VOL-07 | ISSUE-07 | 2021
www.insightssuccess.in
INDIA'S LEADING Shipping Insights
MARITIME COMPANIES - 2021
Current Industrial Scenario of the Shipping Industry in India
Freight Trait
Synergy of Artificial Intelligence and Freight Management
Mr. Sankar Ragavan
The Chief Executive Officer
MARIAPPS MARINE SOLUTIONS
Dedicated to Innovate and Develop Cutting-Edge Digital Solutions
Editor’s Note TRENDSETTERS OF THE MODERN MARITIME INDUSTRY
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n today’s world, the maritime industry revolves around different companies such as oil and gas exploration and development, container shipping, ferry and passenger, cruise ship, and so on. This industry provides feasible options for transport and shipping worldwide. It provides numerous choices to people and companies to meet their traveling and business needs. Although new modes of transport have been introduced with time, maritime transport has not lost its importance. Research states that 90% of the shipping in the world takes place through the sea. Technological advancements have introduced endless advantages to maritime transport. The prominent players of the maritime industry are properly utilizing these advanced technologies to deliver lasting services. They are overcoming various challenges and ensuring that they serve their clients efficiently and in a timely manner. These companies have helped their clients to break the barriers of time and space. As a result, they can travel to any corner of the globe now in less time. The most renowned maritime companies help in transporting people to any part of the world with minimal
Ananda Kamal Das
ananda@insightssuccess.com
risks. They provide excellent services at minimal costs. This provides the customers with a sense of adventure at a lesser expense. Opening various avenues for trading, these industry giants provide clients with the opportunity to conduct seamless trade. They also allow their customers to carry large shipments conveniently. These companies provide the opportunity to reduce the overall cost of business and in increasing profits in business. The prominent names in the maritime industry provide various employment opportunities to people. Eligible manpower can get an opportunity to prove their worth by offering different services such as loading of ships, steering of ships, bartending, musicians, waiters, and so on. The ship also has a complex mechanism and different equipment which require professional handling. Hence, this industry also provides employment opportunities to workers who are adept in technical skills. These companies are also major contributors to the
country’s economic development as they facilitate international trade through seaways. This helps in developing strong international relations and opens doors for international investments. The most recognized maritime companies are playing an important role not only in terms of businesses but are also contributing towards the economic development of the country. They focus on bringing more benefits to companies and provide scope for further business development. Hence, in this issue of Insights Success, we present to you some of the top maritime companies, which are changing the face of the maritime industry through their focused efforts.
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Reliflex Exim Services Pvt. Ltd. A Trading and End-to-End Facilitator for the Global Market
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Smart Ship© Hub Providing a Digital Platform for Ship Management Services
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Zener Maritime Solutions Global Leaders in Asset Integrity Solutions
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Freight Trait
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Synergy of Artificial Intelligence and Freight Management
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Dedicated to Innovate and Develop Cutting-Edge Digital Solutions
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Shipping Insights Current Industrial Scenario of the Shipping Industry in India
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Editor-in-Chief Sumita Sarkar Deputy Editor Abhishaj Sajeev Managing Editor Darshan Parmar
sales@insightssuccess.com
Assisting Editor Ananda Kamal Das
JULY, 2021
Contributing Writers Sayali, Trishika
Chief Designer Priyanka Rajage Designing Head Vishal Pawar Co-designer Rashmi Singh
Operations Head Megha Mishra Business Development Manager Ashwini Pahurkar
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Company Name
Management
Brief
MariApps Marine Solutions Pte. Ltd.
Mr. Sankar Ragavan CEO
MariApps is focused on providing maritime enterprises with customized applications and software solutions
Nimbus Maritime Services Private Limited
Harshal Kolambe Director
NIMBUS has made a name for itself by providing quality recruitment and other maritime and offshore related services across the globe
Reliflex Exim Services Pvt Ltd
Adnan Boxwala Director
Reliflex is a trading and end-to-end facilitator for the global market, which manages domestic as well as international undertakings of various business
Smart Ship Hub
Joy Basu Founder and CEO
Smart Ship Hub continues to shape up the new age maritime ecosystem through its multi-tenant digital platform
Udya Shipping Services Pvt. Ltd.
Tushar Mohapatra Managing Director
Udya is committed to providing quality services to its reputed clients based world-wide
VR Maritime Services
Capt. Sanjay Prashar CEO and Founder
VR Maritime is one of the renowned Ship Managers of India, now in its 10th year of operations
Zener Maritime Solutions Pvt Ltd
Jagdeep Bhatia Singh Managing Director
Zener Maritime Solutions understands the importance of each activity on a ship and has dedicated years of perfecting its services for its clients
Dedicated to Innovate and Develop Cutting-Edge Digital Solutions
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he leading maritime companies offer a variety of facilities such as managing dock work, coordinating with logistics companies for movement of goods, handling the procurement of shipping materials for building new ships and repairing old ones, and so on.
