The article titled "Inflection point" from the June 29, 2026, edition of The Hindu BusinessLine discusses the current state and potential of India's Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
Inflection point
With a little support, MSMEs can be a driving force
There cannot perhaps be a better time than the present to take stock of how India’s micro, small and medium enterprises are faring. After all, there are 8.77 crore MSMEs employing 38.9 crore people, contributing nearly a third of GDP and half our exports.
Quite apart from the fact that the week starting June 27 is observed as MSME week globally, the world has been through a period of extraordinary flux over the last year or more, starting with the Liberation Day tariffs last April and culminating in the Gulf war. Alongside, developments in AI and automation are rapidly redefining production processes, creating opportunities and challenges with respect to skilling. It is against this backdrop that this newspaper organised its annual ‘MSME Growth Conclave’ in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. At least three things define MSMEs, and the policies meant for them, are dealing with technological and geopolitical shifts. The first is an inclusive space for concerning MSMEs (actually an umbrella term that encompasses enterprises from ₹2.5 crore to ₹500 crore), came up for discussion — access to finance, human resource management and managing the growth path of the enterprise.
To take the last point first, industry leaders rightly observed MSMEs should overcome the ‘Peter Pan’ syndrome, which seems to arise from a fear of losing family control. This also means snapping out of the sub-contracting mindset and instead owning intellectual property, particularly in the dairy. The use of modern equipment and digitised processes can aid expansion and standardisation of products. To this end, synergies between industrial and educational system need be developed. But to hack this ambitious, and more so a for a place as a financial ecosystem are pre-requisites. MSMEs struggle to retain talent. It was observed that the workforce should be able to visualise a career path.
As for finances, MSMEs continue to struggle. According to a recently released Deloitte report, most MSMEs do not have access to formal credit and raise funds from informal sources. While the availability of gold loans seems to be a factor, the banking system must do some serious introspection. Specifically, taking credit and working capital requirements met or adjusted to deal with global shocks. Credit appraisal schemes seem to help up to a point. Bankers with intimate knowledge of local conditions must be rewarded for nurturing enterprises over time with patient capital. While being wary of NPAs, as in the present times, bankers need to account for circumstantial stress. As for working capital finance, the Trade Receivables electronic Discounting System is not doing very well, despite recent efforts to reform it. The 45-day payment norm is often circumvented. Yet, it is remarkable that MSMEs have shown great resilience — despite Covid, demonetisation and the war-induced shocks since 2022 — to put the economy back on the growth path. Ecosystem support can make a huge difference.
The article titled "Line & Length: It has merit, but it stood in India" by TCA Srinivasa-Raghavan, published on page 4 of the June 29, 2026, edition of The Hindu BusinessLine, provides a critical look at mercantilism and India's economic history.
Line & Length: It has merit, but it stood in India
India has stood mercantilism on its head by importing far more than it exports.
A lot of highly intelligent people think China is the cat’s whiskers. Thus, “power in international trade disputes in a fundamental sense reflects power over supply, not power over demand, which is something economists have always tried to say.”
That, was Paul Krugman, the Nobel winning economist who is a trenchant critic of the Donald Trump government, wrote this in an article a few days ago. He was comparing the US and China.
Trump, he was implying, made the mistake of thinking that bottomless demand for goods mattered more than was China’s control of supply that has no substitutes.
Krugman is both right and wrong. China wins only because of its control of the supply of a few rare earths. Much of the rest of what it produces can be, and is, produced quite easily elsewhere.
Yes, it is true that it sells what it produces very cheaply. But that’s because of gigantic subsidies and currency manipulation. Economists have researched this to death. Countries can also fight back by taxing these import duties steeply. China doesn’t care.
When Trump increased tariffs on Chinese goods, he would have succeeded except that he made the same mistake that he made when he attacked Iran earlier this year. He forgot that China controls rare earths just as Iran controls the straits of Hormuz. Every Achilles has a vulnerable heel.
But to conclude from this that to supply that determines power in international trade is probably wrong. By that logic, Russia should control both Europe and the US because it could produce nearly $50 trillion worth of goods and services. It is often said that without the demand from China and Europe the Russian economy would collapse. The other buyers of the buyers would merely deflate while they diversify their sources of supply.
CHINA’S WEAKNESS
Despite temporary phases of having the upper hand, a single seller is therefore always more vulnerable. The Chinese should bear this in mind while withholding supply. Actually, China knows this. And that’s why it’s constantly putting out the news that it’s invulnerable. But who is it fooling?
