Jan-Feb-Mar-2018

L-R: Jagatpati Jha, JRPR Freight; Dr Sandeep Garg, IESA; Rajiv
Mukherjee, Incubate Hub discuss digital supply chains
Smita Viney, UPS-JetAir Express
in terms of input and output in
terms of customs as well as for
operators of logistics,” he said.
Vikram Vohra of Saudia
Cargo was of the opinion that
India needs to take examples
of its neighbouring countries.
Furthermore, there is an urgent
need for collaboration among
industry stakeholders. Sant
elaborated on certain measures
that the customs has put
forth to reduce the lead time.
“According to a recent AEO
scheme, nearly 95 percent of
the shipments do not get examined
by customs - that leads
to faster clearance. Then, there
is a deferred duty scheme,
where you don’t have to pay
the duty at once, you can pay
after 15 days. That leads to further
reduction in lead time.”
However, Yuvaraj felt that
despite the lucrative schemes,
the lack of collaboration plays
a spoilsport. “Customs may
have come up with innovative
schemes like AEO, RMS clearance,
green channel clearances
however there is a disconnect
between the airlines, agents
and the customs. If all of them
work together, the end user will
be benefitted and we can do a
lot in planning and moving the
cargo,” he said.
Touching upon the topic
of the implementation of GST,
Dr Suresh DN said, “Until GST
came, we had states acting
like two different countries
so moving things within the
country itself was becoming
an issue. It costs more to get
shipments from within the
country to the port than from
the port to the destination
country. So as we promote
Make in India, it is imperative
to tackle this at the earliest.”
Digital supply chains and
how blockchain and other
innovative technologies could
revolutionise the supply chain
framework were also important
talking points.
“Technology is a great
enabler. If you really want to
put people out of the system,
you need to handle technology
better. If you standardize
the system operations then the
loopholes automatically get
plugged. If you take the example
of countries like Singapore,
Hong Kong etc, everywhere
technology has taken over the
role of humans which is why
they are able to meet deadlines
sooner,” said Dr Sandeep Garg,
president, IESA.
Rajiv Mukherjee, CEO, Incubate
Hub tried to decode intelligent
supply chains to data
analysis. “What is intelligence?
Intelligence comes from a lot
of data. Over the last three
years, the kind of data that
India is generating is phenomenal.
When intelligence is built,
systems can be smoothened.
On top of that, with technologies
such as blockchain,
decentralization will happen.
India needs to develop sandboxes
so that the adoption
of systems and technologies
becomes faster,” he said.
The last panel discussion
on ‘The future of logistics and
supply chain for the high-tech
industry’ had speakers agree
on a common point - with unpredictable
markets and short
product life-cycles, the logistics
industry serving the high tech
industry needs to continuously
innovate to keep pace with
Rajiv Mukherjee, Incubate Hub
the increasing supply chain
complexities.
The day-long event ended
with a promise to bring in more
collaboration among stakeholders
that could in turn help in
reducing lead times – something
that is very critical in the
high tech industry.
Saudia Cargo, the cargo
arm of Saudia Airlines, and
Kempegowda Bengaluru
International Airport (BIAL)
were the key sponsors for the
summit. Industry associations
namely Indian Electronics &
Semiconductor Association
(IESA) and Federation of Indian
Export Organisations (FIEO)
also extended their support to
the event.
L-R: Dev Arora, Moser Baer; Nishith Rastogi, Locus.sh;
Raghavendra Swaroop, Cisco Systems; Ashish Gaggan,
Kuehne+Nagel discuss the future of supply chains
Pramod Sant, Siemens raises an important talking point
Yuvaraj AR, Bharat Electronics
JAN - MAR 2018| www.acaainews.com 19