We Focus on our Clients First
One such leading maritime company, which provides a plethora of excellent services is none other than MariApps Marine Solutions. It is a pioneer in providing digital solutions to the marine industry. The first-of-its-kind app allows users to track vessels, fetch real-time finance, performance and operational data to facilitate decision making processes easier, reduce operational risk, and maximize uptime.
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Mr. Sankar Ragavan
The Chief Executive Officer
MariApps Marine Solutions is a digital technology company focused on providing maritime enterprises with customized applications and software solutions, including its flagship product smartPAL. With over 600 dedicated experts across the globe, MariApps strives to develop solutions that support maritime businesses to succeed in the rapidly transforming industry they operate in. The company follows leading project management standards (PMI) to execute projects and the dedicated Project Management Office (PMO) manages projects for various customers. It frequently engages with various leading external consultants across the world to review and ensure the quality of various software it builds and, in this way, it delivers high quality maritime solutions.
Insightful Leadership
MariApps is built on the strong pillars of integrity, honesty, passion, and commitment. It aims to offer the best value to all its customers by offering the most efficiently integrated digital solutions. MariApps encourages an environment of mutual respect and teamwork within the company, a value which it proudly extends to all its clients.
MariApps becomes a partner to the customer in achieving a fully automated solution across the organization. It keeps on innovating the application it offers with regard to UI, technology, dashboards, widgets, data, security, and numerous capabilities of the product can offer. MariApps provides to the maritime industry tools for analysis of multi-dimensional data. For e.g. its smartPAL Business Intellgence (BI) solution offers a way for organization to examine data to understand trends and derive insights by streamlining the effort needed to search for, merge, and query the data necessary to make sound business decisions. The scope of BI is not only limited to financial decisions of the company, but also evaluates marketing, inventory, and human resource data.
Spearheading the Maritime Industry MariApps not only offers solutions, but rather goes the extra mile in offering the customers an opportunity to form partnerships. It follows through in overseeing organizational changes, communications, project management, and implementation. Training is an important aspect for MariApps, and it will continue to serve the customers by ensuring that the service offered is extended in training all the departments within the organization of their clients. The company continues to focus on incremental improvements and enterprises in the process of improved maritime effectiveness and standards, connecting maritime workers, ship managers, and employees around the world.
We Are A Young And Passionate Company, Committed To Developing The Best Solutions For The MARITIME Industry
The person responsible for the success of MariApps is none other than Mr. Sankar Ragavan, the Chief Executive Officer of the company. In 2015, Mr. Sankar became the CEO of MariApps Marine Solutions Pte. Ltd., a maritime digital solutions company based in Singapore, with development centres in India, and offices in Cyprus, Germany, and France. Prior to this, he had served in many senior IT positions in Jumeirah Hotels, Dubai, TV Guide, Sapient, IDP, General Motors, Commerce One, and Aerotech in USA. Emphasis on Excellence
MariApps’ smartPAL Performance module provides realtime analytics and alerts for improved operational efficiency and reliability of fleet. Analysis is done with the help of advanced performance modelling techniques, effectively using the data captured from ships during its voyage, sensors, and ISO standards. MariApps’ maritime digital solutions caters to all aspects of the maritime industry namely ship owning, ship management, marine travel, commercial, fleet performance, procurement, finance, port agency, catering on board, safety, environmental compliance, electronic log books, that support the success of maritime businesses. With a proven track-record of delivering safe, reliable, and innovative solutions that successfully help streamline operations, MariApps has been the chosen partner for over 40 clients across the maritime industry to navigate them on their journey towards digitization.
INDIA'S LEADING
MARITIME COMPANIES - 2021
We Aim To Offer The Best Value To All Our CUSTOMERS Tackling the Pandemic Efficiently MariApps has set in place an integrated business continuity strategy to reduce disruptions, extending this also to its customers. The extensive continuity program is a contingency plan to keep the continuity of services operations in the event of unforeseen circumstances like the current pandemic, with minimal disruption. This program encompasses remote teams, core distribution team meetings, Azure facilities, and other network management tools online, support for ships, and workforces situated worldwide to offer efficient service to the customers. Offering Cutting-Edge Digital Solutions MariApps Marine Solutions has developed innovative and scalable solutions focusing on vessel optimization and performance enhancements. The various solutions that the company offers have been mentioned below: • SmartVoyage: SmartVoyage provides optimized vessel routing solutions based on ETA deadlines, exigencies of speed and fuel consumption apart from displaying current weather, sea-state, and ice conditions. SmartVoyage uses a single screen view for the crew to monitor current conditions as well as forecasts on a plotted passage plan. Using built-in algorithms, SmartVoyage will provide viable alternatives for crew to make an informed decision for safe-navigation deviations. With seamless integration of input from the vessel’s ECDIS, SmartVoyage’s artificial intelligence tools superimposes forecasted weather conditions to continuously update ETA prediction as well as estimated fuel consumption for a given passage plan.
conditions. This analysis generates detailed reports and maintenance instructions to preclude equipment failures.
