Annual Report 2010-11 - GS1 India

Annual Report 

2010-2011 

Helping deliver 

quality healthcare 

GS1 - The global language of business

Driving adoption of global standards through 

one vision, one voice, one organisation. 

At GS1, our vision is a world where 

things and related information move 

efficiently and securely for the benefit 

of businesses and improvement of 

peoples’ lives, everyday, everywhere. 

Our mission is to be the neutral leader 

enabling communities develop and 

implement global standards and 

providing the tools, trust and 

confidence needed to achieve our 

vision.

ANNUAL REPORT 2010 - 2011 

Contents 

Message from the President .......................... 2 

Message from the CEO .................................... 3 

Healthcare ............................................................. 8 

Retail .................................................................... 11 

Food ..................................................................... 14 

Transport & Logistics ..................................... 15 

Focus Areas ....................................................... 17 

Visibility ....................................................... 18 

Data Quality ............................................... 20 

B2C Initiative .............................................. 21 

Sustainability ............................................. 22 

Looking Ahead ................................................. 23

Message from the President 

I take pleasure in presenting the 13 th Annual Report 

of GS1 India for 2010-11. 

Despite volatile market conditions during the 

year, GS1 India performed well and exceeded 

targets set for 2010-11. 

With increasing incidence of counterfeit 

medicines globally and the need for lowering high 

healthcare delivery costs, adoption of technology 

and global standards which can help in product 

authentication, track & trace and lower 

healthcare supply chain costs become essential. 

Globally, GS1 is deeply engaged with healthcare 

stakeholders comprising policy makers, Industry 

etc in finding solutions to the above problems. 

GS1 India has been sensitizing the Indian 

healthcare sector on the above over the past 

few years which would now lead to adoption 

of GS1 barcodes from this year onwards, on 

pharmaceuticals destined for exports and sold 

in the domestic market. 

This is a significant development and is 

expected to lead to widespread barcode 

scanning in the country by pharmacies, 

hospitals etc with resultant benefits on ready 

stock availability, counterfeit detection, track 

& trace, recall and effective supply chain 

management of medical supplies. 

GS1 India was actively involved in the 

development of National standards on Good 

Agricultural Practices (India GAP). Discussions 

were also held with Global G.A.P. Germany on use 

of GS1 standards for unique farm/plot 

identification and this is expected to result in use 

of the GLN (Global Location Number) for 

identification of Globa G.A.P certified farms in 

the country. 

Under the aegis of the CII National Retail 

Committee, GS1 India conceptualized and 

undertook a comprehensive study on the quality 

of product data in the Indian Retail sector and its 

impact on the topline and bottomline of retailers 

and their suppliers. 

GS1 India organized and hosted successfully, the 

GS1 Asia Pacific Forum in Oct’10 at New Delhi 

which drew 55 participants from GS1 

organisations in 17 countries including Mr. 

Miguel Lopera, President & CEO, GS1 and key GO 

staff members. 

Shri Ravi Mathur, CEO, GS1 India was awarded 

the Retail Icon award for 2011 by the Asia Retail 

Congress in recognition of his contribution to 

the retail sector in India. 

I take this opportunity to thank the Board of 

Management for its continued pro-active support 

in furthering the objectives of GS1 India and on 

its behalf commend the work done by GS1 India 

Team under the leadership of Shri Ravi Mathur. 

Sumanta Chaudhuri 

2


Message from the CEO 

GS1 India reported good overall performance in 

2010-11 and exceeded its targets by 200% in 

subscriber enrollment and 30% in income 

generation. 

Delivery of quality and affordable healthcare is 

a key global priority, exercising the attention of 

Governments, Regulators and healthcare 

stakeholders. GS1 has been working in this space 

in response to Industry needs for standards 

which help in enhancing efficiency and quality 

of healthcare. 

The pharma sector is poised to adopt GS1 

standards for domestic supplies with the Ministry 

of Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of India 

directing incorporation of GS1 barcodes for 

medical supplies procured by it for Central 

Government Hospitals and CGHS health centers. 

In a parallel movement aimed at facilitating 

product authentication and track & trace of 

pharma drugs, all pharma exports were also 

mandated to adopt GS1 standards and barcoding. 

Our Annual Report for 2010-11 takes healthcare 

as its central theme with the impending 

adoption of GS1 barcodes this year on medical 

supplies in India. 

A Proof of Concept was successfully organized 

and concluded by us to demonstrate on how 

global data synchronization would work between 

retailers and their suppliers. Consequent to it, 

there was broad acceptance on moving ahead 

with product data synchronization using GDSN 

standards developed by GS1. 

GS1 India conceptualized and guided the data 

crunch study conducted through IBM India, under 

the aegis of the CII National Retail Committee on 

prevalent product data quality in India. 

GS1 India was invited to participate in the 

National Technical Working Group under Quality 

Council of India to draw IndiaGAP standards. This 

is expected to drive implementation of traceability 

in Indian food supply chains using GS1 traceability 

standards, enhancing food safety and providing 

increased market access to Indian food exports. 

GS1 India maintained high level of visibility 

through participation as speaker/panelist in 

several important national events on retailing, 

logistics, food safety, counterfeiting etc. 

