While reviewing the development activities of Vallarpadam Terminal of Cochin Port, Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State for Shipping, Government of India, says, “We are developing the transshipment facility on the Indian port to ensure that the Indian cargo trans-ship through Indian port. Resolving various issues of Vallarpadam Terminal is one of the priorities of the Ministry of Shipping.” The Minister directed officials to chalk out the strategy to tackle the various challenges and actualize the vision of the transshipment hub of India and pioneer hub in South Asia. According to the statement issued by the ministry, “The Kochi International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT), locally known as the Vallarpadam Terminal, is located strategically on the Indian coastline. It successfully fulfills all the criteria which are needed to develop it as a transshipment hub.”

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) has achieved an another mile stone in development of SEZ by becoming the first-of-its-kind operational Port based multi-product SEZ. The port has announced that two units of its Special Economic Zone namely, OWS LLP and Krish Food Industry have completed their first phase of operational activity and are declared operational units by Development Commissioner, SEEPZ, SEZ. The port has been developing a multi-product Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in its freehold land of 277 hectares at Navi Mumbai. The SEZ aims to boost exports by enabling port-led industrialisation under the Sagarmala initiative of the Ministry of Shipping. The foundation stone of the project was laid by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi in August 2014. Sanjay Sethi, IAS, Chairman, JNPT, said, “For JNPT, this is truly a great occasion as JNPT becomes the first port where port-led economic development is evolving successfully. JNPT is confident of attracting leading global companies for making India a manufacturing hub as the infrastructure development underway in JNPT SEZ is as per the international benchmark. The potential units investment and the employment generation will give a boost to the entire eco-system around JNPT region.”

To streamline their operations and enhance their future growth, Boeing has announced supply chain solutions through a number of orders and agreements in order to support international customers. These supply chain solutions will simplify customers’ asset and maintenance management, inventory and operating costs, while improving parts availability. The agreements for Boeing’s digital solutions will provide cost savings fleet-wide, enhance airline crew situational awareness and increase operational efficiency. “As airlines and operators continue to respond to the current challenges facing the global air travel industry, our partners are moving forward, integrating creative solutions to continue connecting people around the world,” says, Ted Colbert, President & CEO, Boeing Global Services.

Explaining how the pandemic provided an opportunity to re-explore digital transformation in order to improve business velocity and streamline the process for its customers at Mumbai Airport, Manoj Singh, Sr. Vice President & Head – Cargo, Mumbai International Airport says, “The coronavirus pandemic has pushed the industry to adopt new measures in the interest of safety of all. Mumbai Air Cargo has converted a majority of the paper processes into online transactions through electronic communication and messaging which have resulted in the reduction of cost and time for stakeholders as well as boosted the efficiency and agility in cargo operations at Mumbai Airport.”

The fifth edition of India Cargo Awards celebrated the accomplishments of the cargo industry, at Hotel Clarks Shiraz, Agra, on December 5, 2018. Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Government of India, congratulated the winners through a video message as he could not make it to the event. He said, “I am glad India Cargo Awards is being hosted today. I wish success to all winners. I wanted to personally come and present the award to you but, unfortunately, I am tied up elsewhere. Please consider the awards to be personally handed over by me as recognition of your good work for the industry. The awards are a reminder of what is required to be done to make India the most efficient country for cargo movement in the world.” He also spoke of a comprehensive strategy that is being devised to make movement of cargo hassle-free, cost-effective, and efficient. “We are coming out with an air cargo policy which will be announced in the month of January next year. We are working on a comprehensive strategy to create logistics hubs and I have already spoken to several countries including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and others in the neighbourhood, as well as far-off countries like Russia. All of this is going to bring in huge change in the way we do logistics in India,” he said. The award ceremony held in Agra was also graced by Dinesh Kumar, Deputy Director, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, who was the Guest of Honour for the glorious evening. It also saw the presence of Manvinder Sandhu, runner up, Gladrags Mrs. India and the leaders of the cargo industry. …

Pradeep Panicker, Deputy CEO, GMR Hyderabad International Airport, joined the Gallery of Legends at India Cargo Awards 2018. With over 25 years of experience in various capacities, he was a part of the team that won the bid for modernisation of Indira Gandhi International Airport, and a key member of the IGIA takeover and transition team. He had set up and headed the Strategic Process Group for two years. With air cargo as part of his portfolio at Delhi airport, air cargo volume more than doubled to reach 980,000 metric tonnes per annum. Delhi Airport also became the first airport in India to have two independent cargo terminal operators. Panicker was the founder President of Air Cargo Forum India, a not-for-profit association that offers a common platform to the air cargo community to address industry-specific issues on policy formulation, innovation, process simplification, and benchmarking.

