Exports are known to be crucial as it facilitates international trade and stimulate domestic economic activity by creating employment, production,and revenues.

In international trade, logistics play a vital role in the economy as it facilitates the movement of goods from suppliers to manufacturers, then to sellers or distributors and eventually to the buyers. This supply chain acts as a series of transactions and expedites the trade logistics infrastructure such as roads and highways, ports, railways, airports including dry ports, warehousing infrastructure etc.

World Trade Center Bhubaneswar mobilized a visit to the ICD (Inland Container Depot) of Jindal Stainless Steel Limited for the Women Entrepreneurs as an initiative by the Export Facilitation Cell under MSME Department, Government of Odisha as a part of export promotion activities undertaken by the center. The objective of the initiative was to understand the intricacies of logistics in International Trade and provide a way forward as to how ICD Facility of Jindal Stainless Steel Limited can act as an effective enabler of logistics solution for the entrepreneurs of the state.

Around 25 Women Entrepreneurs from the state got an opportunity to explore the facility and it acted as a significant stride towards bolstering Women in Entrepreneurship. An interactive as well as insightful interaction was conducted with Mr. Deepak Agarwal, Unit Head, Jindal Stainless Steel, Mr. V. Venkateswara Rao, Head – Logistics and other senior officials from the JSL Management including the Customs Officials to further discuss the bottlenecks faced by the entrepreneurs and the way forward. Earlier in the interactive session, Ms. Nimeshika Natarajan briefed on the role of WTC Bhubaneswar in facilitating and hand-holding the women entrepreneurs and further assisting them to grow their businesses.

The visit acted as a way forward to support women-led businesses by providing cost effective alternatives for import-export services, ultimately reducing freight charges and making international trade more accessible to them.

The visit was conducted on 4^th September 2023 at ICD Facility of Jindal Stainless Steel, Jajpur. .