MAITRI Building the Digital Backbone of the IMEC Corridor

At the IMEC Conclave 2025, Mr. Rahul Mithal, Chairman and Managing Director of RITES Limited, highlighted the urgent need to strengthen the “software of connectivity” and deliver on short-term, tangible outcomes to realise the larger vision of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC).

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“Let me pick up on two key points raised during the previous session—first, the ‘software of connectivity’, and second, the importance of identifying immediate, short-term deliverables—a modest, yet impactful, approach to implementation,” Mr. Mithal began.

Over the last few months, India has taken a significant stride in that direction by working towards the seamless digital interchange of logistics data. While digital data exchange in shipping is already active between India and the UAE, Mr. Mithal questioned the assumption that this is sufficient: “You may ask—what’s new about that? Well, interestingly, digital data exchange is already taking place in the shipping trade between India and the UAE. So again—what's new?”

The answer, he explained, lies in the fragmentation of systems.