Supply chain

• Diverse sourcing and digitization will be the key to building stronger, smarter supply
chains and ensuring a lasting recovery.

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit global trade and investment at an unprecedented
speed and scale. Multinational companies faced an initial supply shock, then a
demand shock as more and more countries ordered people to stay at home.
Governments, businesses and individual consumers suddenly struggled to procure
basic products and materials, and were forced to confront the fragility of the modern
supply chain. The urgent need to design smarter, stronger and more diverse supply
chains has been one of the main lessons of this crisis.

Furthermore, trade has flatlined in every region affected by the lockdown

It suggests the effects of the initial shock may continue to linger for the coming
months
Although governments and central banks have reacted with impressive speed to
inject liquidity into the system, the efficacy of such measures are fading. For a
growing number of multinational companies, the reality of the crisis presents an
increasingly stark choice between self-preservation and supplier solvency.
Median small businesses have enough cash in reserve to keep them solvent for 27
days. If cash flow dries up, it could have a devastating impact on supply chains,
lengthening any recovery period dramatically. Companies such as Unilever have
already agreed to pay suppliers earlier. However, such measures won’t be possible
in every case. Financing arrangements will need to adapt to give smaller suppliers
better access to working capital.

Impact

COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerabilities of complex global supply chains built on
lean manufacturing principles. This is particularly true in the healthcare sector, where
the scramble for protective equipment has laid bare the inherent risks of inventory
and single-sourcing models driven exclusively by cost control.

The impact of China’s lockdown and its dominance in key areas of manufacturing
have further highlighted the problem with modern supply chains. When Chinese
factories closed, manufacturers struggled to pivot due to a lack of flexibility in their
supplier base. One likely consequence is that global firms will diversify their supply
chains in the future, instead of relying only on China. Manufacturing hubs such as
Vietnam, Mexico, and India are likely to benefit from that shift

We will also see a decentralization of manufacturing capacity, with companies

looking to bring production home. This trend grew with the likes of automation and
small batch production, which had become so cheap that a number of countries
started moving portions of their supply chain back home. Policymakers may be
increasingly pressured to consider whether certain products need to be
manufactured in the country or the region.
ew model for supply chains will be underpinned by a rapid and wholesale digitization
of the paperwork that accompanies global trade.
the relationship between buyers and suppliers remains predominantly paper-based.
Digitizing the buyer-supplier relationship is a fundamental element for building sturdy
supply chains, and will make identifying and recruiting new suppliers far less time-
consuming. With technologies like artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things,
supply chains could quickly switch to alternative providers when regular suppliers
face disruption.
conclusion
The current crisis is an opportunity to reset a system that has relied on outdated
processes. Creating smart and nimble supply chains is the key to building a global
trade and investment network that’s capable of weathering future storms.

Thoughtful blockchain implementation is key

to improving supply chains in a post-COVID world
COVID-19 has shown the vulnerabilities of our supply chains and the opportunity for
technologies such as blockchain to boost efficiencies and strengthen trust across a
range of stakeholders.
However, as organizations pivot quickly to put these new technologies into place, the
crisis has highlighted the need for both speed and clarity in implementations.
Adv

ualities that hold a great deal of promise for supply chains, including a high level of
transparency and auditability
1. Product provenance and traceability
Whether they’re buying food or diamonds or car parts, consumers are looking for
ways to prove the authenticity of items. Since data can be made visible to all
participants who have been authorized to view it – and in general cannot be altered
by a single entity – customers can have confidence that data has not been tampered
with along the way. On top of this, time-stamping can provide a single source of truth
on the product’s history, from the harvesting of the materials to the shelving in a
store. Knowing the full journey of a product comes with several benefits, including
improved product safety, a reduction in fraud, and an increased accuracy in
forecasting and collaborative planning within the industry.
2. Streamlining (global) supply chain operations
Any given product moving through a supply chain can pass through hundreds of
hands. Since many of these processes are manual, it’s difficult to achieve end-to-end
integration of data documentation. Instead of the murkiness caused by a chain of
bilateral interactions, there would be multi-party access to data and documentation,
allowing for increased efficiency. In fact, with new access to information within the
supply chain, there may be opportunities to repurpose information or use it to make
better business decisions for all involved.
In fact, blockchain may be the key to unlocking “paperless trade” – a concept that
may seem elusive in a document-heavy system. For instance, solutions now exist to
digitize and automate the “bill of lading” – an essential trade document that is largely
processed manually. Under previous iterations of the system, all parties involved in
the transaction would have to physically sign the document to indicate the goods had
switched hands. With this system, a signature could be disputed or not having a pen
could delay the transaction.
Under the new model, transactions can be templated and executed seamlessly
between multiple parties, on an interface that looks like an email inbox and is backed
by cryptographic signatures.
3. Anti-corruption and humanitarian operations

