FIATA World Congress (FWC), which is being hosted by FFFAI in India from September 26-29, 2018, at Pullman Hotel, Aerocity, New Delhi, is all set to welcome former Indian Cricket Team Captain Saurav Ganguly, who will address a galaxy of eminent logistics industry practitioners and experts. The event will be inaugurated by Nitin Gadkari, Shipping & Road Transport Minister, Government of India. The former Indian skipper is scheduled to speak at the Indian Forum to highlight various factors and aspects of India’s growth story. Other esteemed speakers marking their presence are Kunio Mikuriya, Secretary General, World Customs Organization, Babar Badat, President, FIATA and A.V. VIjayakumar, Chairman, FFFAI. According to Debashis Dutta, Chairman, FWC-2018 Organising Committee and Past Chairman, FFFAI, “The separate session for the young logistics professionals would be beneficial for the start-ups. Moreover, for the young participants, FWC 2018 has arranged an interesting game titled ‘Business on the Move’, where participants will be enlightened on the logistics business through a game.” More than 1000 customs brokers, freight forwarders and allied industries are participating from 100 plus countries to explore logistics business opportunities in India as well as other parts of the world at the FWC-2018.

With port modernisation and expansion of capacities urging to meet emerging demand, it is essential that the port management and port staff are equipped with latest knowledge and technical advances for meeting the new challenges. JNPT organised a seminar on ‘Dredging Strategy and Technology for Ports’ at JNPT Antwerp Port Training and Consultancy Foundation Training centre. Officials from Mumbai Port, V.O. Chidambaranar, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, Haldia Dock Complex, Paradip, JNPT, Cochin, Chennai, Deendayal Port took part in the five days seminar. Stefaan Jozef Ides, a trainer from Belgian Port, conducted the training workshop. The aim of the workshop was to take an overview of the modern dredging techniques and their application to create new port infrastructure and maintain port access using the best available dredging technologies and strategies.

Mahindra Logistics has announced the acquisition of a strategic stake in Transtech Logistics, also known as ShipX. ShipX is a SAAS (Software as a Service) based Transport Management Solution (TMS) platform that serves the supply chain automation needs for 3PLs, shippers and transporters. Pirojshaw Sarkari, CEO, Mahindra Logistics, said, “Logistics in future will be more technology driven; both in terms of our own operations, as well as interfaces with our customers and business partners. With our asset light business model, we are already like a ‘platform’. The strengthening of our relationship with Shipx opens up a new opportunity to take this to the next level.”

India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has bagged Indian Air Force’s (IAF) ‘SPEEDEX’ (The Stores, Proactive, Efficient and Expeditious Despatch of Extra Size/ Wt Consignment) Cargo contract for ‘Surface Transportation’ of consignment weighing above 35 kgs for ‘door-to-door delivery’. The service launch and agreement was signed in the presence of Air Marshal RKS Shera, AVSM VSM, Air Officer- in-charge Maintenance and Ravneet Kaur, IAS, CMD, ITDC; Piyush Tiwari, Director (C&M), ITDC, along with senior officials of both the organisation at the Air Force Headquarters (Vayu Bhawan), New Delhi. According to the contract, ITDC’s travel arm, Ashok Travels and Tours, will ensure safe, reliable and secure movement of the Indian Air Force Surface cargo. The scope includes handling the consignments (collection and delivery) between IAF units located all over India. There are over 130 stations spread across the country. It will enhance support to Indian Air Force maintenance activities and improve operational preparedness, in the long run. Ashok Travels and Tours has been actively involved in cargo handling through surface, air as well as sea. In the recent times, ATT has handled several cargo consignments for defence forces.

Eicher Trucks & Buses has bagged an order for 350 heavy duty trucks from Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC). BRTC has bought 350 units of Eicher 20.16, which is a 16 tonnes GVW haulage truck. Keeping customer profitability in mind, the Eicher 20.16 has been designed to deliver best-in-class fuel efficiency, superior uptime with modern ergonomics. This development will further drive VECV’s vision of modernising the commercial vehicle industry in Bangladesh. The delivery of the order is expected to take place within eight months.

The Ministry of Commerce will launch a logistics portal aimed at linking all stakeholders of domestic and foreign trade and all trade activities on a single platform. Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, in his official Twitter account mentioned that the ministry has stepped up work on developing a national logistics portal, as part of its measures to ensure ease of trading and cut high logistics costs from 14 per cent of the GDP to 10 per cent by 2022. “The National Logistics portal will be implemented in phases and will fulfil the commitment of the Government of India to enhance trade competitiveness, create more jobs, provide a boost to ‘Digital India’ and pave the way for India to become a global logistics hub,” Prabhu tweeted.

Emirates SkyCargo has announced over 175 tonnes flood relief cargo to Kerala, India, joining the UAE community in their support for rebuilding the state.  Over more than a dozen flights of the air cargo operator will transport the relief goods, which have been donated by various UAE-based businesses and organisations, to Thiruvananthapuram – the nearest online Emirates station to the area’s most affected by the flood. The goods, including lifesaving boats, blankets and dry food items, will be handed over to the local flood relief and aid organisations for distribution.

The upcoming FWC-2018 is set to showcase as an important platform for the fast-changing landscape of the freight forwarding, transport and logistics industry, feels AV Vijaykumar, Chairman, FFFAI. He said, “The dynamics of international freight forwarding, transport and logistics industry is rapidly changing. Conventional methods are replaced by process-driven procedures and system enabled practices. Adopting and being adept with this paradigm shift is a challenge for the industry. FFFAI is focusing on the members to be conversant with both domestic and global changes and challenges.” An event of this magnitude needs complete cooperation and coordination from a wide spectrum of stakeholders, including the government and the ministries.

As per the CBRE South Asia latest report ‘India Industrial and Logistics Market View, H1 2018’, cities like Bengaluru (25 per cent), Delhi-NCR (21 per cent) and Mumbai (20 per cent) are driving the potential demand for logistics and warehousing space, followed by southern markets including Chennai (12 per cent) and Hyderabad (10 per cent). Leasing activity was primarily driven by consolidation and expansion initiatives of firms belonging to sectors such as e-commerce, 3PL, retail, and engineering and manufacturing, which together accounted for more than 75 per cent of the leasing reported during the review period. The findings stated that the transaction activity continued to gain strength in H1 2018 as close to 10 million sqft of space was leased across the seven cities, an increase of about 45 per cent as compared with H1 2017. This is due of policy reforms that the sector has undergone in the past two years (particularly the implementation of the GST), as more and more corporates in this sector consolidate their operations and locate closer to consumption hubs, thereby driving demand for larger warehouses.

Realising the potential of logistics industry in India, the Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India (FFFAI) will organise a ‘Young Logistics Programme (YLP)’ on September 24 during FIATA World Congress (FWC) 2018, at Pullman Hotel, Aerocity, New Delhi. Elaborating more on YLP, Tej Contractor, Executive Committee Member, FFFAI and who is spearheading the programme, said, “The objective of YLP is to provide our youth with a global perspective of our industry at present. Currently, disruption is the name of the game. At the YLP we will showcase the disruptive technologies that have changed and will change our industry in the “Battle of the Startups” by presenting three leading startups in various fields.” According to Contractor, learning is the necessity of life. “We learn something new every day and will continue to do so. After an energetic morning with the disruptions with startups, what better way that to introduce the newest way of learning the Logistics Business by playing a game,” he added. At the YLP, FFFAI will excel the process of learning the logistics business ‘with business on the move’ perception.