A steel fall in Baltic Dry Index in London weakened shipping and logistics stocks on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Wednesday, July 07, 2010.

Thanks to the trend of volatility that has emerged over the last few years in transportation and logistics, it’s nearly impossible to make accurate forecasts based on historical data.

As sustainability and good environmental practices become the cornerstone of doing business in the developed world, the message from big-ticket retailers like Wal-Mart, Tesco, and IT majors like IBM to their army of suppliers of anything from apparel to computer hardware in India is becoming clear— let’s together shape up or else.

Package delivery company FedEx Corp opened six new freight forwarding offices, including its first two in India, as part of an “aggressive” expansion of its Trade Networks segment.

While airlines have typically focused on passenger revenues, a surge in demand has led them to pay greater attention to the cargo side of the business.

Kingfisher Airlines has launched Kingfisher Xpress, a door-to-door service that includes a same day offering it claims is India’s first such product with a money-back guarantee.

Trade procedures, transport and telecommunications infrastructure, and the domestic market for support services, constitute the logistic environment in a country and play a crucial role in trade facilitation.

Lack of co-operation from most of the states may hinder the Railways’ plan to set up logistics parks along the dedicated freight corridor (DFC) and the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor.

Punjab has become the first state in the country to setup Aviation Maintenance; Repair and Overhaul (MRO) hub at Rupnagar. Besides, a new Green field International Airport (Aerotropolis) near Ludhiana would come up in an area covering 3000 acres and would be the first green-field international airport in north India to be set-up in the private sector.

Emboldened by its Rs 2,460-crore Mumbai monorail project gathering steam with the delivery of first rail car, Kuala Lumpur-headquarted Scomi Group is betting big on India to propel its monorail business.