Cheap is dead. It’s been dying for a while, but the funeral just got official. For decades, the global supply chain had one gear: efficiency. You made it where it was cheapest, you shipped it on the slowest, largest boat possible, and you prayed no one in a mid-sized port went on strike. It worked, until it didn't.

Now, we’re entering the era of "Resilience." That’s the word Yezdi Nagporewalla, CEO of KPMG India, is leaning on. It sounds noble. It sounds sturdy. In reality, it’s a polite way of saying the world is terrified of putting all its eggs in one basket—especially when that basket is currently engaged in a cold war with half the planet.

Nagporewalla’s argument is simple: India is pivoting. We’re moving away from a world where the lowest price wins to a world where the most reliable partner survives. It’s a massive vibe shift. For years, India was the "back office." Now, it wants to be the factory floor, the warehouse, and the security guard all at once.

But let’s be real. Resilience isn't a gift. It’s an insurance premium.

When you move a production line from a hyper-optimized hub in Shenzhen to a burgeoning industrial park in Gujarat, you aren't doing it to save five cents on a transistor. You’re doing it because you’re scared. You’re scared of the next pandemic, the next trade war, or the next "evergreen" ship wedged sideways in a canal. India is betting that companies are finally tired of living on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

The cost of this shift is staggering. We aren't talking about small change. Look at the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes. The Indian government is throwing roughly $24 billion at manufacturers just to convince them to show up. That’s taxpayer money used as a lubricant for "resilience." It’s a massive gamble. If those factories don't become world-class in five years, India hasn't built a new economy; it’s just subsidized a very expensive experiment.

Then there’s the friction. You can’t just "resilience" your way out of bad infrastructure. While the rhetoric is shiny, the reality involves navigating a thicket of local regulations that would make a Kafka protagonist weep. Apple’s push into India is the poster child for this. They’re making iPhones in India now—over 10% of global production. But it hasn't been a smooth ride. There have been labor disputes, fire safety issues at component plants, and the nagging reality that the component ecosystem isn't there yet.

Every time a factory in India needs a specific screw or a specialized glass coating, they’re often still importing it from—you guessed it—China. That’s not resilience. That’s just adding a longer commute to the same problem.

Nagporewalla’s vision of a "resilience-driven" India requires more than just being "not China." It requires a level of consistency that India has historically struggled to maintain. Global CEOs don't just want a backup plan; they want a backup plan that doesn't require a bribe at the docks or a three-week wait for power grid stability.

The trade-off for the rest of us is clear: higher prices. Efficiency was great for the consumer. It gave us $400 flat-screens and $15 earbuds. Resilience is expensive. Redundancy costs money. Hiring two suppliers instead of one costs money. Building a factory in a country that’s still figuring out its logistics spine costs money. You’ll feel that resilience in your credit card statement.

The narrative from KPMG is that India is the "natural choice" for this new world order. Maybe. It has the headcount. It has the demographic dividend that everyone keeps talking about like it’s a magical spell. But workers need skills, and factories need more than just a "can-do" attitude. They need a regulatory environment that doesn't change its mind every time a new local election rolls around.

India is currently the fifth-largest economy, chasing the third spot. To get there, it’s pitching itself as the world’s designated survivor. It’s a cynical play for a cynical time. We’ve moved past the utopian dream of a borderless world where the "invisible hand" solves everything. Now, the hand is very visible, and it’s busy building walls and diversifying shipping routes.

So, India is ready to be the world’s warehouse. It’s ready to be the resilient alternative to the status quo. It’s a hell of a sales pitch. But as any IT guy will tell you, redundancy is only useful if the backup system actually turns on when the primary fails.

How much are we willing to pay for a safety net that might still be under construction?