We Offer The Most Efficiently Integrated Digital Solutions • Real-Time Performance Monitoring: Real-time performance monitoring is a key component of asset management. Trending and notifications provide crew and shore-based management teams insight into the operational status of various equipment. The uninterrupted data streams and continuous analysis allows for s.m.a.r.t. decisions, impacting immediate maintenance requirements as well as long-term asset reliability. • Vessel Display: On board the vessel, the analyzed data is presented for ease of use by the crew. The customizable main screen displays real time comprehensive vessel performance data, which includes hull and propeller condition, main engine performance apart from the continuous input of current weather and sea state conditions all on one comprehensive screen. • Shore Displays: The data presentation for shore-based managers include real-time tracking of the vessel’s current voyage, weather conditions, speed and fuel oil consumptions, and vessel performance among others. Comparison of analyzed data against identified KPI’s or charter party requirements are instantly displayed, and all deviations are immediately identifiable. This allows for close monitoring and optimizing of performance without delays. • Condition Based Monitoring: Condition based monitoring system generates detailed diagnostics reports and maintenance instructions to avoid failures and breakdowns. MariApps’ condition-based monitoring system is an asset management diagnostic tool which will predict the likelihood of potential failures that will impact vessel operations. Using vibration signals generated by specified equipment, its solution includes monitoring of trend patterns as well as identification of erratic operating
Taking into consideration the maintenance schedules defined by the equipment manufacturer, the system generated analysis reports alerts crew and managers of a potential breakdown. Using this information, predictive maintenance and timely overhauls can be executed. • Vessel Operation Center: Capitalizing on state-of-the-art digital technologies, the Vessel Operation Centre (VOC) provides a centralized view of analyzed data from remotely monitored sensors across the fleet. This customizable visualization of integrated navigational and technical data is available for a specific vessel or multiple ships. The real-time end-to-end visibility of operational data will empower the shore-based management team to enhance safe navigation, vessel efficiency, and maintenance planning. With the VOC, real-time weather advisory will augment the traditional navigational tools, assisting the crew to plan voyages optimally. This leads toward more precise arrival and departure schedules that are based on actual weather conditions, fuel savings, and better planning of port calls.
MARIAPPS Is Built On The Strong Pillars Of Integrity, Honesty, Passion, And Commitment.
Synergy of
Articial Intelligence W
ith increased trade flow, the fleet population in freight transportation has become denser, and expectations of customers have grown beyond imagination, resulting in complex transport operations, requiring flexibility from freight operators. Human errors in operations, underutilized resources, low workforce productivity, inefficient operating planning, inability to match supply with demand, and low profit margins are key prevailing concerns with freight operators. The emergence of Digital Technologies has advanced and transformed the business and global freight services all over the world. Also, it is essential for freight services to include digital technologies to turn complexes into advantages.
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Freight Trait
and
Freight Management JULY 2021 | 15 | www.insightssuccess.in
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is booming in every industry with its exceptional working capabilities. AI is in the spotlight because it is transforming every sector. There is no such industry, which does not want to include Artificial Intelligence for advancement in operational space. The air, road, ocean, and rail freight services are the making most of the AI services. Dynamics of Artificial Intelligence in Freight Services In the current situation, the world is connected more than ever. Artificial Intelligence is making things easy for transport by making cars, trains, aeroplanes work autonomously. Beyond making people’s life easier, it can make it safer, cleaner, and more efficient. The growth in data generation has been exponential because of smart devices and data generation. Data-driven information helps freights to work smarter and gain lead with the competing peers. Artificial Intelligence enables freights to utilize data more effectively and work accordingly benefiting it into the services. Freight services uses AI to its complete potential to avoid risk and create innovative solutions. Artificial Intelligence in Road Transport All over the world, automobile manufacturers, technology firms, and research groups are exploring AI to come up with new automotive vehicles for professional and private use. Usually, such vehicles are based on sensors like GPS, cameras, and radar in combination with devices, which transport an input signal into motions and control units. AI technologies, which take over driving functions are already out there in the EU market. However, these vehicles are fully automated functions and are tested in limited area. AI also makes truck platooning possible. It allows trucks to apply breaks and accelerate automatically and simultaneously. In future, drivers will only be sitting in the vehicles to operate them in delicate situations like traffic or accidental circumstances. Artificial Intelligence in Aviation AI is not new for the aviation industry. It is often used for better technological usage. However, everyday AI is evolving with skyrocketing heights. Hence, the Aviation industry will also use different sorts of techniques in its operational functions.
