Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Several countries are expressing concerns regarding the efficacy of Chinese Covid vaccines which have received regulatory approval. Don't think there's any chance that Chinese vaccines will be used in India.
However, China has been supplying to African and South American countries and the latter have had issues with vaccinated people still succumbing to Covid. Does really question the efficacy of their vaccines
https://twitter.com/IndiaToday/status/1402544263888465922
Recent tweet from Contguard warning of the potential dangers if you fail to adequately secure your cargo https://www.linkedin.com/posts/contguard-ltd_container-filled-with-tens-of-thousands-of-activity-6807701718168551424-1zJv
https://twitter.com/riddler_smitb/status/1402563417509072904?s=20
These boys are giving the impression they’re busy. Hopefully,just ticking over nicely https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jacobwoduor_the1consultants-activity-6808110521653452800-TZMR
Hope that map is showing the current extent of their coverage.
https://twitter.com/M35Blue/status/1402362596221767686
Yet more evidence to imply they’re ticking over nicely
https://twitter.com/The1Consultants/status/1402345621999206408
Also, why would the NED's agree to receiving shares in lieu of paid wages if they had any concerns regarding the future financial viability of the business. It just doesn't make sense. Still hopeful on this one
WHAT IF?, Starcom is the conduit that helps all of these companies in Dr Reddy's supply chain to see what is happening on the ground at all times. This ideally is what Dr Reddy's need because they have ultimate responsibility for the vaccine from when it leaves the manufacturer to when it's delivered into the patients arm. Starcom's tech will help provide this total visibility and is the glue that pulls everything together. Interesting possibility
The announcements currently made by Dr Reddy's names several participants involved at various stages throughout the supply chain. The notable exception is, who is providing the technology to "track and trace" throughout and that could be Starcom!! Obviously, we need to receive confirmation from Starcom but everyone involved to date has maintained radio silence until Dr Reddy's made a public announcement regarding their involvement
Having reread those articles , the encouraging aspect is the reference to KylosAirConnect and how it can be integrated with 3rd party systems so that others can integrate our tracking into their own management systems or put all the information in a General Dashboard system.
"Kylos Air Connect IoT can also track the location and temperature of COVID 19 vaccines in real-time through the air, fluvial, and terrestrial transportation, identifying each transportation type with its features. Simultaneously, our devices identify the container type for vaccines (Cooler, thermal bag, freezer, etc.) at the transportation unit or vaccination's point".
I am now questioning if those articles were written with the Dr Reddy's initiative in mind and were for the benefit of those involved in the supply chain. If you recall, Dr Reddy's complaint when planning was at it's elementary stage was that Indian company's didn't have sufficiently sophisticated technology to help them achieve their desired outcome
Here's another article written about the same time. I can’t recall having seen either article but it would suggest they were actively involved in discussions relating to the transportation and deployment of vaccines and those discussions could have been for the benefit of the participants involved .
I think both articles have been kept behind a paywall,of sorts. Not an entirely accurate description. But they're now in the public domain. Curiouser and curiouser
https://lnkd.in/e32XUbB
Just to add something else to the intriguing list of possibilities.
https://bit.ly/3g4BL1N
I'm going to throw something else into the mix. Yesterday i came across this article written over 4 months ago which seems to be for the benefit of various 3rd parties who are involved in a supply chain. I hadn't previously seen this and It was written about the time when Dr Reddy's would have been addressing their supply chain initiative and it outlines, in great detail, what was needed to overcome these obstacles
In plain English DRL will have a service provider agreement with Snowman's which will be very specific on their agreed terms of business. It's a transportation and warehousing company specialising in cold chain storage. Nothing whatsoever to do with track and trace
Furthermore, at the outset DRL acknowledged that the problem with the Logistics industry in India was that their tech lacked the sophistication to provide the services at the level that they were seeking. I honestly think we're at 6's and 7's on this and someone got hold of the wrong end of the stick
However, an RNS is what's required to validate and confirm the extent of Starcom's involvement in the DRL initiative
Here are my final thoughts and again they're just my personal opinion which can either be accepted or challenged. It doesn't really matter as everyone will decide for themselves what they perceive to be the strength of the investment case from their personal perspective.
I still suspect we have some involvement with Dr Reddy's Covid initiative in India but it's very difficult to establish the extent of it. Starcom are still a small company with limited resources so they're not going to be the Lead player but could still be playing a very important part in this initiative. Furthermore, even if their involvement is small in the overall scheme of things, it will still validate their technology and help them to attract more A list clientele
A 3PL provider is a specialist company that provides a range of distribution, storage, transport and fulfillment services to customers. These customers outsource these types of operations to the 3PL business and rely on the 3PL provider to offer end-to-end management of specific services. 3PL providers are a vital part of supply chain management and they are used by the vast majority of large businesses around the world.
