Exim Academy

Warehousing – The next boom sector in investment and employment     - R R Padmanabhan, MBA, BL, FCILT. Director Exim Academy, Chennai. I ordered a football for my grandson through Amazon. I was promised delivery within 4 days. The same order anywhere in Europe would have been fulfilled within 6 hours! That is the logistics efficiency in India. In India, it is estimated the overall logistics cost is about 14% of GDP, which is quite substantial whereas in advanced countries it is less than 8%. That is why, you have a product like football ordered online within 6 hours in Europe.  The Logistics value chain consists of three parts, transportation, warehousing and administration. Unless all three parts work in tandem, efficiency in logistics is not possible. The prevalent online shopping pattern denotes that there has been change in people’s buying habits. Many would like to shop at the convenience of their homes. The presence of variety, discounts and returns policy has ...

  SUPPLY CHAIN – A POST PANDEMIC MUSING The Business sector has gone through a peculiar phenomenon through the last 8 months globally. The pandemic, without a precedent has hit every walk of life   and created a complete Industrial Disturbance ; right from BIG Industrial houses to small time MSME s. Literally, the breakout of Covid-19 virus has made the world coming to a standstill. But this was not the reality ; the supply chain around the globe has not come to a grinding halt, hence the requisites like healthcare, food etc. were reaching the end users. The regular practice of business is bringing down expenses, increasing sales which eventually brings higher margins for the smooth running. Here certain practices have already been redefined and Supply Chain is the major among them. We all know managing a supply chain is the effective Materials Administration or in other words, managing Supplies, Process and Delivery. The post covid scenario was through strategic sourcin...

Inco Terms 2020 I always used to wonder at the prosperity of tiny island state, Singapore.  The state is prosperous despite all the odds against it.  The birth of this state as an independent nation itself was seen as curse bestowed upon it.  The place was part of Malaya but Malaya did not want to have Singapore with it, for it considered the place as a burden on the Malaya’s economy.  Literally, the place had nothing to grow to feed its people, heavily dependent on its neighbours like Malaya, Indonesia and Thailand.  No cultivable land, no industries worth mentioning – but in spite of these handicaps, the place was strategically located in one of busiest in sea-lanes of the word.  That was the only advantage!  This advantage could only be used in International trade. Despite all these, place has become a state by itself by empowering its people with skill and knowledge.  Now, the place is a thriving economy engaging mainly in entrepot trade. If y...

Import Management India is a consuming nation.   By its very nature, Indian economy is structured in such a way that it would import more than its export.   At least, in the short run of about 5 to 10 years, the situation would continue to be so. Perhaps, scheme like AtmaNirbhaan succeed, the situation might change. Further, as India continues to integrate itself in the global supply chain, imports would constitute significant part of the Indian economy.   Therefore, it goes without saying that business enterprises would have to know not only the sources of import of goods but also the procedural aspects of imports. So, what do we import mostly? Import Management has to take cognizance of three important aspects namely, procedural compliance, amount of duty to be paid and how to save on duty.  Of course, it comes by practice and by adding knowledge over a period of time.  Let us take procedural compliance first. The first and foremost in import management is fin...