India major beneficiary of ‘de-risking supply chain’ move: Official

To de-risk from Covid like situations in the future, global supply chains are re-shoring, i.e., trying to come closer to where the market is, said Deepak Bagla, MD & CEO of Invest India.

Hyderabad: India is going to benefit from the ongoing realignment of global supply chains said a top official of the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Addressing a virtual gathering organised by the Indian School of Business Hyderabad (ISB), Deepak Bagla, MD & CEO of Invest India, said: “Global supply chains are now re-shoring themselves. That is a big movement which I have witnessed in the past 180 days.”

“Re-shoring means coming closer to where the market is and, two, becoming shorter.”

The covid-19 pandemic has disrupted global supply chains and forced countries to scout for alternatives to China.

“The global supply chains have extended themselves across the globe. In fact, if you want to make an aircraft, probably, you have to source parts from over 40 countries to get assembled at one place. That is going to be shorter,” he added while speaking at the ‘Deccan Dialogue’ of the ISB.

Deepak Bagla further pointed out that being one of the largest consumer markets in the world, India has already started reaping benefits from this major shift.

“In the past four to five months, I am seeing a large number of queries coming from companies to move their supply chains to India,” he added.

Invest India is an entity under the Commerce Ministry and acts as the investment promotion and facilitation agency.

It may be recalled, foreign direct investment (FDI) has gone up by 16 per cent on a year-on-year basis to USD 27.1 billion (around Rs 2 lakh crore) during April-August 2020.

Recently, major Apple suppliers like Pegatron, Wistron and Foxconn have unveiled their plans to build manufacturing capabilities in India.

Expressing optimism over the country’s future he further said: “By 2040, around 90% of our 1.5 billion population would be middle-class. This pillar will act as a magnet for supply chains moving into India.”