Concerted efforts were made at engaging the Automatic 

Identification Data Capture solution provider 

community in driving adoption of data capture 

technologies and global standards in Supply Chains. 

GS1 India continued to participate and actively 

contribute to the deliberations of the GS1 Advisory 

Council. At the GS1 Global Forum in Feb’11, GS1 

India participated as speaker/panelist/chairperson 

in several key business sessions. 

During the year Shri Sumanta Chaudhuri, Joint 

Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of 

Commerce and Industry, Govt. of India took over as 

President of GS1 India. We gratefully acknowledge 

the services rendered by our previous President, 

Shri P. K. Dash and look forward to continued support 

and guidance from GS1 India’s Board of 

Management under Shri Chaudhuri’s leadership. 

A strong base has been created by us for adoption 

of GS1 standards across product categories and 

Industry sectors. We expect to leverage this with 

innovative approaches to spearhead growth in 

the coming years and continue to perform well 

as in the previous years. 

Ravi Mathur 

GS1 - The global language of business 

3

GS1 is a neutral, not-for-profit organisation that 

facilitates collaboration amongst trading partners 

and technology providers, in order to solve 

together business challenges that leverage 

standards and ensure safety, efficiency and 

visibility of value chains. 

Headquartered at Brussels, Belgium, GS1 oversees 

a global network of 110 GS1 organisations serving 

over 150 countries. 

GS1 India (earlier EAN India), set up in 1996 as a 

not-for-profit standards body, is an affiliate of 

GS1. Its Management Board and founder 

members comprise the following: 

y 

y 

y 

y 

y 

y 

y 

y 

y 

y 

Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India 

Agricultural & Processed Food products Export Development 

Authority 

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry 

Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India 

Federation of Indian Export Organisations 

Confederation of Indian Industry 

Indian Institute of Packaging 

Indian Merchants’ Chamber 

Bureau of Indian Standards 

Spices Board 

GS1 India Management Board is headed by Shri 

Sumanta Chaudhuri, Joint Secretary, Ministry of 

Commerce and Industry, Govt. of India with Shri 

Ravi Mathur as its Chief Executive Officer. 

In 2010-11, GS1 India completed 15 years 

affiliation with GS1, in recognition of which it 

was presented a plaque by Mr. Timothy Smucker, 

Chairman Emeritus and Mr. Miguel Lopera, 

President & CEO, GS1. 

4


GS1 standards and solutions 

For the past 35 years, GS1 is dedicated to the 

development and implementation of open, 

interoperable and user driven standards used in 

Supply Chain Management. 

Open standards in general enable interoperability, 

flexibility and vendor independence which in turn 

result in reduction in end product costs to 

businesses and consumers. 

GS1 standards are widely used across over 25 

industry sectors which include Retail, Healthcare, 

Transport & Logistics, Food etc. 

More than one million companies worldwide use 

these standards and solutions to improve their 

topline and bottomline performance, 

meet growing consumer demands and enable 

compliance with varied requirements of buyers 

and legislations worldwide. 

GS1 standards provide a global language of business 

that helps organisations identify, capture and share 

information throughout the global value chain in a 

uniform, structured, seamless and consistent 

manner. This in turn facilitates implementation of 

several Supply Chain applications 

like traceability, recalls, product authentication, 

inventory management, upstream integration etc. 

Identify 

Share 

GS1 Identifiers provide unique, unambiguous and GS1 eCom : Standards for electronic business 

universal identification of products, assets, service messaging for rapid and accurate data 

relationships, locations/entities etc. 

transmission between trading partners. 

Capture 

GS1 GDSN : Standards which enable synchronisation 

GS1 Barcodes : Standards for encoding GS1 of master data between trading partners using the 

Identifiers in barcodes 

Global Data Synchronisation Network. 

GS1 EPC/RFID : Standards for encoding Electronic GS1 EPCIS : Standards for sharing EPC related 

Product Code (EPC) in Radio Frequency information between trading partners, safely and 

Identification (RFID) tags. Also includes standards securely on the What, Where, When, and Why of 

for reader management and middleware. events occurring at any point in supply chains. 

In addition to the above and in consideration of the 

growing importance of mobile phones for 

facilitating access to additional information on 

products as desired by businesses and consumers 

worldwide, GS1 has launched GS1 

MobileCom which links trusted sources of product 

information with these communities. 

GS1 India promotes awareness on GS1 standards and 

solutions and supports their implementation in line 

with the overall global objectives of GS1. 


5

Performance 

GS1 India added over 1500 new subscribers in this fiscal year with their distribution across sectors 

illustrated schematically as below:- 

3% 

3% 

2% 

8% 

51% 

19% 

Food & Beverages 

14% 

Printing 

Textile, Clothing & Footwear 

Pharma, Cosmetics & Toiletries 

Perfumery 

Miscellaneous 

Consumer Durables 

Mr. Ravi Mathur, CEO of GS1 India was awarded 

the ‘Retail Icon’ award for 2011 at the Asia Retail 

Congress held on 8-9 Feb’11 at Mumbai, India. 

The award was presented in acknowledgment of 

GS1 India’s contributions to the Indian retail 

industry. 

