“The formation of action plan teams in these areas is highly relevant today in the majority of critical supply chains, given their supply concentration and the lessons learnt from significant disruptions faced during the Covid-19 pandemic,” the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement, adding that there are challenges and strengths in these areas across all IPEF partners.
Another team related to the healthcare and pharma sector is also in the works.
Interested partner countries can join the action plan teams within a month of their establishment to explore possible collaborative efforts among countries to enhance resilience in the supply chain of these specific critical sectors and key goods.
As per the statement, the use of specific critical minerals is indispensable for sectors including clean energy, electronics, defence, transportation, telecommunications, fertilisers, and pharmaceuticals.
“One of the key challenges lies in the supply risk due to its concentration and global market dynamics, which can result in price volatility and uncertainty, leading to supply disruptions,” the ministry said.The grouping also established two sub-committees for cross cutting issues- one on logistics and movement of goods to facilitate efforts to improve logistics services and logistics infrastructure in the IPEF region, and the other one on
Data and Analytics which would build upon the work already undertaken by IPEF countries to exchange analytical approaches to supply chain exposures and risk.
“In this context, India also emphasized on the need to work towards workforce development for re-skilling and up-skilling, which is positively under consideration,” the ministry said.
The first in-person meeting of the supply chain council was held in Washington on September 12, followed by a crisis response network meeting a day later.