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   Vol. 14  No. 16
Thursday February 19, 2015

Make In India

Make In India

Make In India logoNot since “I Love New York” branded the world’s greatest city to the world has a campaign been so well received by so many people.
     The recent visit of President Barack Obama to India has suddenly witnessed a boost in the Indian Prime Minister’s ambitious ‘Make in India’ initiative.
     In fact, it was on August 15, 2014, India’s Independence Day, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent out the call.
     The PM declared:
     “Let’s resolve to steer the country to one destination. We have it in us to move in that direction.
     “Come, Make in India.
     “Come, manufacture in India.
     “Sell in any country of the world but manufacture here.
     “We have got skill, talent, discipline, and determination to do something.
     “We want to give the world a favorable opportunity.
     “Come, I am giving you an invitation.”
     The call came a day after India’s successful Mars Orbiter Mission and before he left for his first visit to the U.S. as Prime Minister. The ‘Make in India’ strategy is based on: enhancement and improvement of infrastructure, easing business through delicensing and deregulation, and, lastly, opening up Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in construction, railways, and defense.


Challenges At Hand

     With the improvement in infrastructure, roads and railways, the logistics sector will benefit the most.
     Freight forwarders and air cargo stakeholders are hoping that the ‘Make in India’ campaign will bring in better times. But before it does, the air freight sector has to counter challenges at hand.
     These include the obvious infrastructure. Added to that are skill development, regulations, procedures, and mindsets.


Sanjiv EdwardAirport Edwards

     To begin with, as Sanjiv Edward, Head of Cargo at Delhi International Airport, who also serves on TIACA’s Board of Directors, put it, “We can't compliment the speed in the air with the product on the ground. That is why we are not able to make inroads. We need to get our act together.”
     The ‘act’ comprises good infrastructure and the manner in which multimodal can be brought in to create efficiency and ramp up the present air cargo business that is two percent of the country's total freight business.


Kale on The Menu

Amar More     Many in the air freight industry believe that the mindset of stakeholders is still in the 1980s.
     This was clearly evident when the Mumbai Airport introduced the GMAX community portal, which facilitated exchange of information digitally at a nominal charge of five dollars per transaction.
     The airport awarded Kale Logistics to run the portal from the airport from the end of last year.
According to airport sources, joining the portal was voluntary but there were a lot of protests.
     When questioned, Amar More, Kale Logistics vice president, said:
     “I would like to clarify that GMAX is a value-added optional service offered by Mumbai Airport to the trade, for which a lot of forwarders—who want to avoid queues and manual work and want progress—have already opted.”


Bharat ThakkarForwarders Have Their Say

     Top freight forwarder and immediate past President of Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI), Bharat Thakkar declares: “My understanding is that this has not been imposed as options are available and those who found merit have registered while the rest are still using the old methods…      “Technology is the only way forward and with that one can do business at the touch of a button, even from a remote location and any such development has costs.”


Other Challenges


     But there is even more India must do to insure “Make In India” and the country moves ahead.
     There are no proper regulations in place for cargo.
     There is not have enough emphasis on standardization for the activities at the cargo complexes at airports and what qualifications the people handling cargo possess.

Amber Dubey Harpreet A De Singh Ashok Gajapathi Raju

     Harpreet A De Singh is Air India's head of Corporate Quality, Safety, and Environment system.
     She points out that, “there is as lack of training for employees resulting in following no structured processes.”
     Even so, air cargo stakeholders believe that the environment is encouraging, as the air cargo sector looks to the ‘Make in India’ formula, as well as the move to adopt e-commerce, to boost manufacturing.
     Amber Dubey, partner and head – Aviation, KPMG, notes that the proliferation of e-commerce will “see a boost to air cargo as India currently operates at a very low level of air cargo penetration.”
     With the growth in the market, there will be demand to expand air cargo connectivity.
     For its part the government is trying to ensure that things move smoothly.
     At a recent press conference Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju was candid enough to accept that “existing regulations are not helping the Indian aviation sector,” adding that they “are focusing on removing some of the bottlenecks that are affecting the sector.”
     He also said that the present regulations had curtailed airline operations and hampered the growth of the sector.
     “We have to focus on removing bottlenecks for the sector and make it sustainable again,” the Minister said.
Tirthankar Ghosh

 

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