Renault, however, will continue to supply M&M key components, including the engine.

The joint venture was established in 2005.

“The new agreement with Mahindra and Renault will give us the opportunity to chart out a new strategy to help drive the Logan brand in India which will also include engineering changes, in keeping with customer requirements,” said Pawan Goenka, president of the automotive sector at M&M.

As per the agreement, the Logan will continue to sport the Renault brand and will be removed after 18 months after which the car shall only display the Mahindra logo.

Logan is the only car offered by the joint venture and M&M holds the licence to sell it in India, Nepal and South Africa.

The Logan is currently manufactured at Mahindra’s Nashik plant. Till date, about 44,000 cars have been sold in India and more than 2,600 units exported to Nepal and South Africa.

The strategic location of these Islands will help service large volumes of cargo and large vessel volumes for the neighboring ASEAN countries.

The cabinet also approved to extend the applicability of the provisions of the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 to Andaman and Nicobar set of ports and to disband the Port Management Board to transfer its establishment to the proposed Port Trust. It also agreed to bifurcate the Andaman and Lakshadweep harbour works and transfer a part of its establishment to the A and N Port Trust and to take consequential actions with reference to the above declaration.

The existing major ports are Kolkata, Haldia, Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Tuticorin, Cochin, New Mangalore, Mormugao, Jawaharlal Nehru port, Ennore and Kandla.

The shipping activities at A&N Islands are currently managed by the Port Management Board, which is under the A&N Administration. Under the Central jurisdiction, the port now can access budgetary grants. It can be developed as a transhipment port such as Colombo, where majority of Indian cargoes are transhipped.

The administration has a fleet of 70-80 odd vessels — mostly passenger, some passenger-cum-cargo and some pure cargo.

In January 2010 alone, the Railways transported revenue earning traffic of 78.33 million tonnes, recording an increase of 3.78 million tonnes over the actual freight traffic of 74.55 million tonnes during the same period last year, showing an increase of 5.07 percent.

With the General Sales Tax (GST) to be introduced in India, the 3PL market is poised to re-invent itself.It will require well trained, professional and skilled employees who will be in a position to fulfill the demand for higher levels of operational and quality compliance.

Designed in-house by a team of DHL supply chain experts from the Asia Pacific region, this training will not only be a part of the employee induction programme at the grassroot level but also assist in developing its existing workforce to promote their talent for further growth within the organisation. The training module has been adapted to suit local requirements and will also be delivered in Hindi.

An interesting combination of classroom coaching and practical assessment will form a part of the curriculum. Employees will be trained on various aspects of warehouse operations including order picking, inventory management, housekeeping, hazard awareness and security.

Once established, DHL plans to set up similar training centres in other parts of the country, to eventually cover all employees in India.

GR Gopinath, the chairman and managing director of Deccan 360 announced the launch of his much awaited domestic express logistics operations yesterday.

Deccan 360 will deploy 8 aircrafts, covering 15 airports, with a fleet of over 300 trucks and 850 vehicles nationwide, 8 major surface hubs, a model driven by franchisees and give overnight delivery to 50 cities in the first phase and ramp up its operations for a pan India coverage.

Commercial operations will begin on November 9, 2009.

Deccan 360 will be the first Indian company to create a hub-and-spoke distribution model in the express industry in India with multi-modal capability ensuring clock-work precision in its operations and offer never before reach.

The core of Deccan 360’s hub-and-spoke model is the state-of-the-art hub being developed across a total area of 100 acres at Mihan, Nagpur, according to a company press release. The company has signed an MoU with the GMR group for setting up Express Cargo operating facilities at Delhi and Hyderabad airports, which, together with the central hub in Nagpur, will form an extensive state-of-the-art multimodal (surface and air) storage, transportation and delivery network bringing connectivity to every corner of the country.

Speaking to reporters at the time of the announcement, Gopinath said, “Deccan 360 will provide a network leveraging with which a small auto parts manufacturer in Jaipur is able to efficiently feed the supply line of Toyota near Chennai and a manufacturer from Ludhiana can effectively deliver thread shipments to Arvind Mills plant in Ahmedabad and Delhi NCR or a mango farmer from Ratnagiri can ship fresh alphonso mangoes across the country.”

]]> http://log-india.com/deccan%e2%80%99s-cargo-airline-launched/feed/ 1 http://log-india.com/dpd-express-parcel-services-now-in-india/ http://log-india.com/dpd-express-parcel-services-now-in-india/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:26:47 +0000 News Desk http://log-india.com/?p=626 GeoPost, the express parcel arm of French Groupe La Poste, and Continental Air Express Pvt Ltd, an associate company of the Vohra family owned Continental Carriers Group, announced the setting up of a joint venture company.

The new Joint Venture (JV), called DPD Continental Pvt. Ltd., will offer inbound and outbound express parcel services under the world-class brand DPD to customers in India.

Headquartered in Aschaffenburg, Germany, DPD is a domestic and international parcel and express company with a network of more than 500 depots and agencies in over 40 countries.

GeoPost International Management & Development Holding GmbH has a  83.32 percent shareholding in DPD, while the balance is held by DPD Systemlogistik GmbH & Co. KG (10.47 percent) and DPD Zeitfracht GmbH & Co. KG (6.21 percent).

The Foreign Investment Promotions Board, Government of India, had recently approved the application of GeoPost Intercontinental SAS and Continental Air Express Pvt. Ltd. to establish the joint venture.

GeoPost Intercontinental, the international expansion vehicle of GeoPost, will hold 60% shares in the Joint Venture, while the balance 40% will be held by the Vohra family.

Mr. Gautam Nath has been appointed CEO of DPD Continental Pvt. Ltd.

The joint venture company will be head quartered in New Delhi, India.

In the initial phase, DPD Continental Pvt. Ltd. will offer its services in New Delhi & Mumbai. The second phase will see operations being rolled out across several major cities in the country including Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkatta by the end of 2009.

The mishap took place at the domestic cargo facility of the National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL), the merged entity of Air India and Indian Airlines.

The consignment was being sent by Mumbai-based jewellery refining firm, National Refinery, to Pidilite Industries in Hyderabad on an Air India flight.

Reportedly, at this time officials of Pidilite Industries were getting the parcel through security screening. While two parcels were screened, four men came in a car and threatened the staff with loaded guns and fled away with the remaining four parcels. A security guard working for Air India, identified as D S Bhosale, got killed in the process.

The incident is still under investigation.

This is the first time the group suffered losses since it was formed in 2003.

Revenues have dropped 12 percent to €5.01 billion. Further, the Franco-Dutch group had warned in March that it was expecting an operational loss of around €200 million. However, in the last tally losses were €129 million.

Boeing 777 freighter

The company had posted a €756 million profit for the previous financial year.

Air France-KLM said it is reducing capacity by 4.5 percent in passenger travel and by 11 percent in cargo for its summer schedule and a reduction in the initial investment plan of 2.9 billion euros to 1.4 billion euros. The airline did not give a financial outlook for the year ahead but said it will continue to cut capacity and costs.