On his 72nd birthday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the much-awaited, National Logistics Policy 2022, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on September 17, 2022. At the launch event, PM mentioned that the need for a national policy was felt since the logistics cost in India is high compared to other developed economies.
“To ensure quick last-mile delivery, end transport-related challenges, save time and money of the manufacturers, prevent wastage of the agro-products, concerted efforts were made and one of the manifestations of those efforts is today’s National Logistics Policy”, the PM said. The resulting improvement in coordination will lead to the desired speed in the sector.
“NLP will bring new energy to all sectors,” he said. When parameters, roadmap and timeline for performance come together then policy plus performance equal to progress emerges, he elaborated. NLP has not come out of the blue and there are 8 years of hard work behind it.
PM reiterated that schemes like Sagarmala, and Bharatmala, expedited the work of Dedicated Freight Corridors to improve logistics connectivity and pointed out that 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. For promoting export, 40 air cargo terminals have been constructed. 30 airports have been provided cold-storage facilities. 35 multimodal hubs are coming up in the country. Today 60 airports have the facility of Krishi Udan.
“From 13-14 per cent logistics cost, we should all aim to bring it to single-digit as soon as possible. This, in a way, is low-hanging fruit, if we must become globally competitive”, Modi emphasised.
uring the launch, the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) was launched which will bring all the digital services related to the transportation sector into a single portal, freeing the exporters from a host of very long and cumbersome processes.
Similarly, under the policy, a new digital platform Ease of logistics Services (E-Logs) has also been started. “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 complete system has also been put in place for the speedy resolution of such cases”, he said.
Modi pointed out that the PM Gatishakti National Master Plan will be supporting the NLP in all earnest. “Gatishakti and National Logistics Policy together are now taking the country towards a new work culture.
What does NLP bring?
• Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP): will bring all the digital services related to the transportation sector into a single portal.
• Ease of Logistic Services (E-Logs): industry associations can directly take up any such matters which are causing problems in their operations.
• Integration of Digital System (IDS): will integrate 30 different systems of seven different departments, which are road transport, railway, customs, aviation, foreign trade, and commerce ministries.
• System Improvement Group (SIG): will be used to monitor all logistics-related projects regularly and will facilitate the removal of any hurdle.
Experts are saying…
Welcoming the NLP, the Co-founder and CEO of Porter, Pranav Goel said, “The policy is holistic and covers all bases of the sector along with streamlining rules and addressing supply-side constraints. The major benefit to organisations like ours will be from the Digital Integration System for logistics ecosystems. This will lead to seamless and faster workflow, making logistics significantly efficient.”
Goel added, “Additionally, the Sagarmala project will help in developing a low-cost Multi-modal logistics segment in India. With digitization at the centre of innovation, the policy will expedite last-mile delivery, helping businesses save time and money.”
“The policy promises to create positive changes in our logistics infrastructure, and reduce the cost of doing business globally, thereby paving a stronger way for India to become a global manufacturing hub and Aatmanirbhar. The policy will also aid 22 million people in furthering the goal of inclusive growth, he signs off.
Weighing in, “NLP will reduce our dependence upon road transport and will integrate the air, road, and water mode of transport to reduce the cost of logistics in India considerably and to make our domestic trade and international trade more economical eventually, said Sandeep Wadhwa, Chairman, Logistics Committee, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Reacting to the new policy, Ashish Mohan Wig, Chairman, Gati Shakti Development Forum, PHDCCI, said, “Releasing Cheetah in the morning and releasing the NLP in the evening can be indicative of how the nation wants logistics to move – at cheetah speed with the integration of different modes of transport.”
What’s the vision?
“To build a modern, efficient, and resilient logistics sector that seamlessly integrates multiple modes of transportation and leverages the best in class technology, processes and skilled manpower in order to significantly improve country’s logistics performance and reduce logistics costs”
What are the objectives of the National Logistics Policy ?
• Logistics Efficiency– Reduce logistical costs and storage times to boost the sector’s performance and productivity.
• Multi-modal Transport– Develop multi-modal transport infrastructure, including MMLPs(Multi-modal logistics parks), to guarantee multi-modal cargo movement for maximum use of all transport modes.
• Digital Tracking – Utilize digital initiatives to improve in-transit warehousing and ensure freight movement is predictable, visible, and trackable and tracable.
• Sector Modernization– Improvements in the logistics industry will help support modern trade and e-commerce while also establishing a reliable supply chain that can be relied on to facilitate rapid emergency response.
• Excellence in Logistics– To improve the quality of life of the working population, it is important to encourage logistics services to become more professional and high-quality and to create jobs.
• Logistics Democratization– Logistics services should be made more accessible to all segments of society, including farmers and MSMEs
• Raise India’s Logistics Performance Index score from its current 30 to the 25-30 range within the next 5 years.
• India aims to cut logistics costs by 5% of GDP over the next five years (Currently at 13-14% of our GDP)
• Make a system to help you make decisions based on facts so that your logistics ecosystem can function smoothly.
• ULIP (Unified Logistics Interface Platform): The goal is to provide a framework that would allow for the authentication of all logistics-related transactions. The ULIP platform as a whole is divided into three layers namely Integration layer, Governance layer and Presentation layer. Under the Integration layer and the Governance layer, 30 logistics systems of 07 Ministries/Departments covering over 1600 fields have been integrated through 102 APIs with ULIP.
Employment:
The combined efforts of the federal, state, and private sectors, according to experts, may produce massive job and entrepreneurship prospects for thousands of individuals. More than 2.2 crore people in India rely on the logistics industry for their livelihood; with this strategy in place, a large influx of new workers is anticipated.
Employability:
The supply chain’s back-end operations and planning are where India is really starting to shine as a global powerhouse. So, it’s a great chance to be at the forefront of providing skilled labour to meet the demands of international supply chains. (SME Futures)