Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently launched the much-awaited National Logistics Policy (NLP), terming it a significant step in India’s path to becoming a developed country, and a manifestation of the efforts to ‘ensure quick last-mile delivery, end transport-related challenges, save time and money of the manufacturers and prevent wastage of the agro-products.’
Speaking at the launch, PM Modi said, “Today’s India prepares the ground before bringing any policy, only then a policy can be implemented successfully. National Logistics Policy has not come out of the blue and there are eight years of hard work behind it.”
According to PM Modi, schemes such as Sagarmala, and Bharatmala, expedited the work of Dedicated Freight Corridors to improve logistics connectivity for systematic infrastructure development. The total capacity of Indian ports has increased significantly and the average turn-around time of container vessels has come down from 44 hours to 26 hours.
Salient features of National Logistics Policy
The need for a National Logistics Policy was felt considering the high logistics cost in India, as compared to other developed economies, hampering competitiveness of Indian goods both in domestic as well as export markets. The NLP is expected to address cost and inefficiency, boost manufacturing and generate employment.
- The NLP plans to develop the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), to bring all digital services related to the transportation sector into a single portal, freeing exporters from a host of cumbersome processes. As per the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the platform will be used by government and private agencies, service providers, shippers, consignees, etc to ‘enable information exchange on a real/near real-time basis amongst all stakeholders in a confidential manner.’
- The NLP aims to bring down logistics costs from the current 13-14 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to a single-digit number.
- The NLP is expected to provide a boost to the existing PM GatiShakti – National Master Plan for muti-modal connectivity to various Economic Zones.
- A new digital platform ‘Ease of logistics Services -E-Logs’ has also been started under the Policy. As per the Government, through this portal, industry associations can directly take up any such matters which are causing problems in their operations and performance with the government agencies. A system has also been put in place for the speedy resolution of such cases.
- According to the PM, the NLP is expected to create a strong support system to ensure that products manufactured in India dominate the world market.
- A comprehensive action plan under NLP includes digital logistics systems, standardisation of physical assets and benchmarking service quality standards, state engagement, human resource development and capacity building, export-import logistics, sectoral plans for efficient logistics, and facilitation of the development of logistics park.
