Page 28 - ITLN November - December 2024

Spotlight
Last-mile
logistics

Urban congestion

to remote delivery

Tackling India’s

logistics puzzle

The last mile is no longer just the final step in logistics but the
frontier of innovation and efficiency in India. With emerging
technologies like drones, AI-driven tools, and collaborations
across the logistics spectrum, India is not only addressing its
unique logistical challenges but setting the stage for a globally
competitive, future-ready supply chain ecosystem.

Libin Chacko Kurian
ndia has a population of 1.4 billion “Only less than ten percent of
people living across 773 districts. India’s retail is organised despite a lot
The country has 65+ cities with more of e-commerce, quick commerce and
Ithan one million inhabitants and modern trade. That makes the last mile
the urban population is at 36 percent and intracity movements extremely
of the population. This makes India a important in India’s distribution
very complex country with a diverse network,” he said.
demography. “This scale is not even Tandon identifies quick commerce
there in China,” said Aryaman Tandon, as the latest disruptor in the market
Managing Partner, Mobility, Energy right now creating two-wheelers,
and Transportation of Praxis Global three-wheelers, warehousing and last-
Alliance, a management consulting firm. mile logistics demands. As a result,
“Because in China the population is he is predicting rapid electrification,
consolidated in key cities.” technology adoption and cold chain
“India has a very distributed penetration in the last mile in the next
ecosystem. Thus, logistics and the five years.
last mile become very critical. The “We will see the emergence of a lot
density of population in Indian cities, of digitally enabled, localised, last-mile
the absence of road infrastructure, the electric fleet operators, some strong in
unplanned, not very structured civic particular categories” he added.
infrastructure and one of the largest Tandon noted that route
retail networks in the world, makes it optimisation tools can be helpful in
even more difficult,” he added. high-density Indian cities like Mumbai
He also pointed out that every brand while establishing smaller centres
in India could succeed only on the basis within city limits, companies can store
of distribution and it makes India a products closer to customers, reducing
different economy compared to larger both the distance and time required for
economies like the US or China. last-mile deliveries.
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November - December 2024 www.itln.in