Streamlining grain supply chains of India: Cloud computing and distributed hubbing for wholesale-retail logistics

Spoilage rates in India's grain supply chains have been estimated to be 25% to 30%. The price “mark-up” rates, i.e., service charges over crop costs, have been estimated to be over 240%, with a whopping 210% incurred by wholesalers, retailers and the intermediaries. The two rates in developed nations are approximately 3% and between 50% and 100%. This paper focuses on supply-chain portion from wholesalers through consumers and proposes service, information technology and logistics concepts to help reduce the two rates. In particular, cloud computing may help India bring the full benefit of IT to their small merchants through leap-frogging.