6


GS1 India participated in several national and 

international events besides hosting the GS1 Asia 

Pacific Forum 2010 in New Delhi. 

The GS1 Asia Pacific Forum drew participation 

from GS1 organisations in 17 countries in the AP 

region with over 50 delegates. The three-day event 

held from 19 th Oct till 21 st Oct’10 at New Delhi 

combined several business meetings with 

training programs and social events and were well 

appreciated. 

At the Global G.A.P conference held in London in 

Oct’10, a focused session on India was organized 

in which GS1 India participated as a panelist and 

highlighted role of GS1 standards in traceability 

and on its engagement in the preparation of 

IndiaGAP standards. 

GS1 India was invited to deliver presentations on 

healthcare and data synchronization sessions at 

the GS1 Global Forum held in Brussels in Feb’11. 

It also chaired two business sessions on Healthcare 

and data synchronization. 

At the ECR Asia Pacific Conference held Kuala 

Lumpur in Oct’10, GS1 India was invited to present 

on the study it had undertaken in collaboration 

with IBM India on data crunch under the CII 

National Retail Committee and share results of 

the same with the Industry. 

Besides the above, GS1 India participated in several 

national events as well as a speaker/panelist which 

included the following: 

y CII International conference on counterfeiting 

and piracy. 

y India Retail Forum 2010 

y FSSAI International Conference on best 

practices in food safety implementation 

y CII National Logistics Summit 

y ASSOCHAM Food & Agri exporters Conclave 

y Food Forum India 2011 


7

Healthcare 

Security, visibility and efficiency in healthcare are 

currently at the forefront of Government 

regulations and industry concerns around the 

world. 

In light of concerns about patient safety and 

rapidly escalating healthcare costs, 

Governments worldwide are taking action and 

important policy changes are on the way. 

Various authorities worldwide have developed, 

or are developing, regulations requiring 

automatic identification, serialization and 

traceability systems in healthcare to improve 

patient safety, including the European 

Commission, the US Food and Drug 

Administration (FDA), the National Health 

Surveillance Agency in Brazil (ANVISA), the 

Ministry of Health of Turkey and the Ministry 

of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), 

Government of India. 

GS1 has been working with the global 

healthcare community for several years via its 

global user group: GS1 Healthcare. This group 

is leading the Healthcare sector to the successful 

development and deployment of GS1 global 

standards by bringing together experts in 

Healthcare to enhance patient safety and 

Supply Chain efficiencies. 

Sector-wide implementation of Automatic 

Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) systems will 

improve patient safety, including reducing 

medication errors, fighting counterfeiting and 

enabling effective product recalls and adverse event 

reporting. It will also help remove inefficiencies 

throughout the healthcare supply chain. 

In addition to the Global Traceability Standard 

for Healthcare, the following global standards for 

the healthcare sector are now also available: 

y Product identification Standard for Medical 

Products: This new product identification 

standards provide industry stakeholders with a 

common set of data and data carriers for 

medical products at every packaging level. 

y Product Identification Standard for Small 

Instruments: This global standard for direct part 

marking of small surgical instruments specially 

covers AIDC marking of surgical instruments 

to enable traceability throughout the 

instrument reprocessing cycle, and in particular, 

as instruments move to and from the 

sterilisation department in hospitals or 

sterilisation centres. 

y Global data synchronisation in Healthcare: 

Excellent work continues to be achieved by 

the Global Data Synchronisation Network 

8

“Enhancing patient safety and optimizing hospital management processes are 

important aspects in delivering quality and affordable healthcare. Global 

standards which facilitate universal identification of patients, medical and 

hospital supplies, assets etc using automated data capture technologies like 

barcoding, RFID etc are core to realizing the above objectives”. 


Dr. Praneet Kumar 

CEO-Dr. B L Kapur Memorial Hospital 

(GDSN) implementation initiative, which was 

launched to accelerate the adoption of global 

data synchronisation in healthcare. More 

leading healthcare organisations have joined 

the initiative, including representatives from 

healthcare providers, group purchasing 

organisations, pharmacies and distributors on the 

“demand” side and participants from a dozen 

companies from the “supply” side as well. 

These efforts have already resulted in more 

than 70 live GDSN connections globally 

between partners in the healthcare supply 

chain. Additionally, based on the experiences 

of the participants, a sub-work team has 

developed a report to assist other healthcare 

organisations in deploying GDSN. 

To support the immediate implementation of 

the GDSN in healthcare and allow the proper 

registration of any healthcare product in the 

same, GS1 has released two new Global Product 

Classification (GPC) codes, one for drugs and 

another one for medical devices. 


9

Patient safety initiatives across the world tackle 

the challenges in the Healthcare Supply Chain, 

including the reduction of medication errors, the 

fight against counterfeiting, optimization of postmarket 

surveillance etc. 

The National Health Service (NHS), U.K. adopted 

GS1 coding standards provided to help eradicate 

patient safety issues. 

Netherlands has implemented an electronic blood 

transfusion administration record, utilizing 

Barcode Point of Care technology (BPOC) in the 

blood transfusion process. This has potential for 

dramatically improve patient safety and 

preventing the wrong blood products from being 

administered to a patient. 

