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With an annual growth of almost 20% since the year 2000, Indian merchandise exports exceeded 300 billion U.S. dollars in 2012. The country is becoming a major supplier to the world. However, companies sourcing products and operating in India are experiencing a variety of supply chain disruptions that impede their operations and finances. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the frequency, impact and severity of supply chain risks experienced by companies in India, as well as assess the usefulness of mitigation methods and enquire about future expected disruptions. It is hoped that the results will prepare managers to better prioritize their supply chain risk management efforts and investments. The scope of this study is upstream (sourcing and operations) disruptions that affected Indian supply chains over the past three years, including the areas of logistics and transportation. The methodology is a quantitative, empirical study, using a survey instrument in the form of a questionnaire distributed electronically to thousands of members of four prominent trade associations in India. The platform for the questionnaire is a modification of a traditional risk analysis progression: mapping, identifying, assessing, mitigating and improving, also dubbed "MIAMI". The main findings are that there are major and significant differences in severity (frequency and impact) between the thirteen risk categories presented. There are also significant group differences among the respondents. Traditional mitigation methods differ with respect to usefulness, and expected risks are somewhat different than past risks. Conclusions reached are that chronic risks such as inadequate transportation, logistics and utilities infrastructure, supplier and labor problems, and bureaucracy/red tape are more severe than highly publicized and visible risks such as natural disasters, terrorism and crime. Traditional mitigation methods are useful for many of the disruptions, but ineffective for non-physical risks. There is a certain optimism with respect to future infrastructure related disruptions. Limitations of the study include a relatively low response rate, the classic difficulty in risk analysis of comparing and scaling the impact of disruptions, and that it is not fine grained enough to fully describe any specific industry sectors. This study contributes to the field of supply chain risk management by adding crucial empirical information from a heretofore unexplored market.

In the post World War II era, a group of east Asian exporters achieved rapid economic growth through the exports of labor-intensive manufactures, among which textiles and apparel were the most prominent. Previous research has sought to explain the determinants of international textile and apparel trade through the theory of comparative advantage. The aim of this research was to examine the textile and apparel export patterns and government intervention of South Korea and India, 1955-1985, through comparative historical analysis. The sectoral study proceeded under the premise that a prime determinant of export success is the nature of government intervention. The conceptual framework of the study was based on Liang's (1992) classification of trade regimes. The focus of the study was on the overall policy atmosphere in the two countries examined, which affected the development of the textile/apparel sectors and their trade patterns. The procedure utilized followed the general framework of comparative analysis. The variables chosen were identified by the theory as relevant to policy analysis and were examined to determine whether they provided evidence to support the hypotheses. To judge the overall policy atmosphere of South Korea and India, the effects of various government incentives were analyzed. The study contained descriptions of policy measures and explanations of the reasoning governing their implementation. An evaluation of the effects of each policy, as well as the overall effect of the combined policies, was provided. For both countries, qualitative and quantitative variables associated with import protection and export promotion were analyzed. The cross-country comparison revealed that both South Korea and India displayed high levels of government intervention in industry and trade as related to their textile/apparel sectors. The method of comparative analysis permitted an in-depth view of various individual policies affecting the textile/apparel sectors of both countries. An important finding was that the government intervention in South Korea fostered the growth of its textile/apparel exports, whereas Indian government intervention hampered the growth of Indian textile and apparel exports. The analysis also showed that the South Korean policy package resulted in the textile/apparel industry emerging as the country's largest exporting sector in the late 1960s, a position it retained until the early 1980s. Meanwhile, the Indian policy package nearly stagnated textile/apparel exports from the 1950s onwards, and the country's share of the world market was taken over by South Korea, China, and Taiwan, among others. / Master of Science