China has revved up its export economy and is paying huge premiums for containers, making it far more profitable to send them back empty than to refill them.
Transport woes are plaguing consumer & healthcare sectors that are dealing with a dearth of available shipping containers to move components & products out of Asia’s export powers.
The sailors are on two ships, the Indian MV Jag Anand and Swiss-Italian MV Anastasia, that have been denied permission to offload Australian coal they are carrying.
Global trade has been hit by shortage of containers & India’s situation is worsened by tensions with China that have reduced imports -- and incoming containers.
Industry bodies said global trade would simply cease to exist without seafarers and urged Bezos to exert pressure on incoming Biden administration to recognise them as key workers.
The institute is already in the process of commercialising & licensing the technology with the help of shipping ministry. The vehicle is expected to be operational in early 2021.
Most crew members have been on board far longer than permitted limit of 11 months, but China is refusing permission for their repatriation ‘due to Covid’.
The shipping industry handles 80-90 per cent of global trade in goods and has been the backbone of the ‘third wave’ of globalisation that started in 1980s.
The last time this matter flared up was when Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, in a very similar directive in April, called for the relocation of stray dogs in the capital.
Finance ministry says the proposed revamp will focus on structural reforms, rate rationalisation & ease of living, & will be deliberated upon in the coming weeks.
The project is meant to be a ‘protective shield that will keep expanding’, the PM said. It is on the lines of the ‘Golden Dome’ announced by Trump, it is learnt.
Now that both IAF and PAF have made formal claims of having shot down the other’s aircraft in the 87-hour war in May, we can ask a larger question: do such numbers really matter?
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