The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) says that it is coordinating with state governments to ensure the supply of medical equipment and related essential items needed for protection against and testing of COVID-19. The senior officials of the Ministry coordinate with supply agencies for providing required material which can be further transported to the desired destinations, based on the requirements received from various states on urgent basis. Air India and Alliance Air flights are being operated to carry out the necessary supply operations across the country. Agencies authorised by MoCA to carry shipment on these flights contact the concerned officials of their region and coordinate for timely delivery/ receipt of shipments. In order to cater to eastern and north eastern parts of the country, an Alliance Air flight from Delhi to Kolkata carried shipments for Kolkata, Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Agartala on March 29, 2020. In northern region, IAF flight from Delhi to Chandigarh to Leh carried ICMR VTM kits and other essential cargo. Alliance Air transferred Pune shipment to Mumbai on Air India flight. Flights on Mumbai -Delhi-Hyderabad-Chennai-Mumbai and Hyderabad-Coimbatore route carried and transported ICMR kits of Shimla, Rishikesh, Lucknow and Imphal from Pune to Delhi. ICMR kits were carried to Chennai. A consignment of Hyderabad was delivered. Consignments of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry were also delivered. A consignment of Ministry of Textiles was moved to Coimbatore. The information sharing, answering of queries and the work at ground is going on round the clock for delivering the supplies to the destinations in a timely manner so the efforts to fight the COVID-19 are multiplied and supplemented.

Maersk has announced the Inland Container Depot (ICD) Madurai as a new acceptance point to help the trade in the hinterland of Tamil Nadu. Equipped with a warehouse to support faster cargo clearance, the ICD will help reduce the overall logistics costs by up to 30 per cent, while also providing operational transparency to customers. Spread over a total area of about 70 acres, the state-of-art ICD is one of the largest in the country and will serve as a major infrastructural hub for South India. Steve Felder, Managing Director, Maersk South Asia, said “Our operations at ICD Madurai are aimed at reducing logistics costs for our customers by cutting the cargo transport journey by up to 150 km. We are also tapping into the hinterlands’ potential by opening up new trade possibilities and enabling ease of doing business for the trading community in the region.”

DHL Express and BVC entered a partnership to enable Indian SMEs, in the gems and jewellery industry, to grow their presence in the international marketplace. The service is targeted at 10,000 Indian jewellery SME exporters to help them expand their presence in international markets for B2C shipments. Commenting on the partnership, Sandeep Juneja, Vice President – Commercial, DHL Express India, said, “There is a significantly large cross-border e-commerce opportunity, that this sector can leverage using our e-commerce supply chain solutions. Our vast network of over 220 countries and territories opens the door to expand beyond traditional trade lanes.” Yogesh Bansode, President – International, BVC, said, “BVC is digitising the jewellery industry through its ecosystem of offerings and the DHL partnership expands the shipping solutions.”

To develop a first-of-its-kind, airport based Free Trade Zone (FTZ), on approx. 1.6 acres of land parcel within the Special Economy Zone (SEZ) land of GMR Aerospace & Industrial Park, GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) has signed an Agreement to lease with SpiceJet. The agreement says that GHASL will be constructing a facility for SpiceJet to carry out the warehousing, distribution and trading activity within the Free Trade Warehousing Zone (FTWZ) of multi-product SEZ, popularly known as GMR Aerospace & Industrial Park. This facility will be 33,000 sq ft initially, with a potential to expand to 100,000 sq ft, based on demand. Commenting on this development, Aman Kapoor, CEO, GMR Airport Land Development, says, “Most of the tenants including those in Pharma, Aerospace & Defence, Electronics, Automotive & FMCG will benefit from the availability of high quality warehousing catering to the Export and Import of goods from RGIA.”

In line with the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s (MoCA) Krishi Udan Scheme, GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) has signed a tri-partite MoU with SpiceJet and Ras-Al-Khaimah International Airport (RKT), UAE. The MoU aims at promoting export of agricultural products from India to UAE and neighbouring countries via Hyderabad. As part of this initiative, Hyderabad Airport has collaborated with Spicejet and Ras-Al-Khaimah International Airport to create a dedicated freight corridor to leverage the tremendous agro and farming sector potential from centrally located Telangana and the neighboring regions. The target market for this endeavour includes Dubai, Abudhabi, Sharjah and Bahrain. Specially designed equipment will be used for transportation of goods through the dedicated freighter aircraft of SpiceJet. SGK Kishore, CEO, GMR Hyderabad International Airport, said, “Through this endeavour, we are also collaborating with farmer associations towards enabling a perennial supply of farm products through a dedicated freighter corridor. This MoU will create a robust platform to harness our agricultural markets and help create an entire ecosystem for exporting perishable agro products from Hyderabad.”

