Full Text of Professor N Viswanadham’s Speech

Honourable Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh; His Excellency, Rameshwar Thakur, Governor of Andhra Pradesh; Honourable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy; Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman Hero Corporate Services Ltd.; Rajat Gupta, Chairman ISB Board, Professor Rammohan Rao, Dean ISB; ISB Board Members; distinguished invitees; speakers and delegates at the Global Logistics Summit; colleagues at the ISB; Ladies and Gentlemen, A very warm welcome to the ISB on the occasion of its 5th anniversary, and also to the inaugural function of the Global Logistic Summit.

This Summit is jointly organised by the Centre fro Excellence on Global Logistics and Manufacturing Strategies at the ISB and Hero MindMine Institute. Hero MindMine Institute is the academic and scholastic head of Hero MindMine, one of India’s leading learning and training organisations in the corporate sector.

My name is Viswanadham. I am a professor at the Indian School of Business. I am also the Executive Director for the Centre for Global Logistics and Manufacturing Strategies (GLAMS). The theme of the Summit is ‘Logistics for Global Competitive Advantage and Rural Growth’. At this Summit, we will deal with rural logistics and supply chain, as well as global logistics and supply chain networks.

In India, rural supply chains of food and its by-products provide employment for 65% of the people. Hence, it is necessary they be efficient and cost effective. India should also be able to maintain a leadership role in keeping up high technology in global supply chain networks. Achieving supply chain excellence in both rural and global areas is extremely important in order to maintain high growth rates in GDP, and become a future global leader. It is in this context, the discussions at the Summit gain a lot of importance.

The global supply chain networks in developed countries are highly efficient and well researched. Their management teams are well trained. In contrast, global supply chain networks in emerging economies and rural supply chains are not very well researched. Rural supply chains emanate from villages with not so sophisticated lifestyles and infrastructure. However, they deal with highly important food products. The research activities at the Centre of Global Logistics and Manufacturing, deal with both rural and global logistics and supply chain areas. At this Centre, we are committed to generate a scholarly body of knowledge, and disseminate it to various stakeholders.

Ladies and gentlemen, a few words about the organisation of the Summit. This Summit is structured into five sessions, spread over two days. There are two keynote speakers. The inaugural session will be addressed by S K Munjal, and the other session, by Dr Thomas Schmidheiny, Director Holcim, which is scheduled for tomorrow. We have 20 speakers from management consultants, third party logistics providers, leading industrial organisations, the government, and non profit organisations. We have 150 participants from various industries from all over the country. One of the session topics include ‘Rural Business Transformations’ which is chaired by S K Munjal, and the other session on ‘Building India’s Global Competitive Advantage’ is chaired by N Kumar, Vice Chairman, Sanmar Group and Past President of CII. Finally, there is a session on ‘Can India Become a Globally Competitive Manufacturing Hub?’ This session will be chaired Mallika Srinivasan, Director, TAFE.

We are deeply honoured to have the Prime Minister of India, a noted Economist, Dr Manmohan Singh, with us today to deliver the inaugural address.

Ladies and gentlemen, on December 5, 2006, ISB completes five years. It has been a period of high growth for ISB. I now request the honourable Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh to unveil the plaque, commemorating the completion of five successful years of ISB. I request other dignitaries on the stage to join the Prime Minister.