In Australia, a single source of item master, titled 

the National Product Catalogue (NPC), has been 

created for use by health institutions etc. It has been 

used successfully by the State Health jurisdictions 

to improve the quality of data sourced for their 

pharmaceutical tendering process. 

GS1 India has been closely engaged with the 

healthcare sector in India to promote awareness 

on global standards and best practices and to 

provide technical guidance and support in 

adoption and implementation of the same. 

After the breakthrough achieved last year with 

getting GS1 standards adopted for unique 

identification of each CGHS beneficiary and 

acceptance for using GS1 Datamatrix barcodes (2D 

barcodes) for all the medical supplies procured by 

the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, 

Government of India, another significant 

breakthrough was achieved this year with getting 

GS1 BarCodes notified for pharmaceutical exports. 

GS1 Datamatrix is a data carrier specified for use 

within the GS1 System. The symbology holds large 

amounts of data in a relatively small space as 

compared to traditional linear barcodes, and is 

therefore becoming increasingly popular for a wide 

range of applications including aerospace, 

pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing. 

GS1 India worked closely with Department of 

Commerce (DOC), Government of India in 

providing knowledge on global best practices 

and standards to meet DOC’s requirements for 

track & trace, product authentication and 

counterfeit detection. 

Efforts are underway at getting State Health 

Authorities also to adopt GS1 standards in 

barcoding of all medicines, medical devices, 

hospital supplies etc. 

GS1 India has been involved with various groups 

active in healthcare sector in India which include 

FICCI CASCADE Committee on anti-smuggling 

and anti-counterfeiting etc. 

10


Retail 

Sustainability, a shared supply chain, consumer 

technology and health & wellness continue to 

drive the Retail & consumer goods sector 

worldwide. 

There is also a clear trend among retailers worldwide 

to focus on supply chains that support multichannel 

and multi-format retailing. Demand driven 

retailing models are emerging which can quickly 

respond to consumers’ exact needs and redefine 

the consumer experience by fulfilling cross-channel 

demand, understanding & responding to demand 

signals, building value networks, delivering a 

consumer-centric supply chain and supporting 

products & services innovation. 

Consumers are also increasingly demanding more 

information on products before making buying 

decisions. The fast growing population of mobile 

telephones worldwide provides an excellent 

communication opportunity to brand owners, 

retailers with their customers. This is expected to 

result in better understanding of consumer 

shopping behavior, more effective and efficient new 

product introductions and product promotions with 

almost instantaneous consumer feedback. 

Indian Retail has started taking cognizance of the 

above global trends which is likely to transform 

consumer shopping experience and impact 

positively topline and bottomline performance 

of retailers and brand owners. There is also an 

increased focus by both national and 

international retailers on catering to preferences 

of local consumers across different regions of 

the country, given its wide cultural diversity, 

buying/eating preferences etc. 

At a global level, GS1 maintained active 

collaboration with the major associations that 

gather Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and 

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies 

together, including The Consumer Goods Forum 

(TCGF), the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association 

(GMA), Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and 

Efficient Consumer Response (ECR). 

GS1 developed GS1 DataBar symbology which 

allows more information to be stored in less 

space. It permits marking on small, hard-to-mark 

consumer product goods like fresh foods and 

jewellery to carry additional information such as 

weight, expiry date and lot number. 


11

“Retailing requires the ability to respond with speed to fast changing consumer 

preferences and demand for products. Retailers need to build consumer-centric 

supply chains which support year round product availability and seamless 

information exchange between retailers and their suppliers. GS1 standards 

play a key role in facilitating the same”. 

Rakesh Biyani 

Director & CEO-Retail, Future Group & Member GS1 Board of Management 

GS1 DataBar also enables solving today’s business 

problems such as product authentication & 

traceability, product quality & effectiveness, variable 

measure product identification, and couponing. GS1 

DataBar representing a new capability at retail pointof-sale 

(POS) witnessed wide scale implementation 

in North American groceries, piloting in Europe and 

Asia, and can be found on loose produce shipping 

all over the world. 

GS1 DataBar is destined to increase efficiency and 

productivity in retailing worldwide. 

benefits of EAS with the visibility benefits of RFID. 

The solution is a disposable or reusable tag that 

is programmed with a unique item number (the 

EPC number) which can be read from the 

production line to the retailer’s front door. This, 

in turn, helps prevent shoplifting in clothing, 

consumer electronics product categories etc. 

A number of implementations have been undertaken 

by the retail industry on item level tagging of apparel, 

with clear advantages being demonstrated in 

efficiency and inventory management. 

Retailers currently employ solutions such as 

Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) to detect and 

deter customer theft. These systems have a 

number of limitations because they 

y are limited to deterring and detecting 

y provide no actionable intelligence 

y can’t help with inventory, returns or counterfeit 

detection 

y can create false alarms which can have a : 

negative impact on the customer experience 

In 2010, GS1 issued implementation guidelines 

for the use of RFID and GS1 standards as part of 

Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS). GS1 

EPCglobal standards combine the theft deterrent 

Additionally, following the publication of 

Implementation Guidelines on the use of 

RFID and GS1 standards in the supply chains 

of the retail consumer electronics sector, 

work is currently underway to integrate 

consumer electronics group under the 

umbrella of the Retail Value Chain Industry 

User Group (RVC IUG). 