Let’s not forget that it can’t feed itself. Nor is it self-sufficient in energy. In fact, far from it. If tomorrow there were food or energy sanctions against it, together the two would very quickly bring it to its knees.
INDIAN MERCANTILISM
But leave Krugman and China and let’s return to mercantilism. Where does India stand on it? Believe me, you don’t want to know. It’s enough to make a strong mind boggling.
In a typical inversion of policies which make neither economic nor political sense, India has stood mercantilism on its head. The core of mercantilism, as enunciated by the Englishman Thomas Mun in the 17th century, is to export as much as you can and import as little as you need. India does the exact opposite.
Two things have been mainly responsible for this economic absurdity. One was the political belief that we needed to save foreign exchange. So the model of being an exporting country that didn’t have any industrial base of its own and the other was the need to stop the colonial maltreatment of labour.
It never occurred to anyone that rapid industrialisation is inconsistent with the jellymoulding of labour. You can’t have both. Communist China understood this perfectly, we didn’t. Basically, to show we stood mercantilism on its head, because our comparative advantage in labour was wholly neglected.
In India equity for labour displaced efficiency for capital. And that is how we stood mercantilism on its head, because our comparative advantage in labour was wholly neglected.
Amongst the various counterproductive things we did, we ignored the basic fact that after 1947 China after 1978 did the exact opposite. It now has a $20 trillion economy. We have a $4 trillion economy. We used to follow China. Now we buy everything from it. It is not as if India’s first prime minister wasn’t told about the negative outcomes of his economic policies after 1957. He was, but he ignored all the warnings.
Can the fallout be fixed? Not unless we prioritise efficiency over equity. Will we do it? Yes but in homeopathic doses, as in the new labour codes.
What does that mean? I think we should replace that 0 in 2047 with 1, to make it 2147.
I mean, look at us. Even after 79 years of Independence we are governed by politicians and babus who can’t decide what is really sufficient to improve Indian citizenship. What can we expect of them?
The article titled Other Voices (South China Morning Post), found on page 4 of the June 29, 2026, edition of The Hindu BusinessLine, addresses the mental health challenges facing youth in Hong Kong:
South China Morning Post
Hong Kong must tackle roots of youth mental health crisis
The mental health problems faced by the young, leading in extreme cases to suicide, are a long-standing issue experienced widely around the world. But they remain a source of deep public concern, requiring constant attention. There were 91 cases of students having suspected of committed suicide between 2023 and 2025. The figure rose from 28 in 2024 to 31 last year, despite a range of initiatives intended to help. This suggests we need to look even more closely at risk support. With the reasons for each suicide are complex. But the challenges and pressures resulting from the city’s competitiveness and toxicity on social media can limit their ability to develop people skills and can expose them to cyberbullying or other harmful content.
The article titled "The cost of over-reliance on antibiotics" by Rajeev Jayadevan, published on page 5 of the June 29, 2026, edition of The Hindu BusinessLine, is a book review of A World of Resistance by Aaron Doran and Alex Broom.
The cost of over-reliance on antibiotics
The book presents a diverse array of useful perspectives — though India is not a lone contributor or victim as painted
The central theme of this work is antimicrobial resistance (AMR), with the authors choosing to highlight global India’s role within this public health challenge. Before evaluating the book’s specific focus on India, it’s vital to discuss what AMR means. It is a global problem identified by the World Health Organization where existing treatments can no longer effectively combat bacteria and other infections, leading to more severe illnesses, prolonged hospital courses, and worse clinical outcomes.
Incidentally, bacteria have always possessed the biological ability to overcome antibiotics. This is a natural part of their evolutionary survival over billions of years, helping them resist lethal chemicals deployed by other organisms in the environment. Thus, contrary to popular belief, the first case of bacteria suddenly acquiring an antibiotic happened long after man started using antibiotics.
It is true that antibiotic overuse and misuse contribute to larger bacterial populations that are relatively resistant through the process of selection. However, the cliché that only patient blame or irrational prescribing patterns obscures the fundamental nature of the problem globally. These drivers range from large-scale livestock antibiotic use, urban overcrowding, inadequate sanitation, shortcomings in infection prevention strategies, and diagnostic limitations and healthcare access, compounded by worldwide educational disparities.
