SENRA/Methodology

Methodology

How SENRA scores 37 states and UTs on supply chain fragility

1. Why This Exists

India's logistics landscape is not one market — it is 37 overlapping markets with vastly different road quality, monsoon exposure, cold storage capacity, power reliability, and distributor density. A company making a single national distribution decision is implicitly making 37 different risk decisions. A pharmaceutical company routing temperature-sensitive vaccines behaves very differently from an FMCG brand moving ambient packaged goods, but both face the same structural variation across states and UTs.

SENRA scores each state and UT on seven supply chain risk dimensions, normalises them to a common 0–100 scale, and combines them into a composite fragility score. Six sector presets reweight the dimensions to reflect the operational priorities of FMCG, pharma, cold chain, e-commerce, and agriculture supply chains. The result is a decision-support layer that lets planners identify fragile nodes, compare states directly, and stress-test distribution strategies against different risk profiles.

SENRA is designed for logistics planners, FMCG and pharma distribution managers, investors assessing regional exposure, and policy researchers studying infrastructure investment gaps. All underlying data is sourced from Indian government publications and is freely available under India's National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy.

2. The Seven Dimensions

1
Road InfrastructureHigher = lower riskDefault weight: 22%

National highway density as proxy for road quality

Source: Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) — Annual Report 2023–24
Unit: NH km per 1,000 sq km
2
Distributor DensityHigher = lower riskDefault weight: 18%

Registered distributor/wholesale businesses per capita

Source: Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) — active MSME/wholesale registrations by state
Unit: Companies per 1,00,000 people
3
Monsoon Disruption RiskHigher = higher riskDefault weight: 18%

Rainfall volume, variability, and flood frequency

Source: India Meteorological Department (IMD) — district-level rainfall variability and flood frequency index
Unit: Composite index (rainfall CV + flood days)
4
Logistics Access (LEADS)Higher = lower riskDefault weight: 16%

Government LEADS index: port, warehouse, service quality

Source: Ministry of Commerce & Industry — Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) report
Unit: LEADS score 0–100
5
Power Grid ReliabilityHigher = higher riskDefault weight: 12%

Average annual power outage duration per consumer

Source: Central Electricity Authority (CEA) — Annual Report 2023–24, consumer-hours interrupted per state
Unit: Annual outage hours per consumer
6
Cold Chain InfrastructureHigher = lower riskDefault weight: 8%

Cold storage capacity relative to population

Source: National Centre for Cold-chain Development (NCCD) — state-wise cold storage capacity
Unit: MT capacity per lakh population
7
Distributor ConcentrationHigher = higher riskDefault weight: 6%

Distributor market spread — fewer dominant players means higher disruption risk

Source: Derived from MCA registration data — Herfindahl-style concentration of wholesale businesses by district
Unit: Concentration score 0–100

3. Sector Weight Profiles

Six sector presets reweight the seven dimensions to reflect the operational priorities of each industry. All columns sum to 100%.

DimensionDefaultFMCGPharmaCold ChainE-CommerceAgriculture
Road Infrastructure22%20%18%15%25%20%
Distributor Density18%22%20%12%20%15%
Monsoon Disruption Risk18%15%15%20%12%25%
Logistics Access (LEADS)16%18%20%18%22%12%
Power Grid Reliability12%10%15%20%10%10%
Cold Chain Infrastructure8%8%8%12%6%13%
Distributor Concentration6%7%4%3%5%5%
Sum100%100%100%100%100%100%
FMCG: FMCG operates on high-frequency, thin-margin replenishment cycles that depend on last-mile distributor reach more than any other sector. Distribution density is the dominant factor; road infrastructure matters for inter-city trunking.
Pharma: Pharma supply chains require cold chain integrity and regulatory-grade storage, both of which need reliable power and certified logistics nodes. Logistics access and power reliability are elevated accordingly.
Cold Chain: A cold chain break caused by grid outage is irreversible product loss. Power grid reliability becomes the most sensitive factor, followed by cold storage capacity. Road quality matters less than the reliability of the facilities at the end of the route.
E-Commerce: E-commerce fulfilment velocity is directly bottlenecked by NH connectivity and warehouse quality. Road infrastructure and logistics access are paramount; distributor density proxies for last-mile delivery agent availability.
Agriculture: Crop-linked supply chains are fundamentally seasonal and weather-sensitive. Monsoon disruption risk dominates — both flood damage to roads and excess moisture damaging produce in transit. Cold chain matters for perishables.