In India, GS1 India is actively involved with the 

Retail & Consumer Goods verticals of Apex 

Chambers of Commerce including CII, FICCI and 

ASSOCHAM, providing key inputs on global best 

practices in standards and technology adoption 

in Supply Chains. 

12


After the success in adoption and 

implementation of GS1 barcodes in food/FMCG 

categories, GS1 India achieved significant 

breakthrough in the apparel retailing sector 

through adoption of GS1 standards in this 

category in lieu of proprietary coding practices 

followed earlier. 

This would help spread adoption of GS1 BarCodes 

to other product categories as well including 

general merchandise, home appliances, 

consumer electronics etc. 

Delhi State Excise Department is in the process of 

implementing barcoding on liquor bottles using 

GS1 standards which would enable visibility of 

stocks in the supply chain, monitoring inventory 

levels, effecting timely replenishment and 

authenticating alcoholic beverage products at the 

retail outlets. 

On implementation, this is expected to become 

an important referral case with an estimated 5 

billion liquor bottles which will get barcoded and 

scanned over a 7 year period while effecting sales. 

Other product categories and sectors are likely to 

adopt barcoding for similar applications in the 

future. 

Major efforts were undertaken at improving 

barcode scanning quality across product 

categories. GS1 provides verification reports for 

GS1 barcode packaging artworks/label samples 

to enable full diagnostics on scanning quality and 

guidance on its improvement through 

modifications in artworks etc. During the year, 

over 2100 products incorporating GS1 barcodes 

of 515 companies were taken up for generation 

of verification reports, resulting in significant 

improvement in barcode scanning at Retail POS’s 

across the country. 


13

Food 

“The importance of farm to fork Traceability in the food supply chain is well known as it has helped 

retailers and regulators worldwide recall food products in the event of food safety related crisis. 

APEDA has implemented web-based Traceability in a number of product categories for exports 

using GS1 global standards. The success of these initiatives is visible from the growth in export of 

such products and has encouraged APEDA to continue with this work in other food sectors”. 

S Dave 

Director-APEDA & Chairman-CODEX 

Globalisation, increasing consumer awareness, 

stringent quality standards and the perishable 

nature of food items are making the food supply 

chain more complex with every passing day. 

Modern food supply and distribution channels 

are far more complex than a “chain” – they are 

more like a tapestry with dozens and even 

hundreds of “threads” coming together to 

produce the final product. 

Global food Supply Chains, with geographically 

dispersed suppliers and customers, are under 

increased scrutiny from customers, increasingly 

concerned about food safety and quality. 

An added challenge for food sector is in effecting 

product recalls efficiently, accurately and with 

great speed through reverse logistics in the event 

of detection of sub standard product quality unfit 

for human consumption. 

GS1 has been working closely with global food 

Supply Chain partners to help them overcome 

challenges concerning availability of fresh, safe 

and quality food at any given time by aligning 

both downstream and upstream processes. 

Technology offers a wide variety of ways of 

achieving traceability and many solutions already 

exist for food safety and food recall. Neutral global 

standards can help ensure the smooth 

interoperability of all these traceability 

technologies and systems GS1 facilitates food 

industry by providing Global Traceability 

Standards (GTS) and supports their 

implementation to enhance efficiency for 

tracking and tracing of fresh produces during 

distribution and retail. 

Introduction of GS1 DataBar for automatic 

identification of difficult to label products, made 

it possible to identify individual pieces of fruit 

and vegetables. 

GS1 MobileCom for extended packaging 

information, e.g. nutritional facts, allergen alerts, 

product testing certificate, recipe, etc empowers 

consumers to make informed choices about the 

food that fits their diet (fair-trade, organic, etc). 

GS1 standards and solutions based product 

authentication systems also help brand owners 

combat counterfeiting and ensure consumers safety 

GS1 India and IHDA (Indian Horticulture 

Development Alliance – a USAID-MSU joint initiative) 

are collaborating in capacity building of growers/ 

exporters through implementation of global 

traceability system and GS1 standards to gain market 

entry into developed markets worldwide. 

GS1 India participated in the preparation of IndiaGAP 

wherein GS1 standards have been referenced for 

unique identification of farms, product identification 

and traceability. 

This was the first instance of GS1 standards 

referenced within any National GAP standards 

worldwide and would help GS1 in taking up with 

GlobalG.A.P. for similar endorsement. This in turn 

would help GS1 standards adoption in the Agri 

sector worldwide. 

GS1 India also signed a MOU with Global G.A.P. to 

enable use of GLNs (global location number) 

issued by it for unique and universal identification 

of GlobalG.A.P. certified farms in India. 

14

“Seamless and accurate information exchange between trading partners related to 

goods movement is critical to success in logistics operations. Therefore global 

standards which facilitate universal identification of shipments, locations and 

electronic information exchange are extremely critical.” 


Anshuman Singh 

MD and CEO, Future Supply Chain Solutions Ltd. 

Transport & Logistics 

In today’s truly globalised Supply Chain, the 

importance of efficient logistics management 

and transportation optimisation is becoming all 

the more clear, because excellent communication 

and coordination is absolutely necessary as 

components and goods cross more and more 

borders than ever before. 

