Page 37 - ITLN May-June 2021 issue for Magzter
P. 37

Govt announces LEADS survey prior to launch of

        National Logistics Policy


                                                                               management unit, special secretary
                                                                               (logistics) Pawan Kumar Agarwal
                                                                               requested that the industry should give
                                                                               honest feedback about the situation
                                                                               prevailing, where we are and where we
                                                                               should be.
                                                                                 “The survey is an attempt to get the
                                                                               logistics industry feedback with data
                                                                               prior to the launch of the National
                                                                               Logistics Policy. It is addressing
                                                                               the ease of doing business in terms
                                                                               of technologies, people, processes
                                                                               & multimodality to strategize the
                                                                               policy and identify the interventions
                                                                               government should bring in,” informed
                                                                               a stakeholder involved in the process of
                                                                               framing the National Logistics Policy
                                                                               under the condition of anonymity.
             inistry of commerce & industry   for ranking states & UTs on their ability to   He informed that the National
        M(MoCI) announced the process of    facilitate logistics before the launch of the   Logistics Policy was delayed by the
        conducting the annual Logistics Ease   National Logistics Policy.      pandemic and the ongoing process of
        Across Different States (LEADS) survey   Issued by the LEADS project   election in different states.




        Swift Cargo signs up for TradeLens                                 Astral’s first freighter

        eBL to speed up bill of lading                                     from India carries 20T
                                                                           vaccines Mumbai-Yemen

                                                                              he Kenya-based cargo-only carrier
                                                                           TAstral Aviation operated its first cargo
                                                                           flight inside Indian airspace by uplifting
                                                                           19.5 tonnes humanitarian cargo of
                                                                           vaccines on its Boeing 727 narrow-body
                                                                           freighter from Mumbai International
                                                                           Airport in India to Sanaa International
                                                                           Airport in Yemen via Djibouti-Ambouli
                                                                           International Airport.
           he Indian NVOCC  Swift Cargo   manual and time-consuming which    The aircraft also made a technical
        Tannounced joining the TradeLens   can now occur accurately and    stop at Salalah International Airport in
        platform— a blockchain-enabled   securely in minutes.              Oman before proceeding to Djibouti for a
        digital supply chain solution jointly   With direct connectivity of all   security check.
        developed by Maersk and IBM, to use   stakeholders within the TradeLens   Sanjeev Gadhia, chief executive
        its electronic bill of lading product.  blockchain technology powered   officer of Astral Aviation, said, “The
           The TradeLens eBL, recently   platform, total end-to-end visibility   Inaugural flight from Mumbai offers new
        approved by the International Group   for Swift Cargo’s transportation   opportunities for Astral's clients to move
        of P&I Clubs (IGP&I), will digitize   documentation will now be    freight from India to Africa via Astral
        bills of lading, along with other   available for their import and   Aviation's Nairobi Hub.”
        critical transportation documents,   export cargo, sourced from a single   He is also confident that Astral
        on the blockchain to increase the   platform. The TradeLens solution   Aviation will be able to operate more
        speed of original bill of lading   will provide transparency through   charters from India in 2021 due to the
        issuance, transfer and surrender,   the shipping cycle while addressing   high demand for medical cargo.
        a process that was traditionally   sensitivities too.


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