Indore (Madhya Pradesh): India’s first Centre of Excellence in Logistics is going to come up at Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, in which 5,000 professionals will be trained annually. The centre will run in collaboration with the Logistics Sector Skill Council, an autonomous body of the Government of India. Two memoranda of agreement (MoA) were signed between DAVV and the Logistics Sector Skill Council on Thursday.
Dr Nagendra Sohani, a coordinator representing DAVV, said the Centre of Excellence in Logistics was going to be a first-of-its-kind centre in the country. “The objective of the centre is to help working professionals from industries to enhance their logistics skills,” he said.
The centre will offer short-term certificate programmes of two to three months. This centre is crucial because of an approval by Union minister Nitin Gadkari for a Rs 400-crore multi-modal logistics hub near Betma. The hub will give a massive boost to trade and commerce in the region. For this, skilled workforce will be required. Perhaps, that is the reason the state-run university in Indore has been chosen for setting up the Centre of Excellence in Logistics.
Sohani said that logistics takes up about 15 per cent of the GDP which the government wants to bring down to 8-9 per cent to compete with developing nations. The Centre of Excellence in Logistics was going to play a major role in achieving that target, he added.
Besides, the second MoA is for starting a two-year MS program (30 seats) in Logistics and Data Science in India and specialisation and industry apprenticeship program in Logistics in the final year of BE in collaboration with the Logistics Sector Skill Council. The logistics programme will also be offered as an elective subject for students belonging to the engineering streams.