Types of logistics services can vary widely, and many 3PL businesses specialize in different parts of the supply chain. In general, most logistics services fall into the following areas:
Procurement: Ordering and receiving goods from elsewhere in the supply chain
Order fulfillment: Receiving orders from customers, picking and packing and arranging for the orders to be completed and sent out
Storage: Providing temporary storage for goods in warehouses and similar locations
Transportation: Arranging for the consolidation, deconsolidation, management and transportation of goods
3PL providers also offer a range of supplementary services including IT systems integration, inventory management, data exchange, reporting, reverse logistics and other offerings.
All the services offered by a 3PL provider will be carefully documented and explained in contracts, agreements and service level agreements (SLAs). These documents will detail the scope, duration, cost and other vital aspects of any services that the 3PL provider offers.
Here's my six penneth on the subject but it's simply my personal opinion.
The article clearly states "they'll be the largest 3PL service provider for vaccines in the country"
Snowman is India’s leading integrated temperature-controlled logistics service provider, specializing in providing warehousing, distribution, and other value-add services across the country. Their state-of-the-art temperature- controlled warehousing facilities in prime locations like Mumbai, Chennai, and Bengaluru coupled with their integrated distribution solutions, allow them to ensure product quality and temperature integrity of customers’ products from point of origin to the consumption point.
The following is how Snowman describe themselves:
WE ARE INDIA’S LEADING COLD CHAIN LOGISTICS COMPANY
Availability of Pan India Network
Best in class Infrastructure
Strong process orientation
Customer 1st approach
In plain language, they're a cold storage logistics out fit not a track and trace organisation. I think they're fulfilling another aspect of Dr Reddy's initiative in relation to the transportation and storage of Covid vaccines
Xceed is a customer service portal launched by DRL to increase operational efficiency for API customers.
It’s a B2B customer service portal to enable customers to manage the whole business process in real time from ordering samples to submit and track their orders and to closely interact with DRL’s support team.
In other words it’s to improve customer experience and is not to be confused with track and trace of goods in the context that we’re concerned with
That’s not a negative Foxhill. It’s simply an observation and a very fair one. I think that initially Starcom were established as a telematics company and their principal market was the motor vehicle industry from a tracking perspective.
However, the company’s moved on since then and the introduction of better and improved products has allowed it to seek new markets as it now has a much broader appeal. It’s therefore part of it’s evolution that as it breaks into new markets it has to add additional features to its products to distinguish itself from its competitors.
The logistics market which it’s trying to establish a foothold in is very active within the importing/exporting market and Starcom have now added this feature so that advantage can be taken of electronic formatting to reduce on reams of paperwork. However, one of the drawbacks has been that the Logistics industry has still to embrace digitalisation and most companies are still embroiled in masses of paperwork.
Hopefully this is about to change which is why Starcom have offered this business solution. Also, I think it’s focussed on Brexit and the new rules that pertain to the UK following our exit from the EU. What’s affected their thinking is that the UK tends to be quicker to adopt new initiatives such as these more quickly than their European counterparts and they’re betting that our logistics industry will begin to embrace digitalisation so it’s aimed at the UK market but can equally be used anywhere in the world where you’re able to take advantage of these initiatives
As this is such a sensitive subject I would have thought Dr Reddy’s would prefer total visibility . If Tetis is being used they’ll have full access to Starcom updated and modified central control system. Also, few have the ability to electronically file Customs documentation and we’ve only recently modified our platform to allow us to undertake this procedure
"https://www.linkedin.com/embed/feed/update/urn:li:share:6797417542198554624" As if by magic, the Regional Manager of Starcom is promoting Tetis R on LinkedIn. Now, why do you think that should be the case? Is it just a coincidence?
If you recall, the same gentleman promoting this was only last week thanking Avi for his generosity. What's the possibility this was attributable to resolving any teething issues in the Dr Reddy's supply chain with Tetis R. Just asking?
"https://www.linkedin.com/embed/feed/update/urn:li:share:6797417542198554624" As if by magic, the Regional Manager of Starcom is promoting Tetis R on LinkedIn. Now, why do you think that should be the case? Is it just a coincidence?
Another promising sign is how quickly the shipment cleared Customs. This may be because #TetisR were deployed in this process https://bit.ly/3z4D8W3. Also, can easily handle the temperature requirements