TIACA’s appointment of Ramesh Mamidala, Chief Executive Officer of Celebi Delhi Cargo Terminal Management to the TIACA Board of Directors along with Sanjeev Gadhia, founder and CEO of Kenya-based Astral Aviation is being viewed as another recognition of India’s growing importance in the world.


Ramesh To The Rescue

     TIACA Secretary General Vladimir Zubkov declares Ramesh Mamidala and Sanjeev Gadhia will help to expand global links to the air cargo supply chain, especially via developing regions of India.
FlyingTypers met Mamidala recently to find out his course of action as a director in TIACA.

The India Footprint

     “There is a lot of great work that TIACA has been doing since its inception,” said Mamidala, “and that is what has benefitted many countries.
     “I hope to bring all the good work that would benefit our nation, to several trade bodies and organizations across the nation.
     “My immediate focus will be to look for these opportunities and bring them to the country as soon as possible.
     “We are at work right now improving the TIACA footprint in India.”

The Professional

     An air cargo veteran, Mamidala has had stints in the Gulf and Dubai, when he was senior manager with Qatar Aviation Services (QAS) Cargo for Qatar Airways.
     He has also served as Manager Cargo Hub and Product Development at Emirates SkyCargo.
     Mr. Mamidala is a close associate of Delhi Airport Head of Cargo Business Sanjiv Edward, the current Chairman of TIACA.
     “Sanjiv (Edward),” said Mamidala, “has been doing a great job at TIACA in his current role.
     “He has represented our challenges and opportunities globally and I intend to continue doing the same.
     “Both India and Africa require serious efforts to improve trade processes and practices that need involvement of various government and trade bodies.”

The Quality Standard

     These moves aside, Mr. Mamidala said he believed there were some serious opportunities to implement and improve technology applications and global quality standards.
     “Fortunately, TIACA has been doing some good work on most of these improvement areas,” he said.
     As for integrating the Indian air freight industry with the global market through TIACA, the CEO said that there were some “fantastic and dynamic home-grown organizations such as ACAAI (Air Cargo Agents Association of India), ACFI (Air Cargo Forum India), FFFAI (Federation of Freight Forwarders' Associations in India), etc. that have been doing a great job in representing and resolving trade issues over the last several years, and some for decades.
     “These organizations have become icons over the years.
     “I believe both TIACA and our organizations will mutually benefit if we improve our association and partnership.”
     On the question of co-operation between the various air cargo bodies in India and the world, Mr. Mamidala mentioned that TIACA has an “excellent workgroups-based structure that works across several layers of the air freight supply chain with the intention to integrate them for better efficiency and transparency.”

Innovation Meets Challenge

     “India can benefit from the innovations and enhancements that have been successfully implemented in other countries while continuing to participate in the current and active workgroups for continuous improvement,” he said.
     “The India air cargo industry has been facing challenges largely due to the lack of infrastructure and the fact that the economy has slowed down considerably due to, among other drivers, the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax.”

Optimists As Winners

     “I remain an optimist,” he emphasized
     “In my experience, optimism always wins.
     “That is something I began believing very strongly while working for Celebi.
     “We all understand that India’s airfreight infrastructure, both international and domestic, needs tremendous improvement.
     “Many of us see this as an opportunity and have committed investments across several airports in the country,” he said.
     “The way I see it, growth will happen where there are efficiencies.
     “Some airports that have developed cargo infrastructure have demonstrated this well in the last decade.
     “The current and expected growth in domestic and international exports across several commodities (both pharma and non-pharma) are the opportunities that airports should plan for when developing infrastructure,” the new ‘TIACA Builder of India’ declared.
Tirthankar Ghosh