In the coming months, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is going to hold a series of workshops and deliberations with all stakeholders on the recently launched National Logistics Policy, an official said.
Unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on September 17, the National Logistics Policy seeks to address challenges facing the transport sector and bring down the logistics cost of businesses from 13-14 percent to single digits in the coming years.
The targets set under the policy includes are to reduce the cost of logistics in India to be comparable to global benchmarks by 2030; improving the Logistics Performance Index ranking, being among the top 25 countries by 2030, and creating a data-driven decision support mechanism for an efficient logistics ecosystem. And, the government has a detailed action plan to achieve these targets.
“First we will organize a national workshop here on the policy in which there will be brainstorming sessions with all the key stakeholders, including the Centre, states, and the industry. The aim is to make stakeholders aware of its advantages,” the official said.
The next step will be to divide the country into six zones for zonal conferences and then hold workshops there on different action plans of the policy, such as on warehousing, skill, and Ease of Logistics Services (ELoGS) platform.
The policy has laid down an action agenda for the immediate on-ground implementation of various initiatives.
To ensure that the benefits of this policy have maximum possible outreach, important initiatives under the policy including the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), the Ease of Logistics Services platform, e-handbook on warehousing, training courses on PM GatiShakti, and logistics on the i-Got platform were launched along with the policy.
The grievances of companies can be raised on the ELoGS platform and that issue will be taken up by the concerned authorities on a priority basis.
Citing an example, the official said there are about 200 Container Freight Stations (CFSs) in the country that deal with export and import-related consignments. But after the introduction of direct port delivery, these stations are unable to work to their full capacity. So they are urging the government to allow usage of these facilities for domestic purposes also, but the customs department has certain objections.
“So this issue will be discussed under the ELoGS platform,” the official added.
As per the DPIIT, this policy supports the enhancement of the competitiveness of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises along with other areas like agriculture and allied areas, FMCG, and electronics. With more predictability, transparency, and reliability, wastages in the supply chain network and the need for huge inventory will reduce.
