Category Archives: Supply Chain

At the FFFAI convention, Stanley Lim, Chairman, FIATA Congress Committee & Past President FIATA, expressed the need of logistics cost to be cut down. He said, “No matter in which industry you are, you need logistics and in logistics we are talking about from farm to fork and the number of steps and the cost involved. Moreover, for globalisation one needs to involve all government agencies in one platform to facilitate trade. Hence, logistics cost needs to be cut down to make country’s import and export competitive. Once the number of steps will get cut down, security will be enhanced and there will be less human error.”

The Federation of Freight Forwarders Association in India (FFFAI) convention showcased the role and efforts undertaken by the government to elevate the industry. Ashish Pednekar, Chairman Elect, FFFAI & Convenor Kochi Convention, highlighted how the government has been taking initiative optimally. “The government is bringing lot of changes in the Exim trade and FFFAI is the important link. Change is eminent and we have to be with the change to take the industry to the next level. Moreover, with initiatives like ‘Make in India’ logistics has a very important role to play. Most importantly, now government has realised the significance of logistics industry and started taking the fraternity suggestions seriously,” he said.

While enumerating the necessity of skill required in the field of logistics, Shankar Shinde, Vice Chairman, FFFAI, opined at the 23rd convention of the Federation of Freight Forwarders Association in India (FFFAI): “We always try to convert challenges into opportunities. One of the most important challenge is skill. We are trying to focus onto skill development through this convention. Hence, we are looking for training and adapting international practices for better upliftment.  Our idea is to make logistics as a choice of first profession. For the next generation, the decision to become a logistician should not come by default, but, by choice.”

The FFFAI convention held in Kochi, saw eminent industry persons come and deliberate on crucial elements of the logistics sector. Highlighting the same, Samir J Shah, Chairman, FFFAI, said, “We are working on three important issues. One of the most important issues we are targeting is skill; we understand with technology, domain knowledge of the broker is going to become important. Secondly, our focus is on gender equalisation and thirdly, we are creating a platform where FFFAI member can adopt the changes that are coming in the future. The Indian custom broker is capable of doing everything. Hence, any importer or exporter does not need to go to anybody else; the entire supply chain will be looked after by them.”

The 23rd convention of the Federation of Freight Forwarders Association in India (FFFAI) was inaugurated on January 19, 2017, in the august presence of Venkatesh, Eminent Economist, William Demoor, Chief of Cabinet of Chairman, Port of Antwerp, Stanley Lim, Chairman, FIATA Congress Committee and Past President FIATA, V.J. Mathew, Legal Advisor to the Government of Kerala, Senior Advocate of High Court of Kerala, K.V. Thomas, PAC Chairman, MP, Erankulam, along with the logistics fraternity, in Kochi. The convention aims to build a platform for enhancing the logistics sector as a whole while highlighting necessary issues like skill development, supply chain, gender equalisation, among others.

The 23rd biennial convention of the Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India (FFFAI) has been scheduled to take place from January 19-21, 2017 at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Kochi (Cochin). The theme of the convention will be relevant to prevailing scenario of global business as well as logistics Industry. At FFFAI Convention in Kochi there will be delegates from wide spectrum of logistics industry, across India. FFFAI will also organise the ‘FIATA World Congress 2018’ from September 24-29, 2018 in New Delhi. The last convention held in Mumbai in 2015 witnessed participation of more than 400 delegates. “The FFFAI Convention 2017 will also be attended by overseas delegates including a Malaysian delegation,” informed Samir Shah, Chairman, FFFAI

Safeducate announced India’s largest and first-ever of its kind Logistics Job Fair. The aim is to bridge the skill gap and make fresh talent available to the industry. This Logistics Job Fair will be held on October 22, 2016 at seven different locations across India at Delhi, Jaipur, Lucknow, Indore, Kochi, Ranchi and Ambala simultaneously. Over 1200 jobs in the field of supply chain and logistics will be offered during the Logistics Job Fair. The students will get an opportunity to evaluate if their existing skill sets match up to the industry requirements. Divya Jain, Founder & CEO, Safeducate, said, “Safeducate Logistics Job Fair is a unique and first of its kind endeavor by us in the field of supply chain and logistics industry. This Logistics Job Fair will provide students with the tools and resources to make important and valuable career decisions. During the Logistics Job Fair, job seekers will take their first steps towards meaningful employment by meeting with prospective employers.”

“Logistics industry has huge scope of becoming more effective which signals opportunities for many entrepreneurs, multiple investments. For the infrastructure to improve we need some inorganic pushes for this industry. Although the government continues to focus on building right quality infrastructure for this industry, private logistics players have to contribute to this journey. Imagining a world of seamless logistics and then jointly working with the government to get this implemented is important. As we continue to see this trend on logistics companies making inroads into various spaces within logistics, more and more consolidation of this space would happen. Logistics is all about optimised networks for transportation and warehousing and scale indeed plays a critical role in bringing optimisation into play. The entire eco-system of logistics is very elementary in our country. The logistics start-ups have been trying to solve these issues from a very fresh perspective,” says, Rajesh Yabaji, Co-Founder, BlackBuck while commenting on the start-ups in the logistics sector.