The use of state-of-the-art information 

technologies has also revolutionised the way 

logistics and transportation activities are 

organised and conducted, Transportation and 

logistics services have a vital role to play in 

making sustainability programmes possible and 

in helping companies meet their energy 

consumption goals. 

Considerations about sustainability in the 

Supply Chain are playing an increasingly 

important role in the selection of suppliers and 

the awarding of contracts. 

being able to track every stage and trace 

shipments back to their origin. 

Adopting GS1 standards has sustainability 

benefits, since improved efficiency in 

transportation means reduced CO2 use and full 

traceability of goods ensures better social 

responsibility. The improved efficiency 

ultimately leads to greater profitability, since 

the right goods get to the right place at the 

right time. 

With GS1 Standards as the basis for their 

operations and services, transportation and 

logistics teams can standardize information and 

automate its collection leaving them more time 

to focus on how to use information rather than 

how to get information and this leads to much 

greater efficiency in transport and warehousing. 

With these voluntary, user-designed standards, 

companies in the transportation and logistics 

sector can work more efficiently, more 

economically, more sustainably and more 

competitively. It gives much better visibility of 

goods throughout the supply chain, including 


15

GS1 has spent much of the past year working on 

a fully integrated approach to offer GS1 standards 

adapted for T&L companies. Two workgroups 

have been created to work in the following areas: 

Logistics Interoperability Model - This will increase 

business process interoperability and visibility of 

operations. 

Standard International Logistics Label (STILL) - 

This will standardize on a common logistics label 

which would facilitate efficient handling of 

logistics units in warehousing and transport 

processes. 

Cross-border trade facilitation 

For several years now, GS1 has been working 

closely with the World Customs Organization 

(WCO) and national Customs administrations on 

pilot projects designed to improve the 

predictability, security, compliance and 

traceability of cross-border shipments. 

GS1 also works closely with ISO to ensure 

compatibility with GS1 standards. 

GS1 and the Bureau International des Containers 

et du Transport Intermodal (B.I.C.) also signed a 

Memorandum of Understanding. B.I.C. is a notfor-profit 

organisation that oversees and 

administers a global system for allocating and 

managing identification codes (BIC-CODES) used 

in international container transport. B.I.C. and GS1 

will cooperate on the harmonisation of supply 

chain standards for freight, transport and 

logistics. 

Many companies have already seen that the 

benefits of adopting GS1 standards include 

improved efficiency, increased visibility of the 

flow of goods and shipments, more efficient 

handling and inventory management, increased 

security of distribution, faster operations and 

smoother exchanges with Customs and other 

Government agencies. 

16


Focus Areas 


17

Visibilty 

Enabling full visibility of the supply chain has 

been identified as one of four strategic pillars 

that will be the focus of GS1’s work in the 

coming years. 

Visibility is a broad concept that relates to 

knowing where things are at any point in time 

and why they are there (or where they have been 

in the past). Visibility means leveraging a range 

of standards and business applications in order 

to see more event-based information relating to 

key business processes. It is increasingly a key 

capability for businesses to be able to address 

the perennial issue of “if you can’t ‘see’ something 

then you can’t measure it, and if you can’t measure 

it, it’s probably costing your business too much.” 

Many supply chain processes can be transformed 

through deeper, more accurate and rich visibility 

information. These processes could include 

improving overall supply chain accuracy, velocity 

and effectiveness, the management of inventory, 

product tracking and tracing, confirming the 

chain of custody and ownership of a product, 

product authentication and managing products 

returned by customers. 

A recent study showed clearly that best-in-class 

supply chain performers, measured as those 

companies with the lowest out-of-stocks, 

lowest landed costs and highest on time 

shipment rates also have the most visibility into 

their supply chains. 

18


Standards for visibility cover three key areas: 

y Identification standards that provide the 

foundation for data and interface standards. 

y Data standards that define the content and 

meaning of visibility data so that one supply 

chain party can understand data that it receives 

from another supply chain party. 

y Interface standards that define how supply 

chain parties can interact with each other to 

exchange visibility data. 

In these times of intense competition, every 

opportunity must be seized to improve effectiveness, 

reduce cost, and increase the speed and accuracy of 

operations; and this, in order to ultimately serve the 

customer, consumer or patient needs. 

The GS1 System provides a solid foundation and an 

integrated suite of global standards that can enable 

businesses to achieve global supply chain visibility. 

Although a range of standards exists today to 

enable the achievement of visibility, there is still 

work to do. The final element of visibility will be 

the completion of work on Discovery Services. 

Discovery Services will enable parties to exchange data 

in a secure way, which will ensure each party retains 

the rights of ownership of its visibility data and will 

ensure that requests for information are authorised 

and authenticated. Discovery will add a new level and 

depth of information that can be used to achieve the 

benefits of even greater visibility. 


19

“Updated, accurate and reliable master data on SKUs is at the core of several critical business 

processes in Retailing connected with timely product replenishment and ordering, optimized shelfspace 

planning, accelerated speed to market etc. GS1 global standards on data quality and data 

alignment/synchronization help Industry in streamlining their business processes and serve our 

consumers better”. 

