Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Indian firms have focused on interconnected and lean supply chains to ameliorate the gaps through increased efficiency of supply chains. However, the pandemic has exposed most Indian firms to severe supply chain disruptions (SCDs) due to undiscovered supply chain vulnerabilities. Against this background, we reviewed the existing relevant literature on SCDs and transportation disruption in general context and pandemic specific context and identified that there exists very little research on this issue especially in the context of Indian firms, and offered policy options by developing a new model of robust transport and advanced logistics system (ALS) for speedier supply chains recovery (SCR). We have utilized and analyzed the rich available literature on SCDs, transport intelligence (TI), and ALS using gray literature. The study revealed that many Indian firms have experienced major disruptions in transportation and logistics services, including impact on transportation and logistics data, time delays, and cargo cancellations due to cramped freight capacity, restricted circulation, closure of ports, and slow customs clearances. This has also impacted adversely the production and transport consignments including logistics services and led to delays and rerouting to final consumers. With the gradual removal of restrictions, firms are making concerted efforts to recover from SCDs; however, with weak applications of robust TI and ALS, the SCR is relatively very slow. This called for a review of current transport and ALS used by priority firms. Therefore, we offered a new model for addressing the SCDs using robust intelligence transportation systems and ALS.

The paper analyzed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic induced supply chain disruptions (SCDs) on the Indian automotive industry (IAI) using a case study of Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), which share about 50% of automotive market in India and offered mitigation strategies and the SCDs recovery model. The study revealed that the IAI is unlikely to achieve its target for 2021-2022 due to pandemic induced SCDs and MSIL is no exception. The study revealed that in 2019-2020, the MSIL reduced its production several times to adjust dealers’ inventories in view of unprecedented economic slowdown and the prolonged domestic slump in automobile industry. In 2020-2021, MSIL is still facing severe disruption risks caused by the COVID-19 along with other OEMs in India and globally. In the first wave of the pandemic in India, MSIL production was totally halted and domestic sales were virtually zero in April 2020. During the second wave of the pandemic crisis in India, MSIL again experienced a severe fall in production and sales performance due to regional lockdown restrictions and SCDs. The rapid decline in production of MSIL has been mainly due to the pandemic induced lockdown and the SCDs in auto-components and halt in manufacturing activities. Therefore, robust mitigation strategies are needed to recover from the COVID-19 induced SCDs. The suggested model focused on the SCDs and risk management and offered the proactive and reactive responses for speedier readjustment of automotive industry from the COVID-19 pandemic induced SCDs. Ending the COVID-19 era and its impact on SCDs will not only depend on government policies, but also on proactive and reactive risk mitigation measures initiated by the firms. Robust measures should be taken to tackle the current supply chain threats in automotive sector to build the resilience of supply chain systems to safeguard them against business downturns.