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Air Cargo Forum India (ACFI) organised a day-long conference on the theme “Air Cargo – Digitisation to Digitalisation” on 5th February at Hyatt Regency, New Delhi with an objective to promote Digitalisation efforts in the Indian air cargo industry.
The conference brought together prominent players from the air cargo fraternity, including government, regulatory officials, major Exporters, Importers, profound industry specialists from Air Cargo Logistics Trade & Industry.
Yashpal Sharma, Secretary, ACFI and MD Skyways Air Services set the tone of the conference and highlighted the key objectivities, activities, achievements of ACFI in his address.
Mr Sharma said, “We are happy to say that ACFI has achieved a 25-30% success rate out of the total issues raised. The remaining cargo logistics issues are under active consideration of various government authorities already raised & deliberated by ACFI supported by solutions to each issue.”
“ACFI is committed to making all efforts to improve the level of ease of doing business in the processing of EXIM trade at the gateway airports of the country for the ultimate growth of air cargo industry and the international trade by air of our country,” concluded Mr Sharma.
Tushar K Jani, President, ACFI in his welcome address urged the industry players to invest more money in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence and said, “Digitalisation is going to be the way forward as in the future your role will not be of just Logistics Service Provider but you will be a Logistics Partner, with Data Science in place you will be able to predict the market better and provide valuable suggestion to your customers.”
Mr Jani also urged ministries to simplify the procedures at different scales and simplify the cost of optimization.
Dr John Joseph, Member Customs, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, stressed upon data privacy and high security standards in his address and said single window tool for export import is required. Mr Joseph said, “Freight forwarding industry is the barometer for the Indian economy and it is vital to work together for the national building activity.”
Vandana Aggarwal, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation talked about the announcement of Krishi Udaan scheme in the Budget 2020, in which farmers can export their produce internationally.
Keshav Chandra, Joint Secretary, (Logistics), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, assured full support of his ministry in adopting the digital transformation to bring fundamental changes in their workings as an enabler of innovation for improving the ease of doing business in the entire cargo supply chain.
Amber Dubey, Joint Secretary (AD), Ministry of Civil Aviation talked about skill development, drones development, Amethi Aviation University. He said tracking, mapping, traffic management for drones – all are currently in the process.
Business session on “Digitalisation – Opportunities & Challenges”
The Session began in moderatorship of Satish Lakkaraju, Chief Commercial Officer, Agility Logistics Private Limited. Kunal Bhatt, Vice President – Cargo Corporate Services, Qatar Airways emphasized on the need for Digitalisation and how it can bring transparency in business.
Denny Fikri, President Director, PT Angkasa PuraKargo, Indonesia, talked about his experience and workings in Indonesia as his company is responsible for serving cargo terminals at 19 airports and the target of the Indonesian government is to have 100 airports operational in the next 15 years.
Anisha Bhardwaj, Twill, A.P. Moller – Maersk talked about present-day opportunities which digitalisation offers.
Ajith Pai, Chief Operating Officer, Delhivery talked about that the air cargo industry including the government agencies needs to adopt complete digital transformation bringing fundamental changes for improving the ease of doing business in the air cargo industry.
Panel discussion on ‘Digitisation to Digitalisation – the path’
The panel discussion was moderated by Yashpal Sharma who made it really engaging and interactive. The discussion witnessed exchanged of thoughts on data security, drones, Digitalisation aspects, etc.
Lt. Cdr. John Livingstone (Retd.), Founder CEO & Product Architect, Johnnette Technologies and Founder & Executive Director, Indian Institute of Drones; Gurpreet Singh Gill, Regional Head – Supply Chain & Logistics Solutions, Samsung Data Systems India; Parvinder Singh, Managing Director, Hans Infomatics; Raman Srinivasan, Chief Information Officer, Delhi International Airport Limited & Vineet Malhotra, Director, Kale Logistics contributed their perspective in the panel discussion.
Digital Logistics is the buzz word and Digitalisation has become quite a catalyst for growth in almost every industry and Air Cargo industry has been a witness to this too.
The steps toward Digitisation & digital transformation of our industry could play a vital role in bringing improvements with the help of Digital India program of the government of India.
ACFI hopes that the air cargo logistics industry will be quick enough to adapt into this digital transformation in a big way.
