PM Launches National Logistics Policy; Experts say it will Provide ‘Cheetah Speed’ to Industry

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Saturday, unveiled the National Logistics Policy in the national capital New Delhi. Modi, while announcing the new policy, said that this is an important step towards the “making of a developed India”, and added that the policy has come with a “new energy for every sector”.

This new policy aims to expedite last-mile delivery and address challenges facing the transport sector. Modi also said that the new policy together with the infrastructure augmentation plan ‘PM GatiShakti’ will address gaps. He called the policy a solution for many problems and said that it would lead to improvements in “all our systems”.

Vinod Aggarwal, President, SIAM and MD & CEO, VE Commercial Vehicles, on the launch of National Logistics Policy, expressed his views and said: “Automobile industry welcomes the launch of the National Logistics Policy by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi. It is an extremely vital step taken by the Government that will boost the growth of the Automobile sector as the policy focuses on building superior infrastructure like 35 Multi-Modal Logistics Hubs, which will promote seamless transportation of goods. It is expected that this policy will reduce the Transit Time and Logistics Cost for manufacturers and improve competitiveness of Indian goods in international markets, thereby helping our exports.”

Currently, India’s logistic sector has over 20 government agencies, 40 Partner Government Agencies, 37 export promotion councils, 500 certifications, more than 10,000 commodities and a $160-billion market.

Dhruv Agrawal, COO & Co-Founder, Shipsy, said: “The National Logistics Policy is an extensive initiative to improve the effectiveness of India’s logistics ecosystem. This will be an unspoken act of support for the logistics sector. NLP aims to encourage the smooth circulation of goods and increase the industry’s competitiveness. The policy is favorable to put a strong emphasis on things like multi-modal transportation, digitization, and process re-engineering. The decision becomes significant because excessive transport costs reduce domestic goods’ ability to compete in the global market.”

“With a motto of Policy + Performance = Progress, the new phase is only getting started. The government’s aim to speed up exports is a welcome move as they build 40 air cargo terminals and have also announced the formation of over 35 multi-modal logistics hubs in India,” added Agrawal.

PM Modi, in his address, said: “In the Amrit Kaal, the country has taken an important step towards the making of a developed India. The echo of Make in India and India becoming self-reliant is everywhere. India is setting big export targets and is also fulfilling them. India is emerging as a manufacturing hub. In such a situation, the National Logistics Policy has brought new energy for all sectors.”

Modi also claims that this policy will bring down the logistics cost of businesses from 13-14 per cent to a single digit making India at par with countries like Germany and Japan, which are known for their developed logistics infrastructure and to spend around eight to nine per cent of the GDP on logistics.

“India is emerging as a manufacturing hub. The world has accepted India as a leader in manufacturing. The National Logistics Policy has helped the manufacturing sector,” he added.

Vineet Agarwal, MD at Transport Corporation of India, said: “Push towards seamless multimodal transportation and modern connectivity will be a game changer as it will shift the transportation stress from just road to other modes as well. It will help us drive the ESG goals and focus on a better cost structure. The paperless supply chain initiative, strengthened cooperative federalism, ease of Logistics services portal (e-log), and standardisation of the warehousing sector will help India become one of the top 25 Logistics performers in the world. The Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) tenant of the NLP will enhance visibility for customers and enable logistics companies like us to adopt digitisation at a much larger scale.”

He added that, “Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya will act as human resource for the drivers and other such training programmes will be provided to the workforce. NLP is an encouragement for all the stakeholders in the Supply Chain segment & will be one of the key pillars for India to become a $5 trillion economy. It will surely provide the ‘Cheetah Speed’ to the logistics industry and make India a global logistics hub.’’

PM Modi also stated that global experts are saying that India is emerging as a democratic superpower and are impressed by the extraordinary talent ecosystem of the country. “Experts are appreciating India’s determination and progress.”

The government is using technology to strengthen the logistics sector, he added. Modi, while talking about the drone policy, said drones will improve the logistics sector. The capacity of ports has also been increased and the container vessel turnaround time has been cut to 26 hours from the previous 44 hours, he said.

PM Modi also said that India is now the world’s fifth largest economy and is emerging as a manufacturing hub. He added the world has accepted the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme announced by the government for boosting domestic manufacturing.

The centre has been working on the National Logistics Policy for the last three years. The Ministry of Commerce released a draft logistics policy for consultation in 2019, which was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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