Category Archives: Aviation

Chandra Kant Govil, Managing Director, ActivAir Airfreight India and VP, ACAAI is a visionary leader with over three decades of experience revolutionizing the air cargo industry. Govil founded Activair Airfreight India Pvt Ltd with a passion for excellence, transforming the book trade and earning a reputation as a go-to air cargo specialist. His strategic planning and unwavering dedication have propelled Activair to unimaginable heights. Govil has also been an active member of the Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI), wherein he has held prominent positions within the association, making invaluable contributions and dedicating his all to advancing the interests of the air cargo community. Under the leadership of Govil, Activair Airfreight India achieved a remarkable feat by flawlessly importing and distributing the highly anticipated global bestseller, Harry Porter series, across India. Despite numerous challenges, Govil and his team ensured the book’s simultaneous release as per the publisher’s specifications, showcasing their unwavering commitment to precision and timely delivery. With a visionary approach and a deep understanding of industry dynamics, he has constantly strived for excellence and innovation. Govil’s entrepreneurial spirit and involvement in industry associations set him apart as a leader, shaping the future of air cargo logistics and inspiring everyone around him.

Satish Lakkaraju, Senior Vice President and Global Head – Air Freight and Pharma, WIZ, Radar Ventures got honoured with DDP Game Changer Award at the recently held India Cargo Awards 2023, the country’s topmost awards which helps create a platform to recognise and honor heroes of logistics and air cargo industry. Chief Guest Piyush Srivastava, IES, Senior Economic Advisor, Union Ministry of Civil Aviation presented the award. He is an alumni of SVKM’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. He started his professional journey with the industry 30 years ago with TNT Skypak followed by Dachser and has evolved to become an experienced sales & commercial head with a demonstrated history of working in the logistics and supply chain industry his previous assignment, he worked as Chief Commercial Officer with Agility Logistics Satish is a strong sales professional skilled in Negotiation, Import & Export , Operations Management, Air & Ocean Freight, Customs clearance and Sales & Marketing. He has been the advisor for the FTCCI for the last 4rys and is currently the board member of the ACFI and Chairman of the event task pillar. He is passionate about Life sciences and patient safety, speaks in various forums in India and overseas on the various subjects like Cold Chain, infrastructure at airports for cargo handling for Pharma, Perishable exports etc. He is a motivational speaker and likes to be ahead of the curve.

Chaitaly Mehta, Director, EFK Global Logistics was conferred with DDP Face of the future award at the recently concluded India Cargo Awards in New Delhi on Monday night. She has 26 years of experience as a 3rd generation customs broker and a 2nd generation Freight Forwarder. She is at the helm of all Strategic Business Engagements at EKF Global; she was the first woman to join the family business and holds the distinct honour of being the 1st female Director in the Company. Chaitaly is also the 1st woman Managing Committee Member in the 52 year old history of ACCAI – Air Cargo Agents Association of India a National Association, which represents the Air Cargo Industry in India.

India Cargo Awards 2023 held in New Delhi on July 24 honored and appreciated the hard work of the ‘Heroes’ of the Indian Air Cargo and Logistics fraternity. Known as the “Oscars of the Cargo Industry,” the India Cargo Awards 2023, hosted by Cargo Talk (DDP Group Publication) served as an all-India platform created with a vision to recognise excellence in the Cargo-Freight-Logistics Industry across various domains, including Rail, Road, Air, Sea, Allied Services, Warehousing, Technology, 3rd Party Logistics, and more. Piyush Srivastava, IES, Senior Economic Advisor, Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, graced the occasion as the Chief Guest.

Devang Vyas, Global Logistics Head, Glenmarks Pharmaceuticals says, “As an industry we need to focus on having sufficient raw materials, creating more training and awareness, addressing the shortage of skilled manpower and we need to adhere to strict safety protocols to ensure quality of pharma being manufactured. Pharma is the only industry which involves lot of regulatory procedures to set high benchmark. India has been supplying the pharmaceuticals across the global since last many years and was known as pharma hub of the world, but now its changing to – India becoming pharmacy of the world.”

