Cisco digitising select seaports, inland waterways in India

CALIFORNIA : The company is currently working on 14 projects across seven ports in India, of which three projects have been completed, and 11 are in various stages.

Technology company Cisco has partnered some of the largest Indian seaports and inland waterways, including Visakhapatnam, Deendayal, Kolkata Port and IWAI (Inland Waterways Authority of India), to transform them by digitising their processes.

The company is currently working on 14 projects across seven ports in India, of which three projects have been completed, and 11 are in various stages. This partnership is aligned with India’s Maritime Vision 2030, which focuses on boosting productivity and performance of nation’s maritime sector over the next decade.

Digitising Indian ports and waterways can help reduce overall logistics cost while enhancing the country’s competitiveness to transform it into a global manufacturing powerhouse. Cisco’s initiative to digitise ports and waterways is centred on four focus areas. The first is to improve turnaround time, which will directly impact the capacity and revenue. Preventing loss of revenue and equipment failure through real-time equipment monitoring is another focus area.

Cisco also plans to help improve efficiency through energy management and analytics. Besides, it is also working on increasing employee safety and communications through a multi-channel communication and collaborative platform.

Dave West, President for Asia Pacific, Japan, and Greater China (APJC) at Cisco says, “India has a goal to be a manufacturing powerhouse. To get there, they need efficient logistics. We’re partnering with some of India’s largest ports to improve turnover times, to prevent loss of revenue and equipment failures through real-time monitoring, increase efficiency through energy management, logistics, and improving employee communications and safety.”

“This will help India move closer to its goal to be a $5 trillion economy by 2025. I know this crisis (COVID-19) has caused a lot of pain. But at the same time, it really has us rethinking what the future will look like. And we can continue to play our part to help our customers leapfrog in this region,” West added.

According to industry sources, the cost of logistics to GDP for some of the biggest economies in the world like US and Europe is at about 8 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively. Against this, the cost is much higher in India at 13 per cent of GDP. To enhance India’s competitiveness and transform it into a global manufacturing powerhouse, the country needs to bring the overall cost of logistics below 10 per cent of GDP.

Source : Business Today