Ultimately, the entire world needs to work together to reduce resistance, particularly because the number of new drugs in the pipeline does not match the rising need.
In the first paragraph of their introduction, the authors mention the controversial term New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase-1 (NDM-1), which was branded as “India’s superbug” by the international media in 2008. This created an unfortunate perception that India was exporting dangerous bacteria to the rest of the world, and there was an unsafe place for global health. Experts decried such criticism as scientifically inaccurate, given that resistance has evolved over billions of years and cannot be pinpointed to a specific location.
In subsequent sections, the authors discuss the considerable number of tuberculosis patients in India, noting that many suffer from drug-resistant strains. To provide necessary context, tuberculosis remains a monumental global challenge, and drug resistance is an escalating crisis present across many populous and developing nations.
HISTORICAL REFERENCES
The authors also present historical references to advisories regarding antibiotic use in India. However, these guidelines were relatively sparse in the early post-Independence era, when the primary focus was combating the larger share of illness and death from infectious diseases. The advent of antibiotics, improved sanitation, vaccination and modern aseptic practices that allowed life expectancy to rise quickly beyond the fourth decade. An unintended consequence of this successful historical transition was a lingering cultural and clinical practice of utilising an antibiotic whenever an infection was suspected.
Fuelled by an earnest desire to heal their patients, doctors in developing nations — not just in India — err on the side of overprescribing rather than under-prescribing. This is a multi-faceted process driven by a lack of rapid diagnostic tests that can differentiate between bacterial and viral infections, a mutual reluctance to perform these tests due to cost concerns and patient compliance, a higher prevalence of many types of bacterial diseases, avoidance of patient dissatisfaction at not receiving a prescription, and a defensive fear of missing a serious bacterial infection when initial symptoms mimic a viral fever. In India, unfortunately, this challenge is compounded by self-medication and the availability of antibiotics from pharmacies without a physician's prescription.
The next portion of the book addresses the rise of India as a hub for generic drug manufacturing, where the authors discuss environmental pollution caused by pharmaceutical effluents. Environmental contamination is indeed a recognised variable in AMR. When industrial waste containing active antibiotic residues enters water bodies, it can expose local bacteria to sub-lethal doses of these agents, selectively promoting the growth of resistant organisms. The book notes that this environmental resistance occurs as a side effect of lower-cost manufacturing, as well as widespread antibiotic use in agriculture, citing similar studies from China. While it is easy to point fingers at the developing world's manufacturing processes with all intensity, the fact remains that western countries are the beneficiaries of this cost-cutting, which incentivises pharmaceutical firms to manufacture generics at the lowest cost possible.
When discussing the veterinary use of antibiotics in India, the book highlights recent measures undertaken to regulate these practices. On a global scale, worldwide agricultural antibiotic use (which consumes three-quarters of all antibiotics produced) remains the hidden elephant in the room, even as the book extensively discusses individual doctors’ prescribing habits and corporate promotional activities grab the public’s attention more easily.
Ultimately, the book, A World of Resistance, offers diverse and useful perspectives collected from various segments of society, which will be useful for policymakers in the country to comprehend the multifaceted nature of AMR. Although the authors describe India as the “ground zero of the growing AMR crisis”, several processes that drive AMR in India are common to many other nations, including wealthy ones. AMR is an issue all countries — wealthy or otherwise, big or small, provider or recipient — have a vital role to play.
The article titled "Moving satellite data at laser speed" by M Ramesh, located on page 7 of the source, explores the advancements in optical communication for space technology.
Moving satellite data at laser speed
ON A LIGHT BEAM. Bengaluru-based start-up is solving for an emerging bottleneck in space-tech: Limited radio spectrum for downlinks
Recently a Bengaluru-based start-up, Quosmic, raised at least $3.33 million fundraise from a group of investors that included Accel and Lightspeed. Quosmic has an interesting technology that promises to make a big difference in a crucial aspect of space-tech — data transfer.
Today, we are seeing an explosion of data from satellites. Modern satellites are remarkably capable machines. Earth observation spacecraft can capture detailed images of vast regions in a single pass. Weather satellites continuously monitor atmospheric conditions. Scientific missions generate tons of measurements from sophisticated instruments. The challenge is in moving the data from space to the ground.
For decades, satellites have largely relied on radio frequency (RF) communications. These systems are reliable and well-understood, but they have limited spectrum and finite bandwidth. As the number of satellites in orbit grows, the communications pipeline is becoming increasingly clogged.