Bharat Bhushan Rathi, Head – Distribution and Logistics, Mankind Pharma says, “Technological integration is very crucial to maintain the integrity, resiliency and agility of not only the pharma supply chain but also of the entire logistics business. Govt is taking various initiatives to boost the tech adoption in pharma manufacturing but the industry should also play its part. With that cost-effectiveness and quality of the products throughout the supply chain also hold utmost importance. It’s just not sasta, sundar and tikau, we cannot compromise with the quality of pharmaceuticals. Especially as we are talking about pharma e-commerce from India so, quality, tima and cost should be taken into consideration.”

Tushar Jani, Group Chairman, Cargo Service Center, while attending pharma Digital Conclave organised by Cargo Talk on July 21st says, “If you look at one trillion target of merchant exports, it is 57 billion which comes from pharma alone, that’s a great news. The only challenge is API for which we are dependent on China and we have to figure out how we can become self-sufficient. Our second innovation comes in terms of packing material, we need to make more sustainable packing material, India should take the lead in developing packing material to remove the dry ice which is actually against the environmental issue. Third, we need to develop an eco-system for pharma e-commerce for transportation of generic drugs out of India, for this we have distribution centres across the globe – in US, Europe, Far East, Africa and in many other countries but we need to expand our global reach and presence. India should become global pharma e-commerce leader, it will have great market penetration so that’s the ultimate goal. To achieve the global market share of generic drugs from current 20% to 40 %, India should consider above points. If we have this in place, we can achieve the said target in 7 years. The only concern is high Freight rates. We have great cold storage infrastructure for handling and transporting temperature-sensitive products, we have skilled manpower, over thousand scientists manufacturing drugs, great R&D by govt and private players. We need to address raw material availability and reduced dependence on China for API.”

Murali Krishna, Director, Pharmexcil says, “In India, we have required resources, infrastructure and capabilities, but when it comes to raw materials, the dependence on other countries for raw material is up to 60% to 70%. Majority of raw material comes from China and some special chemicals from South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. During COVID-19 pandemic, India proved its capabilities as it produced two most effective vaccines like Covaxin and Covishield in huge quantities and supplied it worldwide. During FY2022-FY2023, we have touched $25 million, around 3.5 per cent growth in this sector. These are very important figures for the Indian pharma sector. Almost 5.6% of merchandise trade is from the pharma sector also its third largest Indian exports commodity.”

Get ready to be part of very interesting and insightful third Pharma Digital Conclave being organised by Cargo Talk in collaboration with Cargo Service Center (CSC) today at 11am to 12 Noon. The digital conclave on ‘How India can increase generic drugs global market share from 20% to 40%?’ Will have Mr. Tushar Jani, Group Chairman, Cargo service Center, Mr. Murali Krishna, Director, Pharmexcil, Mr. Devang Vyas, Global Logistics Head, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and Mr. Bharat Bhushan Rathi, Head Distribution and Logistics, Mankind Pharma on the panel. The session will be moderated by Mr Sanjeet, CEO, DDP Group.

Menzies Aviation has expanded its presence in the Balkans by agreeing to buy a majority stake in Cargo Handling Services (CHS) at Sofia International Airport (SOF) in Bulgaria. The joint venture increases Menzies Aviation’s footprint in Europe to 50 airports in 17 countries, says an official release. Established in 2016, CHS provides a range of cargo services at SOF including warehousing, import and export handling, mail handling and temperature-controlled storage, the release said. “CHS will benefit from being part of Menzies’ global network and will transition to the Menzies brand and its best-in-class standards and systems.” “CHS is a well-regarded cargo provider at Sofia Airport, which has potential for significant growth,” says Miguel Gomez Sjunnesson, Executive Vice President, Europe, Menzies Aviation. “Strategically, this investment supports our ambitions to accelerate growth by expanding our air cargo business and entering emerging aviation markets. We’re looking forward to working with our new partners, and, in the long-term, increasing our market share at Sofia Airport.”