Data Quality 

Thomas Varghese 

CEO, Aditya Birla Retail Ltd. & Chairman, CII National Retail Committee 

Product data quality and its automated 

alignment/synchronization between suppliers 

and retailers has been a major issue which has 

impacted efficiencies and productivity of retail 

operations worldwide. 

Poor quality data results in additional costs for all 

Supply Chain partners and hinders 

implementation of data synchronisation between 

them which is critical and core to performing 

several business operations connected with space 

planning, new product introductions and 

promotions, logistics efficiency etc. 

An efficient Supply Chain relies on good quality 

data so having the tools to maintain high quality 

data is essential. 

To study product data quality and bring out its 

impact on business processes in the Retail sector, 

a data crunch study was undertaken through IBM 

India by the CII National Retail Committee, under 

the guidance of GS1 India. 

The GS1 India Data Crunch report reveals that the 

Indian Retail and CPG industry can save INR 40 to 

50 billion in just 5 years by addressing the issue of 

poor data quality. 

GS1 has developed data quality and data 

synchronisation standards which are rapidly under 

adoption worldwide across 132 countries. GS1 India 

will offer this service in India as well in collaboration 

with 1SYNC Inc., a subsidiary of GS1 U.S. 

‘Good quality’ data implies complete, consistent, 

accurate master, time-stamped and industry 

based data. By improving the quality of data, 

trading partners reduce costs, improve 

productivity and accelerate speed to market. It is 

foundational to collaborative commerce and 

global data synchronisation. 

With GS1 standards, companies can easily 

improve data quality. This in turn helps them 

manage the huge increase in demand for retail 

product information and improve the consumer 

experience. Benefits include: 

For Suppliers 

y Introduce new products to market faster 

y Understand the customer better for sales 

purposes 

y Have product origin and environmental data 

to hand 

y Support sales with extensive nutritional and 

ingredient data 

y Quickly reconcile invoices and payments 

y Prevent returns and delays 

For Retailers 

y Deliver a better service with enhanced product 

training and information 

y Influence sales with more marketing 

information and cross-selling opportunities 

y Reduce returns 

y Prevent running out of stock of a product 

y Have accurate shelf labelling 

y Achieve 100% scans at the checkout 

y Produce accurate receipts 

20

“Using the Mobile channel PEPSI plans to deploy service messages, such as providing 

useful information - alerts, notifications, events and product updates”. 


Anand Sarkar 

Director-Packaging Development & Innovation, PepsiCo India 

B2C Initiative 

Consumers desire more information and their 

increasing ability to access it via technology leaves 

them facing a dilemma: To trust or not to trust 

the digital data they receive about products they 

are considering for purchase? The potential 

impact is significant as global research conducted 

by GS1 found that nearly 40% of shoppers said 

they would not buy a product if they could not 

trust the accuracy of the digital information. 

Increase in consumer service demands will define 

new service models, offered via the Internet, that 

move beyond selling individual products and will 

bring different types of “solutions” to consumers 

and shoppers. 

GS1 believes a window of opportunity exists to 

improve consumer confidence in digital product 

information while also further addressing the 

growing focus among consumers and regulators 

on health and wellness. 

To address the topic of Business-To-Consumer 

(B2C) digital product information, GS1 proposes 

to provide guidance in the development of 

solutions that improve access to nutritional data 

for industry and consumers alike through a 

“Trusted Source of Data.” The objective is to 

support the communication of authentic product 

information provided by brand owners to 

retailers, application providers and Government. 

GS1 Standards based B2C applications connect 

consumers to trusted product information 

through the use of mobile devices. 

GS1 MobileCom 

The growth of mobile features and device, 

convergence such as wallet phones will drive 

mobile commerce. By 2013 more than 2 billion 

mobile users globally will have made a purchase 

via their handsets. 

The previous year will be looked back as the year 

that using mobile phones to scan barcodes 

became mainstream. The popularity of a range 

of “apps” for iPhones, Android phones and other 

mobile devices is proof that existing linear bar 

codes, the very GS1 BarCodes that have been on 

cans and boxes in grocery stores for three decades, 

are well suited and immediately functional for 

enabling mobile services. 

Extended packaging, which refers to using the camera 

of a mobile device to read a product’s bar code and 

get product information, is a reality in the market. 

Now that mobile barcode scanning is proven, 

there is a clear need to provide consumers with 

access to trusted product information. This is a 

very exciting area where GS1 standards can play a 

huge role. GS1 organisations worldwide have been 

facilitating various active pilots for B2C initiatives. 

GS1 MobileCom, a cross-industry initiative 

involving manufacturers, retailers, mobile industry 

companies and solution providers will ensure 

interoperability of mobile eco systems. Over 2010- 

11, GS1 MobileCom continued to work to ensure 

that all consumers have access to trusted product 

information and related services via their mobile 

phones; and that all stakeholders use open standards 

so that mobile applications can become 

interoperable, scalable and cost-effective. 

GS1 published a white paper which explores the 

opportunities for brands and retailers as 

consumers begin to use mobile phones to plan 

their shopping and during visits to stores, and 

details ways in which GS1 standards can support 

this strong emerging market. 