India's government can build better

contracts with blockchain
PREDICTIVE

Enterprise networks are typically distributed across regions and contain

diverse infrastructure components, often operating in disparate silos. A
holistic knowledge of the infrastructure and application discovery requires
organizations to understand how those components interact and relate with
each other, especially since network performance issues can spread across
dependencies that are otherwise hidden from view. With the predictive
analytics solutions in place, organizations can collect data from across the
network, analyze multiple data sources and understand how one
infrastructure system can impact the other. In hybrid IT environments,
application and infrastructure discovery is a greater challenge considering
the limited visibility and control available to customers of cloud-based
services. Any lack of automated correlation between network incidents can
limit the ability of organizations to steer cloud operations in real-time while
responding to potential application and infrastructure performance issues.
Audit, Compliance and Security

Strictly regulated industries are often required to comply with regulations

associated with application uptime, assurance, MTTR, end-user experience
and satisfaction, among other parameters. Compliance becomes increasingly
complex when these organizations have limited visibility and control over
their IT network. Performing the audit activities at scale may require
organizations to invest greater resources on IT. The regular business may not
justify the increased operational overhead and organizations may be forced
to cut the corners in audit, compliance and security of sensitive data, apps
and IT network. Organizations using advanced artificial intelligence
technologies can automate these functions and glean insightful knowledge
that can translate into regulatory compliance of hybrid cloud IT environments
without breaking the bank.

Security is another key enabler of regulatory compliance and requires more

than automation solutions to accurately identify the root-cause of network
traffic anomalies. Security infringements in the form of data leak tend to
remain under the radar until unauthorized data transfers or network
behavior is identified. In that case, it may be too late for organizations to
respond without incurring data loss, non-compliance and potentially, the
ability to operate in security sensitive industry segments such as healthcare,
defense and finance. In complex cloud infrastructure environments, the role
of predictive analytics is to unify the knowledge from the diverse, disparate
and distributed networks and empower organizations to make better, faster
and well-informed decisions.

Implementing IT in insurance

Solns
The use of new distribution techniques and the IT tools has increased the scope of
the industry in the longer run.
There is an evolutionary change in the technology that has revolutionized the entire
insurance sector. Insurance industry is a data-rich industry, and thus, there is a need
to use the data for trend analysis and personalization.

With increased competition among insurers, service has become a key issue.
Moreover, customers are getting increasingly sophisticated and tech-savvy. People
today don't want to accept the current value propositions, they want personalized
interactions and they look for more and more features and add ones and better
service.

The insurance companies today must meet the need of the hour for more and more
personalized approach for handling the customer. Today managing the customer
intelligently is very critical for the insurer especially in the very competitive
environment. Companies need to apply different set of rules and treatment strategies
to different customer segments. However, to personalize interactions, insurers are
required to capture customer information in an integrated system.
With the explosion of Website and greater access to direct product or policy
information, there is a need to developing better techniques to give customers a truly
personalized experience. Personalization helps organizations to reach their
customers with more impact and to generate new revenue through cross selling and
up selling activities. To ensure that the customers are receiving personalized
information, many organizations are incorporating knowledge database-repositories
of content that typically include a search engine and let the customers locate all the
document and information related to their queries of request for services. Customers
can hereby use the knowledge database to manage their products or the company
information and invoices, claim records and histories of the service inquiry. These
products may also be able to learn from the customer's previous knowledge
database and to use their information when determining the relevance to the
customers search request.
Independent Regulatory Body – IRDA
Where will the Indian market be in 2020?

Vision 2020 identified the following factors as the engines of economic growth in
India:
 Rising education level,
 Rates of technological innovation,
 Cheaper and faster communication,
 Availability of information, and
 Globalization.
It makes no mention of the financial sector. Economic growth does not take place in
vacuum. There are two critical ingredients needed. First, there has to be a well-
defined legal environment. Legal framework has big impact on the development of
the financial sector. As a result, it also has a huge impact on economic growth.
Second, there has to be a well functioning financial market.

Conclusions

The insurance business is at a critical stage in India. Over the next two decades we
are likely to witness high growth in the insurance sector for three reasons.
 Financial deregulation which always speeds up the development of the
insurance sector.
 Growth in income also helps the insurance business to grow.
 In addition, increased longevity and aging population will also spur growth
in health and pension segments.