partnerships, supply chain companies driving innovation and sustainability, and academia developing the talent that will power India’s logistics transformation.