Commenting on how women are making a mark in male-dominated logistics industry, Kruti Jobanputra, Director, JWC Logistics Park, says, “Our world has never been easy to allow a woman to raise in any industry not only logistics. Especially in our country, the culture encourages male to always be superior and not allow any woman to get acknowledged. But now we see a change; we can see the importance and acceptance given to women bosses but only in the metro cities. The culture is changing with the number of MNCs entering in India.” She continues, “The best advice that I would give to any woman in any industry is something that my father brought me up with. Stay truthful to yourself and believe in yourself, there is nothing as right or wrong till the time you believe in it.”

I believe there is tremendous scope for women in this field. With the right resources, guidance and support, every single employee is a business enabler, an asset who can generate value for the company. Women are no different. In my experience, women are dependable, adaptable and work just as hard as their male counterparts. The women in my team put in additional hours to support peak loads just the same as their male colleagues, and it is their combined effort that is driving business growth year on year. In an endeavor to contribute to society, we need to increase the participation of women in the workplace. The empowerment and confidence women develop, transforms their life positively and is something I see every day. The joy and pride they display in their work has far reaching effects on their families as well, collectively improving the quality of life and their pursuit of self-reliance. To all the women considering a career in supply chain, do not limit yourself to stereotypes and do not conform to a perceived ideal. You alone can define who you want to be.

While the sector doesn’t attract enough women, today we do have some key women making their mark. But it’s still a long way to go. When we think of logistics what picture comes to mind? Often, it’s a man and not a woman. However, changing technology has led to increasing opportunities for women in this sector. These opportunities need to be highlighted. New emerging roles are now being claimed by women; white and blue-collar jobs both. But the change is slow. To accelerate change, we need to celebrate good practices and progress that has already been made by women to encourage young women to join the logistics sector. We need to highlight best practices as well as the pain points faced by women and work towards creating a friendly environment for women. There is a strong business case for diversity. Diversity breeds innovation and innovation breeds business growth.

Since the advent of the logistics sector, it is considered that the nature of work and the amount of time one must put-in is something that only men can handle. And, it is because of this belief that today, even though the supply chain is a very large industry with more than 125 million people working in it, only about 20 per cent of them are women. But the good news is that there is a huge shift in the mindset of the people working in this industry and also among married women and mothers who earlier thought they wouldn’t be able to balance the work pressure since they have many additional responsibilities outside of their careers. Today, more and more women are stepping out and understanding that it is the need of the hour for them to actively contribute and join the logistics and supply chain companies at all levels. And not just women, nowadays, companies are also actively trying to redress the gender imbalances in the industry and wider opportunities and other benefits are being made available for women which were not available earlier. With a greater number of women performing extremely well in the logistics sector, the stereotype associated with women working in such a dynamic industry is breaking and more women are now considering to be a part of this massive work sector. According to the latest study, women have started showing interest in the supply chain sector, and with companies adopting new laws and policies, such as maternity leaves, flexible hours of working etc., to support women at the workplace, it is guaranteed that the percentage of women working in the supply chain and transportation …

When one thinks of the logistics department or the warehousing sector, the first image that comes to mind is of male truck drivers or laborers carrying heavy loads. It isn’t surprising as most people don’t feel that women play a significant role in a male dominated industry. This is an unfortunate scenario since women represent around half the global population and yet the analysis of their role in the male-dominated logistics sector remains uni-dimensional. Globally, in 2010, women formed only eight per cent of the logistics workforce which has steadily increased to 20 per cent in 2018. In India, specifically, this number currently stands at approximately 15 per cent and is expected to reach the current global average of 20 per cent by 2022. Considering the focus and the concerted efforts that is being put in across the sector, we are now witnessing women taking up leadership roles at the senior and mid-management level – not to mention many women getting into operational and technical roles like material handling equipment operators, shift supervisors, truck drivers, warehouse managers, stores and linefeed supervisors – and a plethora of other opportunities that have emerged. A force multiplier in mobilizing participation and involvement is change in mindset towards how we include and leverage on women in the logistics sector and the society in general. By giving women equal opportunities and facilities, we are setting them up for success and empowering them with the confidence and the determination to pursue professional and personal success. The relentless focus on diversity and inclusion in the last few decades, especially on gender diversity, has borne fruit with women being identified as a potent talent. Women are breaking the …