Improvement in mechanization associated with machine learning and data analytical models, are used to improve the management of increase in air traffic volumes. Another area where AI can make difference in terms of speed and processes is ground handling. Improvement in automation and processing power, using technologies associated with machine learning and data analytics models, are being used to enhance the management of increasing air traffic volumes. Artificial Intelligence in Railway Transport Railways were the most innovative sectors of the economy. The progress and advancement of internet and big data have provided the rail sector with an opportunity to embark on new stage of technological innovations. The huge quantity of data generated by these technologies can be useful for rail industry. AI can improve manufacturing and rail operations for rail operators and infrastructural managers. It can act as the lever to improve management and lower costs. The best example of use of AI in rail industry is automation in train operation (ATO). ATO transmits responsibility for managing operations from the driver to the train control system, with varying degrees of autonomy. In ATO, developments have been noticeable in densely populated urban areas, with driver-less trains and light rail transit. Artificial Intelligence in Shipping, Navigation, and Ports Over past few years sea and water transport has undergone some important development. The further rise of container traffic has called for modifications to port terminals and better connections with their surrounding areas. The raising awareness in the AI technologies has been a game changer in the ocean transportation. AI makes it possible to gain information and analyse data for getting better with every passing moment, in particular helping in improving safety, navigation, and energy efficiency. With growing amount of navigation systems, a growing amount of ship performance and navigation is generated. Data comes from radar, electronic navigation maps, autopilot systems, and other related sensors. - Sayali Sangewar
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Think International Business, Think Reliflex..!
Exim Services Pvt. Ltd. A Trading and End-to-End Facilitator for the Global Market Adnan Boxwala Director
We Deal In Small, Large And Bulk Quantities
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usinesses nowadays require a dynamic approach when it comes to import and export. The traditional ways of the supply chain management are simply not filling the gap that clearly exists in the industry, that too, from a very long time. Bridging the gap of sourcing the products to deployment and delivery is crucial and it can be only done when right network is in place.
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India's Leading Maritime Companies-2021
We help our clients and parties involved with an approach towards collective growth.
This is where Reliflex Exim Services Pvt. Ltd. comes into the picture. It is a trading company that operates out of India and China. It is basically a company that was established in 2011 with a vision to be one of the prominent trade facilitators for customers or end users. It envisions to be a facilitator of an environment where the customer should never suffer due to the hassles of supply and procurement of products abroad along with the intricacies that the whole process brings with it. “We believe that the customer should not face sourcing or delivery delays while supplying their products and we are here to eliminate that,” says Adnan Boxwala, Director of Reliflex.
Munira Boxwala CEO Reliflex focuses on fostering growth by enhancing business connections with its clients. Its team takes immense care in providing logical, deliverable and payment solutions. “We customize commercial methods of import-export and create intensive methodologies for managing domestic as well as international undertakings of various business processes including manufacturing, supplying, delivering, warehousing, and handling custom clearances amongst others,” describes Adnan. The Trailblazers Leading Reliflex Mrs. Munira Boxwala, CEO of Reliflex, hand holds the company’s progress and developments. She ensures that all strategies are implemented in such a way that the organization reaches heights of success. She oversees all the operations where company maintains high social responsibility. Munira leaves no stone unturned when it comes to customer service. She makes sure that every
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customer is extremely satisfied with the services of Reliflex and her team is consistent with the follow ups for deliveries. By doing this, she ensures that the company has 100% satisfied customers. On the other hand, Mr. Abbas M, heads the company as Managing Director. He takes care of the business by implementing plans that are more comprehensive and effective for the betterment of the company. He helps in maintaining a positive work or corporate environment at Reliflex. He also executes strategic ideas in the business to attain organizational goals. Distinguished Business Model The company’s offerings include a plethora of services from sourcing of raw materials to delivering the final product right at the doorstep of its clients. Its process of making things happen is quite simple yet comprehensive in its own way. Let’s consider a scenario where a potential
production and deployment of the existing product exclusively in the market research report to help them understand what the current market scenario is. So, this process provides the customers with an opportunity to compare their products with its competitors out there and assists in making an informed decision about life cycle of their product. Now, the next thing the team at Reliflex does is that they provide clients with the samples of their product that is going to be deployed in the designated locations as per the client’s outreach and demand. This particular process involves sample reviews and testing where if there are changes required, Reliflex assists its clients by providing different samples with suitable modifications done in the
We want you to focus on your business and not worry about the
Abbas M Managing Director
movement of your goods or
customer seeks assistance from Reliflex for development of its overall product and its life cycle. Initially, what the team at Reliflex does is that it conducts a market research for the said product where they figure out who is the maximum supplier of the existing product, who is the best supplier of the
existing product, which design for the product is trending and whether the client’s product is matching the similar criteria or not. Reliflex also gives its client, reviews from the companies of the top 5 countries that are involved in
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it's safety. We deliver it to you
We ensure that your goods are delivered without hassle and they remain safe and secure
pandemic. In this initiative, they pick a product from a small manufacturer who is based out of India and help them place their product in the markets abroad. This is done to promote the ‘Make in India’ initiative launched by the government. Adnan has a philosophy that has helped Reliflex in building its presence all over the globe. That philosophy is – Grow Together! It has driven Reliflex in achieving great things where the manufacturer is benefitted by the buyer and then the buyer has benefited from the supplier and the supplier has benefitted from the end user in a harmonious way. Reliflex acts as a bridge between this entire channel and ensures that everyone is growing in synchronicity.
