Shillong, Jul 11: Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari on Saturday emphasized on innovation, entrepreneurship, science, technology, research skills and successful practices and conversion of knowledge into wealth as the future for the country.
“Unless innovative transportation models are executed, high logistic management cost will remain,” he said addressing an e-symposium on Logistics Management under the e-Symposia Series on Emergent North East India: Strategic and Developmental Imperatives, hosted by the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Centre for Policy Research & Analysis under the aegis of IIM Shillong.
Congratulating IIM Shillong on its delivery of business, management, and innovation leadership, Gadkari said, “I believe that you have a relatable responsibility to oversee the socio-economic growth of the region. This can only be achieved through cooperation, coordination and communication with stakeholders of the region.â€
Also ruing on the country’s extensive import requirement despite the presence of minerals like copper, aluminium, gold, and coal as examples, Gadkari felt that impetus is on management institutes to contribute management strategies and solutions by comprehensively assessing the strengths and weaknesses related to industrial uplift.
Speaking specifically on logistics management, Gadkari opined the need to augment water transport while citing its cost effectiveness as compared to road or railway mode of transportation while sharing his insights on possibility of boosting Ro-Ro and Ropax water travel mode for easy connectivity, and cutting short distance coverage using the mighty Brahmaputra.
Assam Chief Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, the centre is unleashing undivided policy attention towards the North Eastern Region across various dimensions of development while looking at the region as an upcoming engine of growth.
“With his (Modi) policy of transformation through transportation, the Prime Minister has given a special thrust on boosting the connectivity infrastructure of the Northeast,†Sonowal said, adding that the e-symposium would be helpful for us to draw a broad roadmap for realizing the growth visions of Northeast.
Chairman of the Board of Governors, IIM Shllong, Shishir Bajoria said, “Logistics is the key for success of anything. This could be very sophisticated with computers running dedicated programs or something as rudimentary as the Mumbai Dabbawalas who provide a great service to the entire working population of Mumbai. Be it in countries or companies, logistics is vital and strategicâ€.
Moving on to a technical session on opening up of opportunities for NER, Prof Keya Sengupta, Centre Coordinator, said, “Though logistics management forms the backbone for the development of the region, very few serious, and concerted studies have been achieved in the logistics sector. We would therefore be working to fill in this gap, to bring about paradigm change in making the NER a viable logistics corridorâ€.
Member of the Board of Governors, Atul Kulkarni opined, “We are not only looking at NER but also emerging economies of East Asia, and Southeast Asia. I think northeast India is at the crossroads between the three economies, wherein the existing transport corridors will automatically migrate into becoming the logistics corridors and ultimately into economic corridors which is expected to change the per capita income and the entire economy for the regionâ€.