NEW DELHI--As dawn breaks, hundreds of men move in and out of the congested alleys of Seelampur, pulling carts and driving dump trucks loaded with discarded cellphones, computers, air conditioners, and almost any other electronic waste imaginable. Located on the outskirts of New Delhi, Seelampur is the country's largest market dedicated to dismantling old tech, and it's home to an estimated 50,000 men, women, and children whose livelihoods depend on e-waste. Inside the labyrinth of alleys, hundreds of small establishments are packed with different electronic gadgets, which workers take apart mostly with their bare hands, a hammer, and pliers, hoping to extract precious metals like gold, silver, and tin--or any other useful item. Children move through the nooks and corners of the market with plastic bags on their shoulders, collecting potentially useful scraps among the e-waste leftovers piled in front of doorways. Aftab, 15, is one of them.

Automation is essential for terminals to stay competitive over the next three to five years and at CTAC 2020 the keynote speech explored how to achieve automation through to 2030. During his keynote speech on 1 December at CTAC 2020 Younus Aftab, CTO, Navis, said, "Every challenge presents new opportunity." He also noted that despite the events of 2020 and the COVID-19 crisis "there is an overwhelming desire to automate and invest". Aftab noted in his presentation that there is now a move towards'SMARTization', not just automation. Most equipment found at ports and terminals has now been automated, for example AGVs, trucks and straddle carriers.