|
|
Second day of the Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI) Convention saw four extremely riveting panel discussions. The panels were focused on a variety of topics related to the supply chain industry overall, including air cargo’s evolution through the pandemic, exploiting the ocean freight industry to maximum potential, gender diversity in the industry, technology integration, and learnings & best practices from operating during the pandemic.
“It’s the right time to invest in the Indian market. India is going to build a dedicated freight corridor from North East via Myanmar to Thailand to Cambodia, Vietnam and connecting the Philippines. This is going to be an alternative route to the other trade establishments in this part of the world. So the North East is going to be the gateway for cargo conversion and the North East is going to be the logistic gateway for India. The next e-commerce gateway of India would be the North East. I feel they are in the right place, right time.” said Tushar Jani (Group Chairman, CSC), during his session which discussed air cargo in the pandemic.
Similarly, Huned Gandhi (Managing Director, Dachser), who was a part of the panel themed ‘Tough times never lasts, tough people do’ agreed that a lot has been done to improve the multimodal infrastructure and connectivity, but there’s a lot more that needs to be done. He also highlighted the importance of upskilling manpower is another important area of concern.
“There’s a need for getting skilling and training done for the new workforce because the industry is going to need people and at this stage, I see a major shortage in terms of new talent that we could hire in the company. The logistics industry is getting more complex, the world is getting more complex and we need skilled people, highly trained people, and that’s something that we need to work towards,” said Huned Gandhi.
Another unique session was themed on women in logistics and included an all-women panel led by Chaitaly Mehta. The ladies not only shared their stories and experiences of surviving the pandemic while balancing home and work, but also urged the industry stakeholders to give more chances and opportunities to women professionals.
The other sessions also shed light on digitization and paperless transactions as the future of the business, the support received from the Government of India towards the industry and how the idea of transparency and visibility have gained attention.
The ACCAI Convention is being held in Bangkok and will conclude on 27th November.