The solution pursued by companies such as Quosmic is laser-based optical communication. Instead of encoding information using radio waves, the system uses beams of light. At its heart, the underlying principle is similar to fibre-optic cables that have transformed terrestrial telecommunications. The difference is light travels through free space rather than glass fibres.
Unlike radio transmissions, laser beams are extremely narrow. A satellite hundreds of kilometres above Earth must point its beam with extraordinary precision at a ground station or another spacecraft. Engineers refer to the process as pointing, acquisition and tracking — the ability to find, lock on to and continuously track a moving target. Quosmic says it has field-tested its optical communications over a 10 km terrestrial link, demonstrating these capabilities outside laboratory conditions.
LOOKING BEYOND RF
RF transmission is time-tested, but it is hitting a limit. A high-resolution satellite generates one to two terabytes a day, but only gets a few short windows over a ground station; over radio, it can push down only a fraction of that. “By industry estimates, roughly two-thirds of the imagery a satellite captures is overwritten before it is ever downloaded. They have paid to collect data they cannot deliver. That is the problem we solve,” says Shreyas Jain, Co-founder and CEO, Quosmic.
Earth observation is just the first wave — the volume problem is about to become orders of magnitude larger. Jain observes that the entire industry is moving to not just computers but also computing in orbit. In the last few months, SpaceX and Nvidia have announced AI computers that will go up. This means ‘orbital data centres,’ with partners including Starcloud, Axiom Space and Quosmic, building interconnects for space. “We are seeing an explosion of compute in space,” Jain says.
Radio frequency alone cannot carry the traffic. The ground link will be the bottleneck for the orbital economy. “Our job is to create a high-speed connection between space and the ground itself,” says Jain. “In-house we call it the ‘Optical Highway,’ infrastructure built indigenously, and the technology grows from here”.
USE CASE
The clearest operational example of such a performance is the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Sentinel satellites, which are behind the Copernicus programme. Previously, a high-speed low-orbiting satellite may be forced to wait for nearly half of its roughly 100-minute orbit before it comes in sight of a ground station to transmit data. The ESA has built a dedicated laser relay, which today moves nearly 40 terabytes a day and has carried more than a petabyte of data.
The agency says optical links will prove inadequate when its next generation high data-rate missions come online. “On rare performance, NASA’s TBIRD experiment sent data from a small satellite to the ground at 200 gigabits per second, moving more than a terabyte in a single pass under five minutes, which NASA calls more than a thousand times faster than a comparable radio link,” Jain points out.
ORBITAL DATA CENTRES
Today, many companies want to put up data centres in space — perhaps encouraged by the continuous supply of free solar energy. Another Bengaluru-based start-up, TakeMe2Space, is into this venture and Quosmic is building optical terminals for TakeMe2Space’s Moio constellation.
When you put gigawatts of AI compute in orbit, the data moving between these cloud-sized clusters at a radio scale cannot touch. Imagine a system where light has demonstrated a single optical connection transferring 40 gigabits per second in the lab, while a radio terminal is hard-pressed to hit 100 megabits to a few gigabits, Jain says. Starcloud has filed for a constellation of up to 88,000 computing satellites and envisions clusters in different orbits.
“For that traffic, optical is not a better alternative,” Jain suggests — “it is the only way to land the data at all”.
He makes another telling point: Radio spectrum is licensed, and licensing can take months. Optical communication needs no spectrum licensing.
ALTERNATIVE VIEW
The user industry has a slightly varied view. Akshat Bisht, CEO and Co-founder, GalaxEye, says achieving “pointing accuracy” takes a lot of effort and energy; he would rather use the energy to take more images. He also observes that cloud cover can interfere with optical communication links, making them less reliable than radio-frequency systems under some conditions.
“Optical communications is a great technology for the future,” Singh says, but for now GalaxEye is sticking with the old reliable radio frequency.
The article titled "Canada invests in making health systems climate-resilient" is found on page 9 of the June 29, 2026, edition of The Hindu BusinessLine. It details the Canadian government's financial commitment to preparing its healthcare infrastructure for the impacts of climate change.
Canada invests in making health systems climate-resilient
Climate change poses a significant and growing risk to health, said Health Canada, adding that more frequent and severe extreme weather events are leading to injuries, loss of life and negative impacts on mental health.
