India has jumped six places to rank 38 among 139 countries in the 7th edition of World Bank's Logistics Performance Index (LPI) 2023, according to a press statement issued by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry on April 26, 2023.
"On 4 out of 6 LPI indicators India has seen remarkable improvement on the back of various initiatives being implemented over the past few years. This is a strong indicator of India’s global positioning, with this development being powered by our Government’s laser focus on reforms for improving logistics infrastructure," the Ministry said.
The Ministry went on to give credit to various Indian government initiatives, citing them as the reasons for the new development. They included the launch of PM GatiShakti National Master Plan in October 2021, which focused on logistics, urbanization, and the need to develop resilient supply chains, the launch of the National Logistics Policy (NLP) in September 2022 that was aimed to shift towards more energy-efficient modes of transportation and greener fuels to reduce the carbon footprint. It focused on multimodal transportation and complemented it by building multimodal logistics parks.
"The Government of India also invested in trade-related soft and hard infrastructure connecting port gateways on both coasts to the economic zones in the hinterland," the release added.
According to the statement, the LPI report appreciated NICDC’s Logistics Data Bank project that reduced inefficiencies while connecting the hinterland to ports. The Ministry noted that initiatives like Sagarmala and Bharatmala have played a pivotal role in improving India’s logistics efficiency.
