NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the National Logistics Policy, which seeks to promote faster movement of goods while bringing down transportation costs. The policy aims to bring down the logistics cost from 13- 14% of the GDP to 8%. “We must bring the logistic cost to single digit as soon as possible.
This, in a way, is a low-hanging fruit, if we have to become globally competitive,” said Modi while unveiling the policy, which he said will help fulfill India’s dream of becoming a developed economy. “The echo of Make in India and India becoming self-reliant is everywhere. India is setting big export targets and is also fulfilling them.
The notion that India is emerging as a manufacturing hub, is stabilising in the mind of the world. If we study the PLI scheme we will find the world has accepted it,” he said. In such a situation, he added, the new policy will bring new energy to all sectors. He said that policy is just a beginning and that its execution will be key to progress.
The new policy envisages creating a Unique Logistics Interface Platform that 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. It also plans standardisation of physical assets — like size of containers, trucks, etc — better engagement with states, development of logistics parks, etc. “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”, Modi added.