We have a vast network of suppliers, logistics and dedicated in house team to handle every aspect of your import and export
product till it reaches its final stage and is approved by the client. From this stage, the product deployment phase comes into action wherein Reliflex handles all the supply chain and logistics part very efficiently. This is what the team Reliflex knows and where it excels at. “We secure the customer from end-to-end and provide assurance every step of the way. This helps us in maintaining long term relationship with our customers and build a strong network,” states Adnan. Dynamics of Reliflex Reliflex Exports is one of the initiatives that Adnan and his team has taken to help businesses in this
Import & export needs you to be aware of custom rules. We being an expert reduce various visible and hidden costs
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He also speaks about how the pandemic has emerged as an opportunity but not a drawback. “Yes, people have lost jobs, businesses, and also their families and it has been a great challenge to survive in these difficult times. But it has also presented us with an opportunity to showcase what we are made of,” shares Adnan. In the future, Reliflex wishes to expand its wings in the maritime industry with its unique approach of collective growth and help businesses have global outreach with a flawless system of product life cycle in place.
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Focus on building a very strong team. Maritime professionals and decision makers like to work with professionals from their fraternity. You are safe having dynamic Master Mariners, Chief Engineers, Naval Architects in your team
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Joy Basu Founder & CEO
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imed at Merchant ships, Naval ships, Offshore oil rigs, Cruises, Yachts and soon to be used in Fishing vessels: Smart Ship Hub—the digital platform is aimed at Fleet Owners, Operators, Charter Party (companies who lease these Ships, Ports, Insurers, Ship Supplies companies, Brokers and Agents. Smart Ship Hub digital platform is a gateway for the maritime industry: it is a layer that services each entity for their specific interests and purposes. Smart Ship© Hub continues to shape up the new-age maritime ecosystem through its multi-tenant digital platform. Smart Ship enables actionable intelligence through live situational awareness and predictive diagnostics. The platform enables a complete range of remote technical and operational management through live machinery data,
video feeds, images together with historical & process data. Read along to learn more about this platform in the interview mentioned below. Mentioned below are the highlights of the interview: Please brief our audience about your organization, its values, vision, and mission. Smart Ship© Hub (SSH) is ready to deploy a cloud-based platform helping manage vessel & fleet remotely while keeping control on Fuel consumption, Spares/ Maintenance, Monthly PMS, adherence to Charter Party agreement, and host of multiple other features (all managed, monitored, and controlled remotely). SSH digital platform is used by vessel owners, operators, charter party, insurers to enable on-
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India's Leading Maritime Companies-2021
Providing a Digital Platform for Ship Management Services demand actionable intelligence in areas of Vessel and Voyage optimization.
Compliance, Agility through situational awareness accuracy in prediction.
Through its flexible and On-demand cloud services, the digital platform brings substantial cost savings and operational efficiencies for organizations who are using ERP/ Legacy systems or just any 3rd party software system.
The impact is what we have observed and read from our clients:
Smart Ship Hub’s genesis lies in the vast opportunity global maritime logistics offers. Maritime logistics domain is a blue economy with $ 20+ Trillion worth of global trade, fragmented market, with 90% + global logistics through maritime routes: this domain has seen the least innovation and technology leverage as compared to Airline logistics, Road logistics, Oil and gas and many other industry domains. The pillars of Smart Ship Hub’s services include remote tracking, monitoring, and providing actionable insights to our customers so their vessels operate as safely and efficiently as possible. Brief us on how you have made an impact in the maritime industry through your expertise in the market? Smart Ship Hub does for Ships and any floating object in the ocean what “avionics does for aircrafts”. The digital platform once installed in ships tracks, monitors, controls and predicts multiple operational parameters. These include managing ETA, Port communication, Energy management in the vessel and fleet, Business intelligence for ship management processes, Analytics and trends for vessel consumption areas, Reliability and predictability of machinery performance and central repository of live data servicing each entity (Fleet owners, Operators, Insurers, Ports, Charter Party, etc.). Supported by Sensor technology, IIOT, Big data and ML algorithms, the Smart Ship Hub platform focuses on: Performance Optimization, Cost Savings, Safety and
• Upto 5 % cost savings in fuel utilization (fuel is about 50% of the daily expense for the ships) • Upto 15% savings on operational costs (through accurate condition and health monitoring) • Upto 35% cost savings inshore operations (global offices) by automated processes, complete remote video-based management and enabling management of twice the number of ships per superintendent. • Increased asset reliability (ship’s machinery, hull, propeller, cranes, etc.) by 30% • Enabling ship owners to charge higher tariffs from Charter Party (leasing companies) by showcasing remote management capability (higher reliability, safety, and traceability of cargo) • Remote management of machines, people, navigation, port coordination has enhanced turnaround time, simplified existing processes while making it agile and on-demand. • Going forward Smart Ship Hub is going to leverage data from its fleet for bringing in “Shared services amongst vessels under its digital management”. Sharing of route information and weather, sharing of capacity, sharing of maintenance practices. Brief us about the featured person(s) and their journey in the maritime industry. Joy Basu has a Bachelor’s in Computer Science (Univ. of Pune), MBA in Systems from IMDR Pune. Worked as a systems engineer in automobile manufacturing and IT
