Indigenous Supply Chain - Rethinking the Urban & Rural synchronization

An opportunity of a life time knocks only once in a life time! So when it knocks, making less than a dramatic use of the opportunity is a "Waste". Ones response to Covid-19 needs to be on those lines as a country or as an organization.

Over the years, as opportunities for livelihood did rise in Urban areas, Rural population has come to Urban areas & settled down, in not so much of a great comfort but with some assurance of income. The demand on Urban infrastructure & the Supply Chain designs to meet that demand have kept increasing all the time.

The World over and particularly in India, there has always been a talk about De-congesting the Urban area. In the pre-Covid-19 days this remained as an aspirational thought. There has been no great success with that thinking. The imbalances of Urban & Rural livelihood opportunities, which have been in favour of Urban, didn't create an ecosystem which makes a person leave the Urban land.  Covid-19 probably has offered that opportunity, although with pain. Fact remains that people have moved from Urban to Rural. This probably is once in a life time opportunity which can be exceedingly leveraged to create a better balanced "ecosystem" for future. The vision of a less displaced society with higher opportunities of spreading the prosperity shall anchor the Fundamental Rethinking of Indigenous Supply Chain.

Supply Chains in a country like India shall be very successful when the Indigenous Supply Chain model shall evolve. My feeling is that the foundation pillars of that model has to be a de-congested (de-urbanized) Urban land coupled with truly empowered Rural economy. This seemed to an unlikely dream to think about till Covid-19 happened to India. But the country stands close to that reality today as migrant workers de-congest the Urban areas and travel back to Rural areas . Hence the potential for leveraging this phenomenon for future Indigenous Strategic Supply Chain Model is an once in a life time opportunity.

I would believe that Supply Chain Economics would prevail as a thought process than just a some degree of adjustment to existing Supply Chain Model. Indigenous Supply Chain Model of India shall rest on these two pillars - De-congested Urban areas coupled with leveraging the large rural worker population in sectors of economy which are labour intensive e.g. Agriculture, Rural Infrastructure development etc., shall create a sustainable Supply Chain Model Gainful livelihood opportunities in Rural areas will increase the demand which Supply Chains will design themselves to fulfill.

While the People focused Rural economy is made sustainable, Industry too can be made world-class. A case in point e.g. Supply Chain Leaders are focused on "Increasing Productivity". Technology application is one way to gain that. With lesser workers today (migration Covid-19 or Social distancing norms), the temptation to adopt technology may grow higher. This naturally under normal business circumstances would meet with resistance, as sometimes in India deploying a person on the job gives better payback than a Technology solution. Covid-19 can be perfectly useful as this phenomenon doesn't exist anymore. Hence Industry can gain Productivity without negative impact on People. At the same time, creating new industrial locations centered around the rural geography can lead to lesser Supply Chain Asset Cost as well as Operating cost. This shall make Industry be better shaped up, more efficient & globally competitive.

This is India's moment of Japan of the 1970's! We can be Indigenous in our approach to building a futuristic Supply Chain Model where the country prospers without displacing people.