Category Archives: Supply Chain

TA Varghese, President, ACAAI, believes, “Liberalisation of FDI in aviation will facilitate the growth of this capital-intensive industry.” He continues, “Boost has been given to India Inc. in the budget. The plan to utilise Rs 70,000 crore for the recapitalisation of banks is likely to ease the credit crunch for business and industry. The proposal to invest Rs 100 lakh crore in infrastructure projects in the next five years and the plan to construct 1.25 lakh kilometres of rural roads will boost the movement of goods pan India. The Union Budget 2019-20 is a budget with a 10-year vision and a 5-year target.” The proposed-investment in infrastructure and digital economy as well as job creation in small and medium firms may generate much-needed jobs in these sectors. The first step towards achieving the objective of powering India to a $ 5 trillion economy by 2024 have been taken in this budget. Overall, this budget has sought to balance the needs of both ‘Bharat’ and ‘India’. It projects a ‘new India’ roadmap by placing great emphasis on uplifting rural India through various measures while also addressing the needs of urban India. The planned provision of access to electricity for every rural household by 2022, clean water to all rural households by 2024 and 1.9 crore houses to citizens in the next two years are steps in the right direction.

Believing the Budget 2019-20 as an ongoing task reiterating the commitments that the NDA Government has set in its vision document, S Ramakrishna, Chairman, FFFAI, says, “It is commendable the new Finance Minister presented a pragmatic Budget aiming to reach the US$ 5 trillion economy in the next few years, with required emphasis and focus on infrastructure, multimodal connectivity and logistics operation. Significantly, the government has decided to create and promote inland waterways and allied infrastructure to reduce logistics cost and boost greener environment.” It is heartening to note that after recently launched multimodal terminal at Varanasi, more similar terminals will be completed at Sahibganj and Haldia and a navigational lock will be created at Farakka by 2019-20 FY. We will be expecting more such terminals in North East India as well, like strengthening the existing terminal in Pandu (Guwahati) and new one in Jogighopa which is very strategic region from foreign trade’s perspective utilizing effective multimodal connectivity with special thrush on waterways. It would be very crucial to expedite international cargo movement to Bangladesh and beyond. Also, it is commendable the Finance Minister emphasized on resolving all litigations on fast track basis to facilitate trade and commerce. Commenting on the focus given by government to MSMEs, Ramakrishna, says, “Since predominantly we are from MSME sector, this funding would be a great boost for us.”

In a bid to bring transparency to the road freight marketplace, Rivigo has launched the National Freight Index (NFI). This first-of-its-kind barometer of the road freight market in India is based on a Rivigo rate exchange, which gives a live spot rate on over seven million lane and vehicle type combinations in the country. NFI offers an aggregated picture of both live rates and historical trends of spot price movements in the road freight industry. The index is represented in two main forms; in terms of actual freight rates condensed to INR per tonne-km and in terms of relative movement with respect to a base month. Gazal Kalra, Co-Founder, Rivigo, said, “In the existing logistics market structure, there are high inefficiencies due to information asymmetry, which leads to a great loss of value. NFI will enable unrestricted access and sharing of freight rate information. This will bring transparency in the market and propel the logistics sector towards efficiencies and growth.”

FarEye is all set to take on America’s logistics market. The company has announced the appointment of Larry Klimczyk as President, Americas. He will be responsible for the expansion and growth of FarEye customers and solutions throughout the region. This is one of the key steps in FarEye’s strategy to expand its business foothold in the region and build a strong local team. The organisation plans to hire more industry experts and open a local office in Chicago to be closer to its growing customer base. “We are very excited to welcome Larry, a veteran from the industry, to take the lead at FarEye Americas as it represents one of the fastest growing markets for us,” said Kushal Nahata, CEO & Co-founder, FarEye.

SA Consultants & Forwarders has launched Logycode, an e-commerce start-up to make the cost-effective match between exporters and importers on the one hand and air freight carriers on the other. The idea behind the initiative is to create an e-marketplace where customers can shop and ship easily and grow their business efficiently. The platform plans to change the traditional way the customer reaches out for his logistics needs. One of the key objectives is to create a platform that provides the airfreight purchasing industry with real-time instant rates for its buyers. Ashish Asaf, MD & CEO, SA Consultants & Forwarders, says, “The idea is to encourage our industry by simplifying businesses. The present situation is that people are investing a lot of time and money. Our goal is to digitise the industry and simplify processes. This is our value-add to our customers who are doing business with us. Through this platform, we are giving the tools in our customers hand so that they can work faster.”

