Meaning “immediate” in Hindi, “Turant” is the name that has been given to a brand new “Realtime Temperature Tracking App” developed in-house by CSC India in Mumbai and connected to its ERP SYSTEM from Kale Logistics, in collaboration with Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd. Hailing the project as “the first time in history that a cargo terminal is providing its customers with real time temperature tracking and status of a shipment,” CSC India’s Chairman of the Board, Tushar Jani, had much to say about India’s role now and in the future when it comes to moving vaccines around the world.
The online press conference announcing the app launch on 11FEB21, featured an impressive and entertaining line-up consisting of Mr. Tushar Jani, Chairman of the Board, CSC India; Mumbai Cargo
Service Center Airport Pvt. Ltd.; Mr. Manoj Singh, Senior Vice President & Head - Cargo Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd; Mr. Pramod Pereira, Unit Head of Cold Chain and Mr. Frank Van
Gelder, Secretary-General Pharma. Aero.
Complete transparency at Mumbai
End-to-end shipment transparency is especially important when it comes to temperature-controlled goods such as vaccines and other pharmaceutical or perishable cargo. Often, shippers and
forwarders have to wait until a report is issued at the end of the shipment’s journey, to find out if and where any discrepancies might have occurred along the cool chain. By the time the report
is available, a whole week might have passed – too late to do anything about the temperature deviation, and possibly unnecessarily resulting in a shipment that is no longer fit for purpose simply
because recovery measures could not be actioned in time. For shipments being handled at Mumbai airport, this is now a thing of the past. Customers can download the Turant App, enter the
respective AWB number, and immediate get a real-time status on the temperature of their shipment.
Just six weeks from the drawing board to the app store
Looking at the Google Play Store, the app itself has been around since 2017. What is completely new now, however, is the immediate, real-time temperature information in collaboration with
Mumbai’s airport terminal. The CSC-run Pharma Excellence Center in Mumbai (incidentally, the only pharma cargo handling facility in India to have received the CEIV IATA Pharma certification, and
also in possession of the GDP Pharma Certification by TUV SUD), was completely mapped in accordance with WHO guidelines, with monitoring points spaced at 3-5 meters apart. Over a period of 10
days, intensive trials were carried out monitoring temperatures of shipments within and without the cool rooms, with doors closed or open, with a simulation of what would happen if there was a
total shutdown and lack of electricity, and at different levels in the room: top/middle/bottom.
New information every 5 minutes
The result is now accessible via the Turant App, which is fed with updated information every 5-10 minutes. The app, born of the wish for greater transparency along the cool chain, also acts as a
further incentive to ensure quality handling on site. As Pramod Pereira, Unit Head of Cold Chain at Mumbai underlined: “It’s a bold move because it gives us the responsibility to see that the
shipment is actually kept in that temperature, which is visible to you today. That is the kind of responsibility we are willing to take today.”
He and his team are alerted to any deviations already before they might become critical – say the temperature range is 2-8°C for example, the team will already receive an alert if the shipment
hits 7°C and will actively look to control the development.
It’s all about collaboration and innovation
Though the app currently only provides information on shipments at Mumbai airport, Tushar Jani made it clear that CSC India was continually looking to improve processes, and that the app would be
further developed to tie in with other systems. The collaboration between Mumbai Airport, CSC India, as well as Pharma.Aero was fruitful in moving forward with regard to digitalization and
innovation. As Frank van Gelder stated during the meeting, whilst much had been talked about prior to the pandemic, about what would need doing to improve processes, the pandemic itself has
pushed these innovations forward, making them reality, and that the speed of change to ensure transparency, security, and reliability of cool chains now constituted the “new normal”.
“This is the new zero point,” he said, underlining that business processes would not fall back into old ways after the pandemic now that they had proven their capabilities.
India as the Pharmaceutical Gateway to the World
The figures stated during the call are impressive: India is the world’s second largest vaccine manufacturer and has a long history of exporting pharmaceuticals – in particular polio vaccines
“so this [the move to Covid-19 vaccines] was an easy change over for us,” Tushar Jani announced.
His company experienced a 37% increase in export pharma over the last 7 years, and a 22% year-on-year increase pharma imports. The first Covid-19 vaccine exported out of India on 16JAN21, flew
from Mumbai Airport, which sees 53% of the country’s pharmaceutical exports leave through its gates. To date, some 32 million doses have been delivered, of which one third within India itself.
“By 2026, we will have touched 25 billion people’s lives with the exports of pharmaceuticals!” Tushar Jani is emphatic about the role of India in keeping the world population healthy. “We are
here to deliver the world!”, he says, underlining Mumbai’s focus on ensuring a “safe journey” – to which the new Turant App now also contributes.
Brigitte Gledhill
We always welcome your comments to our articles. However, we can only publish them when the sender name is authentic.
Write a comment