India’s logistics leaders see a bold future: ports as gateways, digital corridors as enablers, and scale-driven sovereignty as the cornerstone. With resilience, efficiency, and collaboration, India is shaping itself into a trusted global supply chain hub.
Resilience comes not from cutting capacity but building multimodal redundancy
India’s logistics is shifting from catching up to leading—balancing resilience, efficiency, and sustainability as it stakes a stronger claim in global trade.
Ports and borders as gateways
Pratap Singh Chauhan, Head – Exim, Jindal Stainless, stresses that India’s geographical advantage remains underutilised. “Key ports such as Paradip, Mundra, and Chennai can act as critical eastern and western gateways,” he says. He points to Sagarmala and Bharatmala as game-changers in enhancing connectivity from coastline to hinterland. He also notes that border trade routes with ASEAN via the Northeast could provide efficient alternatives. “With SEZs, FTWZs, and digital platforms like ULIP, India can transition from being a consumption-driven market to a critical node in global trade networks,” Chauhan adds.
Scaling Sovereignty
Sovereignty comes from scale and coordination, not barriers or isolation
Pankaj Aggarwal, COO, UNIBUILD.ai & Group Purchasing Head, Motherson Group, believes India must aim for sovereignty without sliding into protectionism. “Sovereignty comes from scale and coordination, not barriers,” he remarks. He highlights fragmentation as the biggest challenge, with every company managing its own trade lanes. His vision: pooling suppliers, freight, and logistics to create shared national capabilities. “For Indian exporters, consolidated shipments and compliance-ready hubs can deliver credibility and consistency on a global scale,” Aggarwal explains.
Infrastructure, cost & resilience
Chauhan highlights port-based MMLPs linked with DFCs as overlooked yet transformative, capable of cutting dwell times and enabling just-in-time logistics. He stresses resilience comes not from reducing capacity but from building multimodal redundancy, hydrogen-powered coastal vessels, predictive analytics, and digital control towers. Aggarwal agrees, noting efficiency depends on scale: MMLPs deliver results when exporters pool shipments into full loads, backed by real-time tracking and compliance handling. For him, India’s global credibility is currency, earned through dependability and predictable timelines secured via consolidated execution.
Bold vision for 2030
Looking ahead, Chauhan envisions India leveraging its long coastline and inland waterways to act as a logistics orchestrator for the Indo-Pacific. “By 2030, ports like Paradip, Vizag, and Chennai will double as transshipment hubs for global cargo,” he says. Aggarwal’s parallel vision is one of collaboration and scale. “True sovereignty comes when SMEs gain Tier-1 strength through national export hubs and shared global logistics platforms,” he concludes.
Confidence in the crossroads
Together, these perspectives underline India’s opportunity: to weave infrastructure, technology, and collaboration into a seamless, globally trusted supply chain. As Chauhan and Aggarwal suggest, the journey is not just about lowering costs but about building resilience, credibility, and confidence on the world stage.