Spoton Logistics has launched its air express cargo services. With this announcement, the company now offers a range of specialised multi-modal express cargo services to B2B customers, significantly reducing turnaround time for time-sensitive deliveries to over 25,000 pin codes across India. Abhik Mitra, Managing Director and CEO, Spoton Logistics, has said, “The air express service will play a major role in catering to the rising demand for safe and faster deliveries. We expect our new service to act as the cornerstone in increasing our market share and provide competitive advantage to our clients.” The newly-launched Air Express service will be driven by Spoton’s road express pickup and delivery infrastructure and supported by its excellent usage of engineering, data and technology which helps the company deliver greater reliability and consistency to its customers.

Reacting to the April 2019 trade data, Ganesh Kumar Gupta, President, FIEO, said, “The export data of US$26.07 billion with a growth of 0.64 per cent is not at all encouraging as almost all the labour-intensive sectors including leather and leather products, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, cotton yarns, man-made yarns, carpets, marine products, few plantations and various other sectors of exports dominated by MSMEs are into negative territory. These sectors are still facing the problem of liquidity besides various other challenges including global trade war, protectionism, fragile global conditions and constraints on the domestic front.” He said that there may be front loading of exports in the past as exporters were apprehensive of withdrawal of GSP in US and development in Iran. Only 14 out of 30 major product groups were in positive territory during April 2019 including petroleum, organic & inorganic chemicals, drugs & pharma, RMG of all textiles, electronic goods, ceramic products & glassware, handicrafts, commodities besides some plantation, agri and dairy products have shown growth during the month.

With a focus on unblocking bottlenecks and capitalising on opportunities, PHD Chamber of Commerce organised the ‘National Maritime Conclave-2019’ in New Delhi. The conclave was graced by the presence of N Sivasailam, Special Secretary (Logistics), Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, Dilip Kumar Gupta, Managing Director, Sagarmala Development Company and V Kalyana Rama, Chairman & Managing Director, CONCOR along with the industry professionals. Being a moderator of the session themed ‘Port modernisation & multi-modal transportation system’, Pawanexh Kohli, CEO, NCCD, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer Welfare, Government of India, said, “As an industry, we must all try to make logistics more productive. Increasing port capacity to cater to the growing traffic will automatically bring down the cost of operations and per unit cost of goods handled. The mindset, however, needs to be changed in terms of being productive for the same cost. For instance, we can increase our capacity utilisation which should be done with greater operational efficiency.” He added that the industry must speak to the government about turnarounds to help them become more productive.

To expand its reach in India, Kerry Indev Logistics has launched eight services, each catering to different B2B and B2C segments of the Indian market under the Kerry Indev Express brand. Dr S Xavier Britto, Chairman, Kerry Indev Group, says, “The Express service will enable our company to reach the doorsteps of consumers, thus completing our dream to offer truly end-to-end logistics solutions to them.” The eight pan-India last-mile delivery services launched under the Kerry Indev Express brand are Same Day Express, for guaranteed delivery within 6-8 hours in the same city or between designated cities; Early Express, for guaranteed overnight delivery across designated cities; Priority Package Express, for door-to-door delivery of valuable documents and packages across 200 cities/towns covering 3000 pin codes and expanding to 6,000 pin codes by end 2019; Priority Freight Express – Air, for next-day/committed door-to-door delivery solutions for commercial and urgent shipments to major metros and non-metros; Priority Freight Express – Surface, for a day definite door-to-door delivery solution for commercial and urgent shipments to major metros and non-metros; E-Commerce Business Express, for time-definite deliveries, international courier clearances for cross-border e-commerce services, cash on delivery, drop ship service, reverse logistics; Warehousing Solution Express, for fulfilment centre services and first & last-mile distribution services; Critical Solutions Express, for temperature-controlled distribution, passport and critical documents handling/jewellery cargo handling and clinical trial/biological sample supply chain solutions and other value added services.

To attract new entrepreneurs in exports and bridge the gap in availability of qualified skilled manpower in Exim trade, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Prin. LN Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research (WeSchool) to launch a post-graduate programme in foreign trade management (PGP-FTM) at Mumbai. The MoU was inked by Khalid M Khan, Regional Chairman, FIEO (WR) and Dr Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, WeSchool. It aims to jointly develop and deliver the programme, which will help develop human capital for meeting the growing demand in the international trade ecosystem.