Ramesh Agarwal, Founder, Mentor, Director and Managing Worker, Agarwal Packers & Movers, joins the esteemed ‘DDP Trailblazer’ award. Agarwal’s journey is one of modern India’s great success stories. He has played a pioneering role not only in shaping Agarwal Movers Group to a point where it is today but also spearheaded national cause in key area of economic development- transport and logistics. Recently, Agarwal Movers Group was awarded for Operational Excellence & Environment Conservation by the CEAT IRTA-2011.

Cyrus Nariman Katgara, Partner, Jeena & Co was honoured with the ‘Gallery of Legends’ award. Katgara heads the more than 100-year old family business of Global Logistics – International Freight Forwarding both in India and abroad. With his rich experience, he has held several positions in many associations. He had been appointed Ambassador to the Port of Halifax; he has arranged top level ministerial delegation and was a liaison between Canadian Embassy and business associations such as CII, FIEO, etc.

Dr Renu Singh Parmar, Ex Senior Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation was awarded the prestigious ‘Legend in Public Service’ award. While at the ministry, she has initiated a number of reforms in the air cargo sector, prominently, the reduction in dwell time of cargo at airports. She has spearheaded the development of a national Air Cargo Community System. Dr Parmar was also instrumental in setting up the National Aviation University and launching its first few programmes.

The third edition of the India Cargo Awards – North & East celebrated the accomplishments of the cargo industry of North & East India at The Lalit, New Delhi on December 20, 2017. Salman Khurshid, former Cabinet Minister for External Affairs, former Cabinet Minister for Law and Justice and Minority Affairs, Government of India, was the Chief Guest for the distinguished evening. The ceremony saw the august presence of the leaders and runners of the cargo industry. The 39 winners were chosen after a fair and unbiased selection process which includes an online voting platform.

Stephane Descarpentries, Director – Strategic Projects and Director Operations Asia, FM Logistic, reveals, “We are setting-up multi-customer facilities (MCF) close to the biggest cities in India. First MCF (250 000 sqft) will start in Mumbai (Bhiwandi) in December 2017, second one is planned in Delhi for 2018. Part of these warehouses will be leased but we are also planning to build our own facilities with the help of our real estate subsidiary, Batilogistic.” “These MCFs will bring to our customers efficiency (by usage of the height of the buildings), flexibility (by sharing space and resources among different companies) and quality, security and compliance,” he added.

FedEx Express has launched FedEx Delivery Manager; a new feature to bring convenient delivery options to customers in the country. The new interactive e-commerce delivery solution allows retailers to provide extra flexibility to their customers in India by allowing them to customise the timing and location of their deliveries at no extra cost. Recipients expecting deliveries to their residence will receive a notification by email from FedEx when their package is shipped. The recipient can choose to change the delivery instructions in a few simple steps via a secured website. This is available for both international and domestic shipments.

To offer expected time savings of 40 per cent with a 30 per cent reduction in the cost of trade, the first pilot transports under TIR (Transports Internationaux Routiers or International Road Transport) between India and Iran along International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) have been set for early 2018 at strategic talks recently held in Mumbai. The two-day meeting gathered 20 high level representatives from India and Iran’s transport industry as well as representatives from Customs. The goal of the meeting was to discuss the implementation of TIR and to establish cooperation between representatives of the public and private sectors to activate the use of TIR along the INSTC.

The JNPT will be shifting its imported cargo to Mumbai port’s warehouses from January to save Rs 14000 transaction cost per container and one-day transit time. The imported goods of about 0.4-0.5 million TEUs meant for Mumbai alone will be shifted to nearby Mumbai port warehouses via barges. After that it will be moved to MOD warehouse. According to JNPT, this will not only decongest roads but also reduce transit time by half leading to transaction cost savings of about Rs 14,000-15,000 per container. This will also help to Mumbai port for revenue generations.

Chabahar Port open a new strategic transit route for Iran, India and Afghanistan bypassing Pakistan. India is likely to manage and operate the port till the second phase is complete. The completion of the internal procedures on the ratification process by Iran is expected to lead to full and early operationalisation of the Transit and Trade arrangement between the three countries though the Chabahar Port. The Ministers of India, Iran and Afghanistan also held talks to speed up the efforts to operationalise the complete port at the earliest. For India, the investment in Chabahar was important since the port will bolster a trade route for land-locked Central Asian countries that would bypass rival Pakistan. Last year, India committed up to $500 million for the development of the Chabahar port along with associated roads and rail lines.

The Logistics Skill Council (LSC) has launched the first apprentice programme under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) that will give a big boost to train three lakh youths in the next three years. “Apprenticeship training is considered to be one of the most efficient ways to develop skilled manpower. It provides for an industry-led, practice-oriented, effective and efficient mode of formal training,” said R. Dinesh, Chairman, LSC. “Our mission is to develop a skilled talent pool of 28 million workforce in the logistics industry under various sub-sectors through eminent training partners,” he added.