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services (Kinetic Honda, Aptech) before starting on his own in 2001 with InfoTek Software (now a Tech Mahindra company). Post InfoTek exit, co-promoted Amplify Mindware which is into Technology Migration and education. The education vertical grew rapidly and was taken over by Bharati Vidyapeeth University. Smart Ship Hub’s genesis lies in the vast opportunity global maritime logistics offers. Maritime logistics domain is a blue economy with $20+ Trillion worth of global trade, fragmented market, with 90% + global logistics through maritime routes: this domain has seen the least innovation and technology leverage as compared to Airline logistics, Road logistics, Oil and gas and many other industry domains. It is amazing to see a seed of an idea by the promoter becoming the shared goal of the entire team and technology roadmap for the customer and finally validation by investors. Being an entrepreneur: I could create solutions at a global scale, work for multiple fortune 500 companies, scale operations from incubating an idea to implementing it globally for very large organizations. My biggest driver has been to create lasting value for customers, wealth and opportunities for my team members and the recognition/ validation I continue to get from various globally leading organizations. I couldn’t see that happening as an employee. What are the challenges you and your team come across in your day-to-day operations? Challenges are what we have signed up for at Smart Ship© Hub. Challenges that keep us on toes and find innovative ways of working. For some of the core members in the team, this is the 2nd venture they are part of, and seeing it grow from its infancy. This is one of the reasons how we scale up very fast from the incubation period. Smart Ship Hub is one of the fastest-growing companies in maritime digital tech. Within 1 year of our incorporation, we signed the world’s 2nd largest (in terms of ship fleet size) as our customer and strategically partnered with a globally placed ship classification society for a joint foray apart from being part of prestigious global cohorts managed by Cisco, Supply chain labs, Rainmaking accelerator. Maritime logistics and maritime tech do have some challenging moments, some we have overcome and the rest we are working along with:
• Vessels (our assets) are constantly in motion, allowing us little opportunity to go onboard for anything. During this pandemic, with reduced human contact operations took a hit temporarily. This became one of the largest opportunity moments for Smart Ship Hub when it started doing most of the ship-based activities remotely. Remote video-based machinery maintenance, Remote videobased inspection and audit, Remote health care of the crew, Machinery condition monitoring, and a plethora of other remote services. • Time Zone: Our operation centre is based in India and headquarters in Singapore, and with clientele across the globe we often experience few challenges. It can at times be tough on the team to keep up with 24/7 support while working from home. • Innovation in global maritime is a new phenomenon that carries a huge legacy of the past. The industry currently is similar to the airlines' industry of the late 1990s. While they are not immune to innovation anymore, the learning and technology adoption curve has been a “hockey stick pattern.” • Skilled manpower for maritime tech is still a challenge given that the industry in India hasn’t matured yet. Hence Smart Ship Hub has to work with a global team, working on different time zones, speaking a different language, but finally united by a common purpose of “digitalization of the maritime ecosystem.” Taking into consideration, the current pandemic, and its impact on global economies, how are you driving your organization to sustain operations and ensuring the safety of your employees at the same time? During this pandemic, the team has found ways to work and interact with clients, vendors, and partners. We have to think out of the box all the time to deliver, which is of utmost importance for a start-up at this stage. The team working here has always supported and even during the pandemic we have managed our operation efficiently by taking it digitally and working remotely. Smart Ship© Hub as the company offers remote monitoring products to its client, and after a couple of brainstorming sessions we came up with the idea to use it internally and we are working remotely and are delivering efficiently in all operation areas. During this pandemic, we have successfully delivered all our clients with our services and have ensured that operations are not halted at any stage. To
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ensure safety at work we have always avoided unwanted gatherings at the office, maintaining social distance, and with the support of local authorities, we have also organized a vaccination drive for our team. What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the maritime sector? While there are many suggestions to share, let me limit my inputs few of the key ones: • Be prepared for lots of rejections: since the industry is still getting used to technology that is not ERP or PMS (planned maintenance system) • Focus on building a very strong team. Maritime professionals and decision-makers like to work with professionals from their fraternity. You are safe having dynamic Master Mariners, Chief Engineers, Naval Architects in your team. • India is not your market for the next 3 to 5 years unless you are building solutions for freight/container tracking. Focus on Singapore, West Europe, UK, Greece, Dubai, China. • Must aim at being part of some accelerators. Some of the prominent ones will guarantee global attention and if successful, you will get paid pilots with some of the globally leading maritime companies.
world’s leading in their service & product portfolio. • Smart Ship Hub’s platform will be the “Single source of truth” for the maritime ecosystem of Shipowners, Ship Operators, Charter Parties (those who lease these ships), Insurers (those who insure the ship’s hull, machinery, cargo), Port Authorities, etc. • The digital layer of Smart Ship Hub will eventually be a gateway for several entities to seek their data, eliminating the need to install expensive software applications at their end. Tera and petabytes of data will be a rich source of global maritime intelligence, trends, projections for industrial reference. Give us a few testimonials of your clients that accurately highlight your organization’s position in the market. Smart Ship Hub has been lucky to have its platform and digital support services being used by some of the biggest names including: • Great Eastern Shipping Co. Ltd. (India): India’s largest shipowners. • Fleet Management: world’s 2nd largest ship operator and a recent addition. • Nova: very prominent ship owners from Singapore.