21

22 

Sustainability 

Health, safety and well-being are increasingly 

gaining importance for consumers – and will have 

significant ramifications in the future as shoppers 

place greater attention on more healthy products 

as well as eco-friendly lifestyles. 

Consumer awareness and carbon footprint 

regulations are expected to increase significantly, 

as consumers look to regulatory bodies and 

companies to play a major role in combating 

climate change. 

Worldwide, manufacturers have been started 

considering sustainability strategies as a profit 

oriented steps and sustainability primarily as a 

driver of innovation, rather than a cost burden. 

A new business model is required to focus on 

‘collaborating to compete’ as brandindependent 

and smart supply chains emerge 

where information (including POS, forecast and 

inventory data) as well as assets (technologies, 

facilities and resources) are shared across the 

value chain. By working together, not only as 

an industry but also with regulatory bodies and 

consumers, GS1 can strengthen the three pillars 

of sustainability: natural environment, 

economic performance and society. These 

elements should not be seen as trade-offs; they 

complement each other. 

Various companies and industry associations are 

launching scorecards and metrics-definition 

projects. Businesses need common indicators to 

be able to measure and manage sustainability. 

GS1’s role in sustainability 

As an open neutral organisation, GS1 is perfectly 

placed to help ensure collaboration, alignment 

and knowledge sharing between trade 

associations, users and other members of the 

sustainability community. Indeed, many GS1 

member companies are already involved in local 

waste management, recycling, transport and 

logistics efficiency, or carbon footprint reduction 

projects. Their experiences and best practices will 

enrich and enhance similar efforts elsewhere in 

the world. GS1’s existing standards will play a key 

role here and it can oversee the development of 

new standards if required. 

GS1 standards provide a common language to 

allow for intelligent and informed exchange 

between businesses on sustainability. GS1 

standards applied to sustainability can help 

organisations share information about products, 

packaging, manufacturing processes and 

organizations. This could include information 

such as carbon footprint, packaging material 

(utilisation and composition), water usage and 

energy usage. 

The above information could be used to improve 

products, ensure proper cleaning and recycling, 

optimise transport and reduce waste. 

This in turn would enable industries to meet their 

sustainability needs in the whole supply chain, 

from raw material to the point of sale, 

consumption, wastes and recycling. 

One of the GS1’s priorities in 2010-11 is to actively 

support the Global Packaging Project (GPP) led 

by The Consumer Goods Forum. The GPP is an 

effort to identify and assemble a set of 

commonly-used indicators and metrics for 

packaging Global Data Synchronisation Network 

(GDSN) will be leveraged to facilitate the exchange 

of GPP metrics between trading partners, thus 

reducing the cost of managing sustainabilityrelated 

information for companies.


Looking Ahead 


23

Looking Ahead 

GS1 India has performed consistently well in the 

past 13 years and will strive to do so in 2011-12 

and future years as well. 

GS1 India would continue to work closely with 

retailers across product categories to facilitate 

GS1 barcodes adoption by their suppliers. 

It would also work to improve product data quality 

in the Retail sector and provide product data 

synchronization service in the country to enable 

automated, real time data alignment and 

synchronization between retailers and their suppliers. 

The pharma sector would move towards adoption 

of barcoding using GS1 standards due to the 

requirements and directives of the regulator, 

policy makers. This would help automate pharma 

drugs stock management across the pharma 

supply chain, product authentication, track & 

trace, recalls management etc, benefitting both 

Industry and consumers. GS1 India would be 

working closely with Industry in facilitating 

adoption of GS1 barcodes. 

GS1 India would strive to work closely with MSME 

to encourage SME’s in adoption of barcoding and 

global standards to comply with global best 

practices and requirements of modern retailers. 

Food safety through traceability is of growing 

concern and interest worldwide. As a large food 

producer, India requires to integrate and comply 

with global best practices in this area to gain larger 

market share. 

GS1 India would work closely with Regulatory 

bodies, Industry in adoption of global traceability 

standards (GTS) which enable food producers to 

comply with diverse regulatory and industry 

requirements on traceability and recall. 

Subscribers would be supported as in previous years 

through implementation workshops, information 

updates on global developments in Supply Chain 

standards, conferences and seminars etc. 

Internal systems are being strengthened to provide 

quality MIS reports which enable quality decision 

making from tactical and strategic perspectives. 

Alliances with solution providers would be 

strengthened to assist in standards promotion across 

the country and Industry sectors and help Industry in 

adoption/implementation of GS1 standards. 

GS1 is working at developing standards which 

would provide trusted sources of product 

information to consumers using mobile phones. 

With the second highest population of mobile 

phones in the world, India is uniquely positioned 

to benefit from this development and GS1 India 

would be looking at developing applications and 

services around these standards to offer to 

Industry and consumers. 

GS1 India would actively participate as a member 

of the GS1 Advisory Council and various other 

international workgroups and contribute to their 

deliberations. 

Retaining and hiring quality staff and continually 

upgrading their skill sets would remain of highest 

priority since success of GS1 India depends 

entirely on the same. 

The Board of Management of GS1 India has 

provided excellent guidance and support in 

furthering objectives and strategic plans. Their 

wide reach within Industry and with Policy makers/ 

Regulators shall continue to be leveraged. 

24

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Annual Report 2010-11 - GS1 India

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