To strengthen the India-Australia relations and discuss new opportunities on the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement, India-Australia Business and Community Alliance (IABCA) is organising an event in Sydney, New South Wales on April 29. Supported by the Investment NSW, the global event and awards ceremony will have prominent guests from different walks of life such as the government, academia, private sector, and civil society participating. From January 2023 onwards, the IABCA will be hosted biennially in India across Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai, marking the beginning of an ongoing rotational campaign between the two nations, marking its 10-year anniversary. Tushar Jani, Group Chairman, Cargo Service Centre and SCA Group of Companies said, “Australia-India relationships are at a positive peak and we are going to become partners under Quad, apart from that there will be a strong bilateral partnership with Australia and we will have a business tie-up with Australian businesses.”

dnata continues to invest in infrastructure and equipment to further improve resource efficiency globally. The company has installed a 3.5 megawatt-peak rooftop solar power system across its operations, including cargo and catering facilities, at Changi Airport. The rooftop power plant comprises more than 6,500 individual solar panels and generate more than 4,300 megawatt hours of green power a year, enabling dnata to reduce its electricity-related carbon emissions by 20 per cent annually in Singapore.

Acclaimed for its customer-centric approach, smart innovation, and adoption of cutting-edge technology, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) won the ‘Best Cargo Airport’ award at the recent India Cargo Awards. This recognition is one of the industry’s most recognised accolades and is awarded for an assessment of customer service, facilities, and innovations. “Thank you to all our partners for their continued support in helping us achieve unprecedented growth in our cargo operations, despite a turbulent pandemic environment,” said Pratik Mehta, Head, Cargo Business, BIAL.

German shipping and logistics group, Harren & Partner is proud to announce the acquisition of the jack-up vessel, Thor. The fleet now counts four highly sophisticated offshore ships. Thor is a 2010-built dynamic positioning (DP2) jack-up crane vessel ideal for maintenance projects at offshore wind energy plants as well as wind turbine installations. With a 500-tonne capacity, this highly versatile vessel also has a strong track record. The high-outreach and fully-equipped offshore crane can accommodate up to 56 people. Thor is 107.82 metres long and sails under the Madeiran flag.

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has approved the highest-ever outlay of Rs 12,123 crore to Andhra Pradesh for improvement of national highways, M T Krishna Babu, Principal Secretary, State Roads and Buildings Department informed. This allocation is a jump of Rs 4,258 crore over last year’s sanction of Rs 7,865 crore. In Andhra Pradesh, the national highways are spread over a length of 7,303.34 km of which 4,007.95 km are maintained by the state Roads and Buildings Department. “We will take up improvement of the NHs with the funds allotted this year. These projects will improve road connectivity from industrial nodes, economic zones and tourist spots. This will also improve logistic efficiency and create job opportunities, besides generating more tax revenue to the state government,” added Krishna.

TechEagle has launched ‘Vertiplane X3,’ the fastest hybrid vertical take-off and landing (e-VTOL) drone ever made in India. TechEagle’s product will be deployed for various use cases across industries such as providing better healthcare access to the remote areas, apart from hyperlocal and e-commerce requirements. The product also aims to also address the needs of maritime and defence sectors and strengthen conventional supply chain with improved and faster accessibility.

Amit Maheshwari, CEO, Softlink Global bagged ‘DDP Game Changer’ Award at India Cargo Awards 2022, held recently in the Capital. Softlink Global was founded by Maheshwari with the objective of providing a single platform software to automate the entire logistics operation of the company. An engineer by education, he is a technology crusader well-known in the logistics business for his leadership skills and game-changing ideas. His attention to detail, has enabled Softlink Global to achieve success with each software product created. Maheshwari’s knowledge and experience include strategic planning, information management, financial resource management, product development, and marketing.

o9 Solutions and Deloitte announced the launch of Smart Planning, a subscription offering that combines Deloitte’s leading supply chain planning and data science capabilities with o9’s visionary planning platform. Smart Planning is an AI-powered, cloud-based digital insights, connectivity, and workflow automation solution that drives strategic- and tactical-level supply chain activities across the enterprise value chain. Combining o9’s technical scale and solution architecture with Deloitte’s production-ready environment and planning-as-a-service capabilities, Smart Planning can help companies level up their planning capabilities in a matter of months versus years.

V-Trans (India) has undertaken various sustainability initiatives such as green tree plantation, rural life upliftment, and energy conservation. V-Trans (India) that believes in sustainability and CSR is working towards harnessing the power of the sun and determined towards having less polluting vehicles in its fleet. In addition, the firm became the proud owner of the first CNG truck produced by Ashok Leyland. A company statement read, “We are monitoring the Electronic Vehicle segment and are planning to move towards sustainable automobile solutions. We consider sustainable automobile solutions are important in unlocking the potential of Sustainable Logistics which will shape the future of the commercial transportation industry. This will lessen oil dependability, improve financial efficiency, and will protect our environment.”

Union Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal chaired National Single Window System (NSWS) meeting organised by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. The objective of the review meeting was to boost trade and industry. Som Prakash, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry and Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog were present in the meeting. Industry expert, Vipin Vohra, Chairman, Continental Carriers Group of Companies and Chairman, Civil Aviation Committee at PHD Chamber of Commerce also participated in the meeting.