Where do you envision your organization to be in the long run and what are your future goals?
• Eastaway (Erstwhile X-Press Feeders): one of the world’s prominent containers (feeder services) with a global footprint.
Smart Ship Hub is focused on “On-demand services” over the cloud, helping its customer reduce technology costs and inefficiencies linked to On-prem solutions. Data plays a major role in this process and the industry is moving towards a shared economy.
• Seven Island Shipping: The rich client moved their ERPbased legacy processes to Mobile based tracking, monitoring through on-demand cloud access. The entire fleet of 49 vessels managed through mobile platform brought in up to 15% operational efficiencies.
We would like to be at the forefront of maritime innovation while maintaining relevance, profitability and multiple growth opportunities. We will not venture into any areas that will not have immediate customer adoption or will not address current challenges in the existing legacy systems.
• Indian Navy conducted a successful proof of concept at one of its dockyards.
Having said that, Smart Ship Hub will be focussing on: • Creating a “sell-through model” with global partnerships. It has already signed up 3 companies, each of whom is the
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CURRENT
Industrial Scenario of THE
Shipping Industry
IN INDIA
I
ndian shipping industry dates to the 3rd millennium BCE when inhabitants of the Indus Valley started maritime trading with Mesopotamia. Today, India is one of the largest maritime trading countries in the world. The country stands the tallest among developing nations who operate merchant shipping fleet. The country’s shipping industry includes ports, shipping, shipbuilding and ship repair, and inland water transport systems. Major chunk of EXIM trades is conducted by sea routes in India, i.e., about 95% of total trade volumes. In this article, we will try to explore some of the major contributing and constituting growth factors of the Indian shipping industry and the scope of the industry. Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways – The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, formerly known as the Ministry of Shipping, is the apex governing body of the Indian shipping industry. It is responsible for the formulation and administration of the rules, regulations, and laws related to the industry. Today the Indian shipping industry is governed by three separate Acts such as The Merchant Shipping Act in 1958, The Inland Vessels Act in 1917 and The Coasting Vessels Act in 1838. All the functions under this industry are supervised and governed under this body. Policies by government to support the industry – The Government of India has consistently introduced several initiatives over the years to support the growth of the shipping industry. In the last decade, projects like
Sagarmala have been announced to reduce logistics cost for international and domestic trade with minimal infrastructure investment. Another major initiative is the National Maritime Development Program, which is an initiative to develop the maritime sector with a planned outlay of US$ 11.8 billion. The government of India also announced the Major Ports Authorities Bill in 2020 to provide regulation, operation, and planning for the major ports in India and to provide greater autonomy to existing ports. High growth – Indian shipment industry plays a major role in sustaining and contributing to the growth of the economy. India is counted among the top 20 countries to have largest maritime trade in the world, with a coastline of about 7,517 km. In the Sagarmala project, more than 574 projects worth Rs. 6 lakh crores have been outlined for implementation between 2015 and 2035. The Maritime India Summit that happened in 2021, identified a total of 400 projects worth Rs. 2.25 lakh crore by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways as potential investments. The facts mentioned above highlight the exceptional growth potential of the Maritime industry. Contribution to economy – As stated in the very introduction of this article, Indian shipping industry carries the weight of almost 95% of EXIM trade for the country by volume, and 70% by value. Indian foreign trade largely depends on the shipping industry, which contributed almost 49% to the total GDP in the year 2018. The aforementioned facts clarify the role of the shipping industry in the contribution of Indian economy.
