Cyrus Guzder was running Airfreight (India) Pvt Ltd (AFL) when the company partnered with DHL in 1979, well before India’s 1991 economic reforms. The partnership gave AFL early exposure to global logistics standards, even as India’s largely controlled economy and underdeveloped transport and communications infrastructure constrained the scale of the opportunity. After 1991, as trade expanded, foreign companies entered the country, and Indian businesses increasingly had to compete on global standards, Guzder saw the logistics sector undergo a fundamental shift in terms of technology, business practices and customer expectations. In an interview with Prachi Pisal in Mumbai, Guzder discusses how liberalisation changed the economy, the role of foreign partners and technology, the persistence of fragmentation in trucking, and what the next phase of reforms should focus on. Edited excerpts: