Category Archives: Supplier

Blue Dart, India’s leading express logistics service provider and part of the Deutsche Post DHL Group (DPDHL) formed Blue Dart Med-Express Consortium with the mission of revolutionizing the delivery of vaccines and emergency medical supplies to the remotest parts of India with Drones. Blue Dart Med-Express Consortium is part of the ‘Medicine from the Sky’ project in collaboration with the Government of Telangana, World Economic Forum, Niti Aayog and Healthnet Global. The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has granted the project with necessary exemptions and rights to fly drone flights on an experimental basis in Telangana. The aim is to assess an alternate logistics route in providing safe, accurate and reliable pickup and delivery of health care items (medicines, covid-19 vaccines, units of blood, diagnostic specimens and other lifesaving equipment) from distribution centre to specific location and back. Proud to be able to help the country in its fight against the pandemic Balfour Manuel, Managing Director, Blue Dart says, “It’s been over a year and our battle against COVID-19 continues to unfold new challenges that need solutions in real-time. The pandemic has taught each one of us the importance of logistics and the need for a tech-led supply chain infrastructure. As an organization Blue Dart has always been surrounded with the technology of the future. It is this ability that has helped us to not only withstand the pandemic but thrive with growth. While we reach out to over 35,000 locations across the country, the current situation calls for a much deeper penetration of vaccines.”

Cold-chain marketplace startup, Celcius, announced that they have received an undisclosed amount as seed funding in a round led by Mumbai based Eaglewings Ventures Alliance Network (EVAN), Venture Capital & Private Equity firms MaGEHold, Keiretsu Forum and other investors. The Celcius platform serves as a unique aggregator platform that offers solutions for both Reefer logistics and cold storage warehousing. With the business model validated, this round of seed funding will be utilized to further scale up the partner base, enhance the tech platform, and expand geographically. “We are ecstatic to announce our seed funding round and are thankful to all our investors. In a short span of six months, we have transported over 2800 tonnes of perishable cargo for sectors like Dairy, Pharma, Fruits, and Seafood across 85 cities in India and have also ventured outside the country. Our aim is to build a technology-driven solution to the problems of the conventional cold-chain network in India.”, said Swarup Bose, Founder and CEO, Celcius

In a letter to Chief Minister of Maharashtra, S K Saraf, President, FIEO has appreciated the proactive decision taken to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the State. He says, “The exporting units employ millions of workers units with strict timelines to execute the orders else the same may attract heavy penalties including shifting of such orders to other competing countries. It is, therefore, necessary that the exports sector should be covered in the list of ‘essential services’ so that the entire chain to execute the exports is allowed to function during such lockdowns. Needless to mention that necessary Covid protocol would be maintained by these units.” While the President, FIEO appreciates the action to allow manufacturing units to operate during the lockdown, it is important to observe that the manufacturing units are supported by their offices which not only manage their inventories but also ensure timeline supply of raw-material, filing of tax return, filing of e-way bills for transportation of goods, managing of outward supplies, etc. If such offices are not allowed to function, it would not be possible to keep manufacturing going. Since the exports play a pivotal role in a country’s economy and more so in case of Maharashtra, which is number one state in terms of exports based ranking, the President has therefore requested the Chief Minister to allow private offices to be opened with 25% of the sanctioned strength so that necessary support, to run the manufacturing, can be provided for seamless and smooth functioning of factories. A related issue is the availability of support services like custom house agents, freight forwarders, offices of shipping lines etc. to provide movement of transportation of goods, which …

Singapore based GIC and ESR Cayman have entered into an 80:20 strategic partnership to establish a US$750 million joint venture to develop and acquire industrial and logistics assets in India. The JV will develop and own institutional-grade, state-of-the-art industrial and logistics facilities as well as acquire core assets, focusing on Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities across India and will be seeded with a ~2.2 million sq. ft build-to-core asset, located in close proximity to the large consumption hubs of Mumbai and Thane. Lee Kok Sun, Chief Investment Officer of Real Estate, GIC, says, “We are pleased to establish this Joint Venture with ESR, a leading integrated logistics platform, to develop and acquire high-quality industrial and logistics assets in prime locations in India. GIC has been investing in India for more than a decade, and this investment is a testament to our confidence in the long-term potential of this market.” Kishore Gotety, Co-Head (Asia ex-China) of Real Estate, GIC, states, “Continued e-commerce growth in India over the long term, reinforced by rising internet penetration, is expected to drive strong demand for industrial and logistics assets. This is further supported by the emphasis on infrastructure development, changing supply chains, and low vacancy levels. This JV is well-positioned to benefit from these tailwinds, bring institutional-grade assets into this market, and generate resilient returns.” “We are very excited to extend our partnership with GIC as it firmly demonstrates ESR’s capability and track record of developing best-in-class, strategically located industrial and logistics facilities in prime locations across India. This strategic partnership provides us with immediate scale to capitalise on the early growth stages of India’s rapidly modernising industrial and logistics landscape and tap high …

After a successful pilot phase, PrimaDollar has officially launched its operations in India. With clients already in over 30 countries, the company provides low-cost trade finance to importers and exporters around the world from its headquarters in the UK and network of offices across South and East Asia. It has now opened offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. PrimaDollar is also now starting to partner with banks and logistics platforms to embed this new form of trade finance into their business models – allowing exporters to take finance as they ship their container, rather than having to make a separate call to their local bank in order to arrange separate working capital. The company solves the resulting cash flow gap for the exporter, paying the exporter upfront, taking the buyer credit risk and allowing the buyer to pay later. All of this is done at low cost, without requiring collateral and with simple and clear pricing. It’s unique trade finance products work shipment-by-shipment, without the need for complex multi-period financing agreements or IT integrations. Tim Nicolle, Founder & CEO, Prima Dollar, says, “Trade finance has traditionally been a time-consuming service, involving multiple banks and the many layers of complexity associated with letters of credit. On a global basis, the market is looking for a transactional solution that works shipment-by-shipment, without collateral and at a low cost. That’s what PrimaDollar has pioneered. For the Indian market, this is especially important as Indian exports are rising (by 7% in 2018) whilst bank finance for exports is falling (down 20% by 2018). All of this points to a major funding gap that PrimaDollar’s trade finance products exactly fit.” “After a successful pilot …

With an aim to make the postage cheap and easy, Gxpress is all set to launch an operating system called Ecomgistics for e-commerce for small parcels in India, starting from 50 grams. The sellers also have an option to consolidate the small parcels in a single box and send to the desired location. Sellers will get the lowest shipping prices with free small parcel tracking, without sacrificing the quality of service. Its vision is to empower small to medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs so that they can really focus on their business instead of worrying about operational activities such as shipments, custom clearances and other challenges when are shipping internationally. Gxpress’ easy-to-use website will enable them to book a pickup, estimate cost, and track their packages and more. “The logistics industry has been completely standstill since the start of the beginning of the unprecedented crisis of Covid-19 and lockdowns, ensuring that the supply chains remain intact. Due to the shortage of labour and the restrictions being imposed on the movement of goods and businesses, the supply chain has been disrupted in the past six months. Now, as the businesses started opening, we have planned to launch Ecomgistics for small businesses because we at Gxpress understand the obstacles faced by companies especially when they have to ship small parcels from India but cannot due to high shipping costs. We will focus on empowering small to medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs in the growth of their customers by giving them the option to consolidate the small parcels in a single box and send to the desired location” said Praveen Vashistha, Founder & Director of Gxpress. Gxpress has a mission to build the …

Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister, Government of India has made 12 announcements under the Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 with a stimulus size of Rs 2.65 lakh crore or 15 per cent of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In order to help EXIM Bank facilitates Lines of Credit development assistance activities and promote exports from India, Sitharaman says, “We will boost exports through an additional Rs 3,000 crore to be given to the Exim Bank of India, for promoting exports under Indian Development and Economic Assistance Scheme (IDEAS Scheme). This will help EXIM BAnk facilitate the Line of Credit development assistance activities.” When exports are mandated through it, most recipient countries get Indian firms executing projects such as railway lines, transmission lines and so on. US$ 10.5 billion are provided through the line of credit. As on date, 811 export contracts, aggregating US$ 10.50 billion are being financed under Line of Credits.

As per a recent report, the first week of the festive sale saw a 55 per cent y-o-y sales growth, with $4.1 billion worth of goods sold across e-commerce platforms, as compared to $2.7 billion last year. This 52 per cent increase makes the surge in online consumer demand quite evident. However, retailers need to be prepared to handle this surge. to handle the festive surge and enable retailers to meet the demand, FarEye has been working with leading retailers to roll out significant new features and enhancements to its platform. The platform will offer more flexibility to customers with self-service delivery slot booking, multiple payment options and deliveries at drop-off points. The platform will help retailers to offer quickly onboard new carriers to meet surge demand, achieve app-based onboarding and training of freelance drivers to fulfill orders. It will improve contactless delivery capabilities, including temperature tracking of drivers, integrations with national and international compliance apps and improve order-level visibility to customers through instant track & trace, messaging drivers, 1-click calling. The platform will also improve personalisation and customer lifetime value by showcasing more products based on customer behaviour and preferences and help in achieving comprehensive end-to-end visibility into the logistics operations and real-time customer feedback to take corrective action. “From the time we launched FarEye SERVE back in March to help retailers deliver essential goods; we have not just successfully helped retailers handle scalability challenges but also have made major breakthroughs in advanced contactless capabilities. These include driver temperature tracking, compliance apps integrations & more. Retailers can now focus on customer experience while they can worry less from scalability and orchestration woes, which the platform can handle for them,” …

COVAXX has announced a global logistics partnership with Maersk. The agreement lays out a framework for all transportation and supply chain services that will be needed to deliver COVAXX’s vaccine candidate UB-612 around the world, once approved by regulatory authorities. Financial terms of the agreement are not disclosed. COVAXX is developing UB-612 using a high precision, synthetic peptide platform to activate both B-cell and T-cell arms. The investigational vaccine is designed to mimic natural biology and preclinical studies have shown high immunogenicity and levels of neutralising titers against SARS-CoV-2. The technology platform has been successful in commercialising blood diagnostics as well as safe and effective vaccines for infectious disease in animal health and has been tested in numerous clinical trials for other indications to date. “The COVAXX vaccine is unique in that it can be stored in the fridge you have at home, moved in the same trucks that deliver groceries and administered anywhere you can get a flu shot.” – Lou Reese, Co-Chief Executive Officer of COVAXX. “Our team, which now proudly includes Maersk, is committed to addressing the needs of countries where the greatest unmet needs exist today,” said Mei Mei Hu, co-Chief Executive Officer of COVAXX. “To do what is in the best interests of society at this time of the global health crisis, we are aligning with the strongest leaders in their respective industries to meet the large-scale demand and compliance requirements that we expect. It is not enough to focus on vaccine development and approvals. We must work in parallel to establish the infrastructure and partners with the strongest capabilities, like Maersk, to safely deliver our vaccine around the world.” “Efficient and safe delivery of …

According to Sharad Kumar Saraf, President, FIEO, non-availability of containers for the export sector is posing a serious concern for meeting delivery commitments of foreign buyers. He said , “From the last couple of months, in spite of offering space for three to four weeks ahead, shipping lines are shutting out the containers abruptly giving reasons that the vessels are full. The sea freights have also started increasing gradually since July and all the shipping lines have increased the freights by 20 per cent to 40 per cent depending on the destinations. There is a need for a regulatory agency for the shipping sector and we expect that the proposed National Logistics Efficiency Advancement Predictability and Safety (NLEAPS) Act would be formulated and implemented soon to protect the exim sector from such sudden and abrupt changes.” Saraf further stated that exports have started picking up and our merchandise exports turned positive for the first time in the last seven months registering a growth of about 5.3 per cent in the month of September 2020. Therefore, this important component of export logistics needs immediate attention else our exporters would not be able to capitalize on the new opportunities. FIEO Chief also advocated that the government order to pay terminal handling charges to ports directly may be implemented across ports as it will bring down logistics costs for the export sector and make them more competitive.