Competitiveness of Indian dry ports and the impacts of government policies: The dualistic approach of policy-makers

Rapid economic growth in India demanded high quality logistical services, implying that dry ports, often characterized by inefficiency, would play pivotal roles. While the Indian government attempted to address this problem by introducing foreign private participation, at the same time, it had to uphold its social-democratic tradition where local operators and their interests should not be edged out by external competition. It is the endeavour of this paper to investigate how the Indian government had attempted to resolve these contradictory issues and provided insight on how political influences can shape an industry's competitive structure, especially in developing countries.