According to a report titled ‘Supply chains in India: A reality check – Here to where and how’ released by KPMG (India) and Association of Supply Chain Professionals (ASCP), 80 per cent supply chain leaders in India believe customer centricity will be the key theme for supply chain of the future. The report highlights challenges faced by supply chains in India in each of the planning, sourcing, making and delivery stages; impact of key initiatives undertaken to overcome these challenges; the mindset that creates roadblocks in benefit realisation; level of technology adoption and key emerging themes for supply chains of the future. KPMG also shared in the report its perspective on how supply chains can be built effectively for the digital world. Commenting on the future of supply chain, Ravind Mithe, Partner – Management Consulting, Head Operations, KPMG (India), said, “Supply chain function is at a crossroads, where it has to surpass its traditional focus of transactional processing and driving efficiency to a leadership role that can make organisations ready for the digital world. The journey cannot be linear for all organisations; all functions and processes must work in a frictionless manner to realise an enterprise-wide transformation.”

Locus, along with The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation (TWSCF), is hosting the first India chapter of The Supply Chain Meetup in Bengaluru. Named ‘The Bangalore Supply Chain Meetup’, the event is scheduled to be held on November 24, 2018, at The Bohemian House in Richmond Town, and aims to nurture and grow the world’s foremost open, global, multidisciplinary community of people devoted to building the supply chain network of the future. The meetup will be hosted by Nishith Rastogi, CEO & Co-founder at Locus and Brian Aoaeh, The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation’s co-founder. Aoaeh will be present via a Skype call. The Bangalore Supply Chain Meetup will be attended by heads of supply chain and logistics players across key enterprises of e-commerce, consumer goods, 3PL, retail, healthcare, field services, etc.

With an aim to make Delhi a charter hub, Celebi launched its charter-handling product in the capital today. The idea behind the launch is to attract more charter into the city and offer a comprehensive air cargo charter handling facility. Delhi has been identified as the first pilot station to be developed as a transhipment cargo hub by MoCA under National Civil Aviation Policy 2016. “Our project allows charter customers to manage multiple operations through a single point of contact,” said Ramesh Mamidala, CEO, Celebi Delhi Cargo Terminal Management India, while addressing those present at the launch.

Marking the debut of containerised movement on inland waterways of the country, PepsiCo India became the first company to use containerised vessel movement for transporting products from its plant in Kolkata to the port in Varanasi. The first containerised vessel was received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the newly developed multi-modal terminal in Varanasi. Also present on the momentous occasion was Ahmed El Sheikh, President and CEO, PepsiCo India. He said, “PepsiCo is delighted to be the first company to use containerised vessel movement for transporting products from our plant in Kolkata to the port in Varanasi. This is a significant milestone in the development of inland waterways and we believe this can be a huge enabler for the consumer goods industry.”

Hindustan Infralog (HIPL), a joint venture between DP World and National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), has won the bid to develop and operate the Free Trade Warehousing Zone (FTWZ) at India’s largest container gateway – Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) for $78 million. The facility is expected to be operational by 2020. HIPL is the recently-created investment vehicle between DP World and NIIF to invest up to $3 billion in ports, logistics and related sectors across the country. This is the second investment for HIPL following the acquisition of a 90 per cent stake in multi-modal logistics company Continental Warehousing Corporation (Nhava Sheva). The FTWZ comes with a long-term concession of 60 years and will be developed across 18 hectares at JNPT’s Special Economic Zone (SEZ). JNPT is a key gateway hub handling approximately five million TEUs per annum, which equates to 33 per cent of India’s container traffic. FTWZ’s strategic proximity to the port, the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport, and the western dedicated freight corridor give it direct access to global and domestic markets. Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO, DP World, said, “DP World has a proven track record in developing trade zones, and HIPL will aim to leverage on our global expertise to build this much-needed capacity to support India’s fast-growing export-import trade.” (Source: PTI)

To promote the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran-India route under International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC), FFFAI and Embassy of Kazakhstan jointly hosted a round-table meet in New Delhi. Samir Shah, Past Chairman, FFFAI, suggested that Indian freight forwarders/logistics companies as well as logistics company representatives from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran utilise the platform for expansion of their horizon through exchange of ideas on mutual requirements. Commending the Government of India initiative, Shah reiterated FFFAI’s firm commitment to make the INSTC project a success. He also appealed to Indian companies to study and explore opportunities and new avenues of forwarding and logistics business on the highly potential Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran-India route.

Developed at a cost of Rs 5,369 crore, India’s first inland waterway cargo container movement was flagged off from Kolkata to Varanasi on river Ganga (National Waterway-1), by Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) marked the first container movement by shipping 16 containers of food and snacks (equivalent to 16 truckloads) of PepsiCo India. This shipment is being transported by the vessel MV RN Tagore and the journey will be covered in about 10 days. After depositing PepsiCo’s shipment, the vessel will return with IFFCO’s fertilisers from the Phulpur plant of Prayagraj.

Courierhome has launched its first Chatbot powered by ALIS (Advanced Logistics Intelligence Solution). This new service of Courierhome will help in queries of the users with automatic replies, product demo and much more and which will eventually help in the time management of the company. Chatbot assists users step by step and helps them in answering the customer’s query. As Chatbot do not suffer from the limitation of customer support, it can be available for as many as 1000 customers at the same time. The company is using this technology to provide personal assistant and help to the user and resolving the common issues of a making a booking in the courier platform. Prateek Sharma, Founder & CEO, Courierhome, say, “Through Chatbot the users will be provided with a conversational UI which is more familiar and efficient. Since visibility is the key in logistics, Chatbots will help the users with real time information and thus this will help us in giving customer satisfaction and engagement”.

Maersk has begun its port operations at Ennore (Kamarajar port), offering connectivity between Far East Asian ports of Tanjung Pelepas (Malaysia), Busan (South Korea), and Xingang (China), as well as Indian ports of Chennai, Krishnapatnam, and Visakhapatnam. The company also celebrated the maiden call for its existing ‘Chennai Express’ service at the new container terminal in Ennore port, which is about 15 miles north of Chennai. “The rising global trade to and from India is leading to congestion and moving to new ports that offer quicker turnaround and better service is crucial. Port Ennore has the potential to be the new gateway to South India, and Maersk is geared up to support our customers move their cargo to and from anywhere in the world. Moreover, we can also help our customers with intermodal transport options for end-to-end connectivity across the region, backed by our fleet of trucks and train facilities,” said Steve Felder, Managing Director – India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives, Maersk.

The Indian air cargo industry needs to grow at a rate of about 12.9 per cent every year from 2018 to 2027 to achieve National Civil Aviation Policy’s (NCAP 2016) vision of reaching cargo volumes of 10 million tonnes (MT) by 2027, notes a recent ASSOCHAM-Auctus Advisors joint study. The report suggests that international and domestic air freight is projected to grow at an overall Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.2 per cent. “Considering this trend to continue till 2027, projected international and domestic air cargo will be 3.6 MT and 2.1 MT, respectively, resulting in total air cargo traffic of 6.8 MT,” it states. The study also highlights various issues confronting the aviation logistics sector in India. Lack of enabling infrastructure, lack of automated material handling systems, high manual intervention in processes, and inadequate skilled manpower are some of the key areas where Indian air cargo industry lags behind global peers. “There is an urgent need for creating adequate freight carrying capacity within the Indian air network through creation of new cargo terminals and expansion of existing ones,” the report states.