The esteemed ‘DDP Game Changer’ award went to Dileepa BM, CEO – Bonded Trucking, Shreeji Translogistics. Armed with an MBA degree, Dileepa entered the industry as a Bonded Trucking Manager in the year 2000. He has been working with Shreeji Translogistics for the past 16 years and presently works closely with almost 45 to 50 national and international airlines, handling 17 airports In India. He is also often invited to various international seminars as an industry expert.

Keku Bomi Gazder, CEO, AAI Cargo Logistics and Allied Services Company, was awarded the esteemed DDP Trailblazer at India Cargo Awards 2018. With more than two decades of experience, Gazder has been serving the industry with exceptional work. Commercially and operationally, he was responsible for the cargo activities of Kenya Airways, Oman Air, Yugoslav Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Iran Aseman Airlines, Air Malawi, Canadian Airlines, Continental Airlines, and Iberia. In 2012, after being in the Middle East for over 21 years, he decided to return to India and joined Saudi Arabian Airlines to head the region. Since June 2017, he has been associated with his present company and is looking after cargo and logistics activities at over 90 AAI airports.

Ashish Asaf, Managing Director & CEO, SA Consultants & Forwarders, won the esteemed ‘Face of the Future’ award at India Cargo Awards 2018. To fulfil the dream of his father who had set up SA Group’s flagship company – SA Consultants & Forwarders – in the year 2000, he joined the company after completing his graduation in English (Hons.) from Dr. Zakir Husain College in Delhi University. Asaf began with air export shipments of 40-50 tonnes in a month and today, he is handling monthly volumes of 1500 tonnes of such shipments. He has been associated with the Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI) for a long time as the Secretary, ACAAI, North India and then became the Chairman of ACAAI, North India. At present, he is a Managing Committee member of the Association. His leadership has made it possible for SA Group to be successful in each venture.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has decided to set up a Committee on Air Cargo Community System headed by Dr Renu S Parmar, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation, to develop a uniform and integrated web-based Community Partner Interface System for air cargo in India. The committee comprises the following members:   S. No. Name of the organisation Committee members 1 MoC&I Anil Kumar Sinha, Deputy Director General-NIC (e-trade, Department of Commerce) RK Arora, Addl. GM (System), e-trade 2 AAI Ashwini Sharma, Jt. GM (Cargo) Anirudh Sharma, Jt. GM (IT) 3 Customs BB Mohapatra, Additional Director General Bashistha Prasad, Additional Director 4 DIAL/HIAL Sanjiv Edward, Head-Cargo MD Kala, GM (IT) 5 MIAL Manoj Singh, Vice President & Head Cargo Mayur T, Manager (Cargo) 6 BIAL Pratik Mehta, AGM-Airline Marketing Cargo Services Vinay Varma, Deputy Manager – Cargo Business Development 7 CIAL Pavitthran VP, Senior Manager – Cargo 8 ACAAI Sunil Arora, Secretary General Anil Vazirani, Member, Managing Committee CK Govil, Member, Managing Committee 9 BAR (India) Tarun Minocha, BA Y Taneja, FX 10 FFFAI Vipin Vohra, Convener – Air Freight Council Mahesh Trikha, Ex. Committee Member 11 ACFI KS Kunwar, Director General 12 EICI Vijay Kumar, COO Vimal Rawat (Fedex) 13 Airport Operators Venugopal Bangera, CEO, CSC Venkata Reddy, CEO, Menzies Bobba Ramesh Mamidal, Celebi 14 Non-Scheduled Operators Anil Bal, Fly Jac Ravi Nayar, Sun Aviation 15 Bonded Trucking Agencies BM Dileepa, Shreeji Transport Tushar, Oscar Freight The terms or references of the committee are: •To examine the desirability and feasibility of the ACS. A SWOT analysis would be undertaken based on reports of above teams. •To deliberate on the ‘ownership’ of the ACS and management thereof. •To estimate …