4. Normalisation Method

Raw dimension values vary in unit and scale — NH km/1000 sq km cannot be directly compared to outage hours per consumer. Each dimension is normalised to a 0–100 subscore using clipped min-max normalisation. Values are first clipped at the 5th and 95th percentile to prevent extreme outliers (e.g. Delhi's business density, Ladakh's road isolation) from compressing all other states into a narrow band. The direction is then inverted for dimensions where a higher raw value means lower risk, so that a high subscore always means high fragility. The final composite score is a weighted sum of all 7 subscores.

# Pseudocode
clipped = clip(value, percentile_5, percentile_95)
normed = (clipped − p5) / (p95 − p5) ← 0.0 to 1.0
if higher_is_worse == False:
normed = 1.0 − normed ← invert direction
subscore = normed × 100.0 ← 0 to 100
composite = Σ (subscore_i × weight_i) for i in 7 dimensions

The ± uncertainty range shown next to each score reflects the varying proxy quality of each dimension, not statistical sampling error. It is computed as the root-sum-of-squares of each dimension's individual data quality uncertainty, weighted by its contribution to the composite. States with limited published data (Ladakh, Lakshadweep, and most northeastern states) carry a 1.4× penalty on their uncertainty range.

Z-scores were considered but rejected — negative values are harder to communicate to non-technical users. Clipped min-max gives intuitive 0–100 subscores while still handling outliers.

5. Risk Bands

Risk bands are applied to the weighted composite score, not to individual dimension subscores. A state can score CRITICAL on one dimension and LOW overall if other dimensions compensate.

BandScore rangeInterpretation
CRITICAL70–100Severe supply chain fragility — multiple structural vulnerabilities compound risk
HIGH50–69Significant risk — one or two major vulnerabilities require active mitigation
MODERATE30–49Manageable risk — below-average infrastructure in some dimensions
LOW0–29Relatively resilient — strong infrastructure across most dimensions

6. Limitations

Data vintage. Most underlying data is from 2023–24 government publications. Infrastructure changes — a new NH corridor, a grid upgrade, or an expansion of cold storage capacity — will not be reflected until the next data refresh. SENRA scores represent a snapshot, not a live feed.

Informal economy blind spot. Registered wholesale and distributor businesses (the MCA dataset) do not capture India's substantial informal distribution networks. States with large informal economies — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar — may have their distributor density underestimated, making their scores appear more fragile than ground reality for FMCG distribution specifically.

Monsoon proxy limitations. The IMD composite uses district-level rainfall variability and historical flood frequency. It does not capture drought risk, which is relevant for agriculture supply chains, nor the growing unpredictability of monsoon timing driven by climate change. States vulnerable to dry spells (parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka) may be underscored on monsoon risk.

Concentration proxy. The Distributor Concentration dimension uses a Herfindahl-style concentration score derived from district-level business registrations. It is a proxy for geographic market structure, not a direct measure of supply chain single-point-of-failure risk. A state with one dominant logistics hub (e.g. a major port city) may score high on concentration without that being operationally fragile — the hub may be highly efficient.

Ladakh and Lakshadweep data sparsity. These two UTs have very limited published data. Their scores rely on more estimation than other states and carry higher uncertainty (reflected in the ± range). This will improve as government statistical coverage of new UTs matures.

No dynamic routing. SENRA scores states, not routes. The corridor feature aggregates state-level scores along a geographic path but does not model actual road network topology, live traffic conditions, or real-time disruption events such as strikes, floods, or road closures.

7. Citations

1.
Ministry of Road Transport & Highways. (2023). Annual Report 2023–24. Government of India.
2.
Ministry of Corporate Affairs. (2023). MSME Annual Report 2023–24. Government of India.
3.
India Meteorological Department. (2023). Rainfall Statistics of India. Ministry of Earth Sciences.
4.
Ministry of Commerce & Industry. (2023). LEADS 2023: Logistics Ease Across Different States. Government of India.
5.
Central Electricity Authority. (2023). Annual Report 2023–24. Ministry of Power.
6.
National Centre for Cold-chain Development. (2023). Cold Chain Infrastructure Report. Ministry of Agriculture.
How to cite SENRA
Menon, H. (2024). SENRA: Supply and Economic Network Risk Analysis [Data tool]. Retrieved from https://senra.vercel.app
All government data sourced under India's National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP). Source code MIT licensed. ← Back to dashboard