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Shipping Insights Employment opportunities in the industry – Taking account of the rapid growth of the shipping industry in India, it is safe to say that there will be a huge surge in the creation of employment opportunities within the industry. The finance minister recently proposed to double the ship recycling capacity of 4.5 light displacement tonnes (LDT) by 2024; this is expected to generate 1.5 lakh employment opportunities in the Indian state. The industry offers jobs in spheres like merchant navy, cruise ships, bulk carrier companies, etc. Indian shipping industry is growing exponentially with all the government initiatives, and this is bound to push more companies to invest in the industry, which will result in evermore employment generation in the industry. - Trishika Rokade
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“
SHORTCUTS ARE NOT GOING TO WORK AND ARE NEVER GOING TO LAST. HARD WORK IS THE ONLY WAY
“
TO GO ABOUT AND
THAT CAN BE TRUE
Jagdeep Bhatia Singh Managing Director
T
he maritime and offshore industries are one of the most dynamic and challenging industries. Every time a ship sets sail, from sea to shore, it embarks on an incredible journey; a journey that demands professionals with special skills working together in harmony to make it possible. The team at Zener Maritime Solutions, understands the importance of each activity on a ship and that is why Zener has dedicated years of perfecting their services for its clients. Read along to know more about Zener Maritime Solutions and their services. Below are the highlights of the interview:
Please brief our audience about your organization, its values, vision, and mission. Zener Maritime Solutions values are derived from our TEAM and act as our guiding principles. They include: • Our TEAM values and treats
FOR ANY INDUSTRY
customers as the lifeblood and centre of our business. • Our TEAM develops WIN/WIN relationships with our customers, partners, and vendors. • Our TEAM has standards above and beyond what are legally right. • Our TEAM believes in a work environment that is team based, innovative and fun. • Our TEAM works and develops themselves as professionals. • Our TEAM wants to be successful and have fulfilled from their work. • Our TEAM accepts nothing less than being the best in the maritime industry. - Vision To be the Global UTM company of choice for all Owners and Managers. - Mission To provide shipping companies with a competitive advantage by providing economical competitive, efficient, professional, and comprehensive UTM services achieved by our experienced and well-trained technicians.
Brief us on how you have made an impact in the maritime industry through your expertise in the market? Twenty-two years ago, when we started, the entire business models of ship inspections used to be different. It is my belief (read confidence) that we changed how this industry carried out its operations in the last fifteen to twenty years. Asia had very limited knowledge base as well as reach in the global ship industry. Asia today is the leading service provider in the ship inspection business globally. Zener actually took the business global. Zener has six offices and made this business global rather than localised. It used to be a localised industry where local companies worked locally but the team at Zener turned it global. Brief us about the featured person(s) and their journey in the maritime industry. One of the hallmarks of Zener has always been the duration our people have been with us and how that has actually helped us excel as a people-
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India's Leading Maritime Companies-2021
Zener
Maritime Solutions
Global Leaders in Asset Integrity Solutions
oriented company. We have lots of employees who have been with us for ten to twenty years. For example, we had just started off our company and we were working out of a tin shed in an area of Mumbai called Dalkhana. At the end of the evening, I, Jagdeep Bhatia Singh, Managing Director, got on my motorcycle, and I saw these two guys working in what can only be described as a semi- marshland, half inside mud with their gum boots measuring a barge. I stopped my bike as I realised that they had just started doing what they were about to do. I approached them and they were carrying out thickness measurements on a Barge in torn boiler suits, torn gum boots knee deep in mud. They were one of the first few employees of Zener and they are still with us. I was in photocopy shop, and I saw a guy making photocopies of UTM reports which obviously meant that he does this business. So, I approached him and asked him to join our team. He too has been with us for close to twenty years. And there are lots of such examples of people you meet along the way. People make Zener and Zener is what it is today because of the people we have with us. What are the challenges you and your team come across in your dayto-day operations? Well, to speak now in terms of the pandemic, everything is tougher, harder to achieve, borders are closed,
people are scared, travel is tough, so everyday every attendance can be a potential challenge. Taking into consideration, the current pandemic, and its impact on global economies, how are you driving your organization to sustain operations and ensuring safety of your employees at the same time? This is of course a very challenging time for everybody including Zener, especially the service provider which is primarily focused on service travel. Our people used to travel all over the place which does not happen much today. What has helped us is our reach and our in-house offices in several locations. We are trying as much as possible to minimise travel, to minimise sailing, keeping operations local. It also ensures that the risk is mitigated by not having too many people by travelling and mingling even amongst offices. What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the maritime sector? Do not look for shortcuts, do not look at the easy way out. They are not going to work and are never going to last. Hard work is the only way to go about and that can be true for any industry. Where do you envision your organization to be in the long run and what are your future goals? Zener has always been the market
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leader in all its segments of operation. We are hungry enough, insecure enough to ensure that we will always be at the top of our game. There is no room of complacency in Zener. We will keep expanding in terms of geographies. We will keep expanding in terms of the services we provide; we will keep expanding in terms of the client satisfaction index that we hold for ourselves. According to you, how are contemporary technologies such as AI and Machine Learning shaping the maritime industry? AI in machine learning are always going to be part and parcel of the Maritime industry. Maritime industry traditionally has been a much more conservative industry in adopting new technologies. It is an old school way of doing a lot of businesses. Having said that, a lot of it is already going into the process of cargo operations, vessel chartering, even vessel management. Where it is lagging behind a little bit is in terms of maintenance and operations, but it is catching up very fast. We are investing a lot in the machine learning process by way of drones and 3D mapping of objects in order to machine learn from software. We are also doing that in terms of real ware inspections, third party inspections, long distance inspections, so this is going to be a part and parcel of growth going forward.