National Logistics Policy of India: Shaping Logistics of tomorrow

Why was the National Logistics Policy Launched? What are the challenges faced by the businesses?

One could reasonably speculate that India’s logistics have advanced greatly and caught up to international norms as a result of the third-party logistics (3PL) revolution and its accompanying Same Day/Next Day delivery services. Quite the opposite is true.

Indian companies are currently facing a struggle on the logistics front. In India, the cost to carry one metric ton of goods by air is ₹18, by road it is₹ 3.6, and by rail it is merely ₹1.6 per metric ton per kilometer, hence it stands to reason that a sizable portion of India’s goods are transported by rail.

But the reality is about 71% of India’s trade is conducted via roadways, whereas just 17.5 % is transported via rail, and a similarly small percentage is conducted via waterways. If you’re wondering why, it’s because India simply doesn’t have enough rails or trains to handle the volume of goods being transported.

Moreover, in India, passenger and freight trains share the same tracks, with the latter being given lower priority. There will consequently be holdups because of this Thirdly, you should always go with multi-modal transport for last-mile and first-mile shipments when sending anything by train.

Most businesses in India prefer to use road transport, where they simply reload trucks to get from A to B, rather than dealing with the complexities of the country’s complex logistics system, which involves more than 20 government agencies, 37 export promotion councils, 500 certifications, and 10,000 commodities.

How’s National Logistics Policy going to help in employment and employability?

In India’s logistics industry, qualified workers are in short supply. The Logistics Skill Council predicts that by 2022, the logistics industry will have increased to 2.2 Crore employees. Still, closing significant knowledge gaps in the logistics industry is essential if we’re going to satisfy this demand. Some professions, like truck drivers, find it difficult to attract and keep employees. This is because people have a negative connotation toward these occupations, and they are paid less than average. Further, workers have few options for making up for the salary they lose while in training. Training programmes don’t always cater to the needs of individual jobs. Coupled with the industry’s high turnover, this reduces the financial motivation for businesses to invest in staff training. Telematics, warehouse automation, mechatronics, etc., are just a few examples of the specific talents that will be necessary in the logistics industry as technology advances.

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.

This can only be accomplished if both the national and state governments are equipped to the teeth with state-of-the-art technology.

The Department of Personnel Training (DoPT) is responsible for the training of government officials; hence, they have developed the Integrated Government Online Training (IGoT) platform to create mandatory certificate courses with evaluation. It’s an online school for civil servants across the country.

The National Logistics Policy of India is touted to be a policy that is going to transform the logistical landscape of the country and is expected to be the next big step in making India ‘Atma Nirbhar’. Will this big step help India Inc. reach the $5 trillion mark? Only time can tell.