The country recently announced an investment of over $17 million through the Climate Change and Health Capacity Building programme to support 24 community-designed projects that advance knowledge, capacity and strategies in adapting Canada's health sector to climate change. The programme intends to build resilient and low-carbon health systems (HealthADAPT), and protecting Canadians from extreme heat.
Many regions across Canada experience extreme heat events, often referred to as heat waves. Through HealthADAPT, over $13 million is distributed to entities such as the University of British Columbia (UBC) and BC’s Provincial Health Services Authority.
UBC is examining the complex health risks faced by individuals with schizophrenia during extreme heat waves and climate heat exposure. This will help develop critical insights into how decision-making, poverty, and other environmental quality and social inequities play into vulnerability to heat and other climate change events. BC's Provincial Health Services Authority's work will help strengthen partnerships, research and data expertise to better understand and respond to extreme heat impacts, including heat-related illness and mortality.
The Canadian government has invested more than $6.6 billion in climate change adaptation since 2011. This includes $2.1 billion in commitments since fall 2022 to implement the National Adaptation Strategy and support other adaptation-related activities. As part of HealthADAPT, nearly $4 million has been provided to organizations across Canada to support efforts to build climate-resilient and low-carbon health systems.
The article titled "How NDR built a warehouse empire" by T E Raja Simhan, published on page 8 of the June 29, 2026, edition of The Hindu BusinessLine, chronicles the growth of the Chennai-based NDR Group from its origins in rice milling to its status as a major player in India's logistics sector.
How NDR built a warehouse empire
BRICK BY BRICK. From running a rice mill to boasting a ₹6,650-crore InvIT, the Group’s logistics-fuelled dramatic rise
India’s warehousing sector has transformed dramatically over the past decade, driven by the rollout of GST, rapid growth in e-commerce, the formalisation of supply chains, and the entry of global capital. Among the companies that have capitalised on this shift is the Chennai-based NDR Group, which launched nearly six decades ago with a rice mill and has evolved into one of the country’s largest warehousing platforms.
The group’s development pipeline includes projects currently constructing around 7 million sq ft (msf) of space across the warehousing and industrial park segment. This is part of a 12 msf land development pipeline scheduled for eventual transfer to the group’s infrastructure investment trust (InvIT), according to N Amrutesh Reddy, Managing Director, NDR.
The rice mills set up in the 1950s in Nellore by the founder, Naidu Amrutharai Reddy, worked only during peak seasons, and the storage space remained idle for a significant part of the year. Amrutharai’s sons began using the space to store cargo for others, an opportunity that eventually grew into a full-fledged dedicated warehousing business. The business subsequently expanded beyond agricultural storage. By the mid-1980s, it was a preferred choice for large consumer goods and industrial machinery companies like Hindustan Lever and Castrol.
During the 1990s, NDR entered bonded warehousing and container freight stations (CFS). Reddy says the company was the first to set up a private bonded warehouse and was one of the earliest CFS operators in Chennai. It was also an early mover in rail-linked logistics. In 2003, it developed a private freight terminal near Delhi-Gurgaon, at a time when there was no formal policy framework for such projects. The asset, which was later sold to Gateway Distriparks, provided the company with valuable experience in integrated logistics infrastructure.
ROLE OF GST
Reddy cites the introduction of GST as the turning point for the country’s warehousing industry. In the pre-GST era, companies maintained warehouses across multiple States largely for tax optimisation. GST enabled businesses to redesign supply chains around fewer, larger regional distribution centres, he says. This helped reduce inventory and transportation costs while improving operational efficiency.
Anticipating this shift, NDR focused on developing large, consolidated warehousing facilities in major consumption hubs. As demand for regional distribution centres increased, the portfolio expanded sharply from around 3 million sq ft in 2016 to more than 21 million sq ft currently.
The group’s growth received a further boost in 2021 when global asset manager Investcorp invested about ₹500 crore to accelerate the expansion of the platform’s portfolio. It hit a major milestone in February 2024 with the launch of India’s first listed warehousing InvIT, with 17 million sq ft of built warehousing space and around 2 million sq ft under development, cumulatively valued at ₹3,800 crore.
Since then, acquisitions and expansion have significantly increased the platform’s scale. The InvIT now manages around 22 million sq ft of warehouse and industrial assets, serving over 100 customers, with no single client contributing more than 5 per cent of revenue. The company recently raised around €800 crore from institutional investors for more acquisitions.
