The army and air force on Monday inked a memorandum of understanding with Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, India’s first university focused on transportation and logistics, to hone the skills of their personnel in logistics operations, the defence ministry announced.
“The MoU will enable the two services to acquire higher expertise in logistics. It will ensure the development of in-house expertise on various facets of logistics operations and contribute effectively towards the national development plans — PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan 2021 and National Logistics Policy 2022,” the ministry said in a statement.
The master plan seeks to provide multimodal connectivity infrastructure to various economic zones and the logistics policy was framed to complement it. The MoU was signed in the presence of defence minister Rajnath Singh and railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. The central Gati Shakti University in Vadodara is sponsored by the ministry of railways.
An efficient logistics system plays a key role in quickly mobilising the forces and delivering resources to the right place in less time, defence minister Rajnath Singh said.
“Keeping in mind the conditions in which our forces operate, we need a seamless movement of troops, equipment and supplies. The MoU will prove to be very important in terms of how the needs of our forces can be fulfilled through knowledge, innovation and collaboration.”
Vaishnaw expressed confidence that the Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya will serve as a vital partner in empowering the armed forces with cutting-edge logistics education, research, and innovation.