The Technical Education, Training & Skill Development (TET&SD) Department, in partnership with The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, conducted a Sectoral Workshop on Logistics and Supply Chain on 16th December 2024 at the Biswa Bangla Mela Prangan. The key objectives of the Sectoral Workshop on Logistics and Supply Chain were –

The Sectoral Workshop commenced with the welcome address by Sri Anoop Kumar Agrawal, Principal Secretary, Technical Education and Training and Skill Development Department (TETSD), Govt. of WB, followed by the inaugural address by Dr. Hari Krishna Dwivedi, Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal. 

The session was also addressed by Mr Debasis Dutta, Chairman, Shipping and Logistics Committee, BCC&I and Director, BGS Group (B G Somadder & Sons Private Limited), who said for logistics sector skill development plays a very crucial role, Mr. Gautam Ray, President, BCC&I & Executive Director- CESC Limited & President (HR)- Power Group, RPSG, said that the logistics sector is highly technology driven and as technology is being enhanced at a fast pace; skilling and up-skilling both are crucial for logistics sectors and Mr. Uday Kumar Reddy, General Manager, Metro Railways, Kolkata, said that considering all modes of transport, till today railways is the most efficient considering all aspects such as time, sustainability and coverage.

Sri Rajesh Pandey, Principal Secretary MSME & T Department, Govt. of WB; Smt. Vandana Yadav, Pr. Secretary, IC&E Department, Govt. of WB and Sri Saumitra Mohan, Secretary, Transport Department, Govt. of WB Department also spoke on the occasion and briefed about the State Logistics Policy, support to MSMEs in Logistics and the support of Transport Sector for the Logistics.

The State Logistics Policy 2023 was launched by the Hon’Ble Chief Minister during the Bengal Global Business Summit 2023. The Sectoral workshop on Logistics and Supply Chain turned out to be the follow up workshop on the Logistics Policy. This was also the first of the Sectoral Workshops held by the TETSD Department.

The workshop was held to have stakeholder discussion at a more expansive level to help the Department with the following:

1. Identifying the gap areas and the requirements for viable Logistics and supply Chain Sector in the state.
2. Identifying the digitization processes and other technology adopted by the stakeholders to help optimize use of available infrastructure, reduce cost, create efficient and safe delivery systems and to create Centers of Excellence (CoEs) & Advanced Training Centers (ATCs) for encouraging and green technologies.
3. Identifying gap areas in skill requirement, level of skilling required, nature of workers to be trained, upskilled, reskilled
4. Road map for mitigating the skilling gap and creation of CoEs, ATCs.

The Industry session where the most prominent industry practitioners and officials from Rail, Road, Port, Airways, and Freight participated in the discussion to identify the major gap areas, followed by 5 Break away sessions as under:

1. Port: Bulk and Break Bulk, ICD, CFS, Dry Dock
2. Rail, Road, Waterways, Multi Modal transport, Freight Corridor, Container shipment
3. Cold Chain, Warehousing, Drone, Supply-chain, Logistic Parks
4. Ecommerce, Digitization of Logistics
5. Skill Development Initiatives.

Major areas of Skill requirement as identified by the participants of these the sessions were:

• Requirement for Awareness generation
• Create Greater access to skilling and upskilling
• Main Skill Requirements identified by all Sector session and Industry Session
• Existing Manpower Training requirement 
• Training of Trainers Mandatory
• Recommendations for E-Commerce and Digitalization of Businesses:
• Recommendations for Ease of Regulatory Framework 
• Training strategy

All the prominent industries that are functioning in various fields under the sector i.e. Port, Rail, Road, Inland Waterways to Drone Freight, Dry Docks and E-Commerce, bulk loads, containers, warehouses, Cold chain, Logistics parks were invited to the workshop. About 88 lead industries, academic institutes and certifying bodies from across the country participated in the discussions.

The Officials from stakeholder departments of Government of West Bengal like IC&E, MSME, Transport, FP&H, ARD, UDMA, P&RD, PWD, Agri-Marketing and central agencies such as Shipping, AAI, IWAI, and Ports etc. also attended the workshop. 

A Sectoral Advisory Committee would be formed as a follow up of this workshop that will help and advise the department with the way forward as per the Roadmap and also handhold the department in creation of Advanced Training Centers/Centers of Excellence with R&D and Incubation facilities and help in collaboration with leading industry, academia, accreditation and certifying bodies so that the trainees/students can be imparted training as per globally acceptable standards. The Advisory Committees could also help in identification of regulatory and policy support needed for the efficient and planned growth of the sector.  

Overall the participation was very encouraging and resulted in threadbare discussions on multiple areas of the sector leading to recommendations for skilling and employment in the sector.