BUSINESS MODEL
NDR operates primarily as an asset owner and developer. It acquires land, develops warehouses and industrial facilities, and manages and leases them. The operational management is largely handled by third-party logistics providers and occupiers. Logistics accounts for about 10 per cent of the portfolio, or roughly 2 million sq ft. Under NDR InvIT, the focus remains on investing in infrastructure in various sectors such as electronics, engineering, and pharmaceuticals. Reddy says the company plans to add around 4 million sq ft annually through the InvIT. Expansion is underway in locations such as Coimbatore, Hosur, Pune and Varanasi.
Despite rising competition, NDR remains optimistic about the sector’s prospects. A substantial share of India’s warehouse stock does not meet modern standards for approvals, fire safety and infrastructure. Compliance requirements for tighter, organised developers are expected to benefit from the replacement and upgrading of outdated facilities. The company’s biggest challenge remains land acquisition, with large parcels becoming increasingly scarce and expensive.
NDR is also investing in sustainable practices such as rooftop solar power and exploring social infrastructure assets, including education, healthcare and hospitality, through asset-owning platforms, Reddy says.
The article titled "Human link in supply chains" by Rajesh Menon, found on page 8 of the June 29, 2026, edition of The Hindu BusinessLine, highlights the critical role of workers in the logistics sector and the progress of India's National Logistics Policy.
Human link in supply chains
HOISTING THE ECONOMY. The toil of millions of logistics workers keeps supply lines moving 24x7
RAJESH MENON
Yesterday, June 28, was Logistics Day. Observed since 2019, it acknowledges the vital role played by this network in day-to-day life. It includes everything from the last-mile movement of couriers, e-commerce agents and truck drivers to the vast network of heavy infrastructure like highways and trains hauling immense industrial bulk to ships. This ecosystem also includes warehouses. Ultimately, logistics relies on the relentless, 24/7 toil of millions of workers who keep the world’s supply lines moving seamlessly through a robust infrastructure.
India’s own ambitions gathered pace when the government launched the landmark National Logistics Policy (NLP) in 2022. It provided a clear, unified direction to a historically fragmented sector by aiming to slash high costs, boost global competitiveness and integrate multimodal networks through digital transformation.
Since the policy’s implementation, India’s logistics ecosystem has undergone a paradigm shift, validated by its climb to the 38th rank (from 54th in 2014) in the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index. This advancement, driven by infrastructural strides like the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan and the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), has optimised part turnaround time and supply chain tracking, boosting the country’s manufacturing capabilities.
MULTIMODAL STRENGTHS
The momentum continued during the 2025-26 fiscal period, evidenced by media and government reports of multimodal execution across India. A major cornerstone is the operational growth of Vizhinjam International Seaport, which handled over two million TEUs while securing approvals to develop adjacent multimodal logistics parks (MMLPs). India’s major ports collectively handled a record 915.17 million tonnes of cargo in FY2025-26, while average vessel turnaround times plummeted below 50 hours.
On land, the ecosystem of dedicated freight corridors doubled to nearly 6,000 km, complementing along 2,741 km of track, accelerating freight speeds and decongesting traditional rail lines. Complementing this expansion is the operationalisation of MMLPs, marked by trial cargo flights at the new Noida International Airport and inland waterways cargo movement growing to nearly 180 million tonnes, respectively.
Further, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways revamped the model concession agreement for MMLPs to fast-track public-private partnerships. The MMLP at Jogighopa became fully operational in 2025, with a growing potential for inland trade to Bhutan and Bangladesh. The MMLP at Mappeddu, Chennai, embarked on the first phase of operation in 2026; work has started on MMLPs in Bengaluru, Indore and Nagpur.
Simultaneously, highway construction increased under the Bharatmala Pariyojana, expanding the National Highway Network to 1,46,572 km by March 2026, which includes the inauguration of the 213-km Delhi-Dehradun economic corridor. Parallelly, Indian Railways hauled an all-time high of 1,670 million tonnes of freight, reinforced by 35 new Gati Shakti cargo terminals.
Even as the NLP continues to make an impact across the States, the human link remains vital. Policies are being chalked up with the future in mind. Initiatives like Logistics Day affords an opportunity to salute the 20-25 million men and women who power the logistics sector, which accounts for 13-20 per cent of GDP, valued around $350 billion and enjoying a CAGR above 8 per cent.
The writer is a maritime expert. Views are personal.
