NATIONAL LOGISTICS POLICY ACCELERATES INDIA TOWARDS ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY

India on track with task force to assess logistics cost, unified logistics platform with over 614 industry players registered

- NIVEDITA MUKHERJEE

India may still be trying to decode the economy of time and cost achieved in facilitating the movement of goods and services across various industries but the National Logistics Policy is gaining significant traction in achieving the targeted reduction in cost of logistics, improving the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) ranking at the core of which is the endeavour is to be among top 25 countries by 2030, as well as creating data driven decision support mechanism for an efficient logistics ecosystem.

India's adrenalin rush to develop a technologically enabled, integrated, cost effective and resilient logistics network to drive economic growth and business competitiveness in the country, is also driven by the urgent need to fill the lacunae of a Logistics Cost Framework. The DPIIT has initiated an endeavour to estimate logistics cost, since no official estimates are available and they vary from 8-14 percent of GDP. In the past private reports by Armstrong & Armstrong and NCAER have estimated cost to be 13 percent of GDP while NCAER in 2018 pegged it at 8 to 10 percent of GDP. Hence a need was felt for developing accurate estimates based on holistic data and relevant statistical models.