The national logistics policy will soon be declared and will offer a much strengthened framework for working on smoothening of the logistics and supply chain management for the country, a senior official of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in an Assocham (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry) virtual meeting on Tuesday.
Pawan Kumar Agarwal, Special Secretary-Logistics in Department of Commerce and Industry stated- “In India, we had to create our own formulations for the national logistics policy and hence it has taken a little more time than expected, but I can make you sure that we have attained the conclusiveness of this and I believe you will soon witness the final logistics policy ready.”
He also informed that the logistics sector seems to be copiously complex. “Unless we find useful details and come across particular commodities, geographies, modes of transport, concerns, we may just keep strolling without accomplishing much. This is actually what we have been doing since the past 5-6 months.”
He further said- “We have had seven rounds of meetings and our effort has been to zero down to particular areas of intervention instead of just making some very general statements and not being able to do anything about it. We desire to frame a plan that is operable.”
He added- “Under the plan we have recognized 12 locales that are levers of alteration that we would aim on – policy coherence, regulatory coherence, use of automation and automation of warehousing, standardisation and integration of cargo, digital transformation, multi-modality, logistics infrastructure, professionalisation of human resources, green & clean logistics and others.”
Further saying that these factors would be included in the national logistics policy, Agarwal declared- “I anticipate that the policy is soon going to be in place. We are not delaying anymore for initiating action, in many regions we have already started action and are in various stages of implementation.”
He pronounced that the target is on making sure that all this takes place in an orchestrated manner. “This coordination structure should necessarily be institutionalized so as to come up with a more strong coordination arrangement at the national level, state level and between states and the Centre.”
Emphasizing that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are a very vital sector for national economy, Agarwal declared that streamlining of processes will assist MSMEs to cut down logistics cost greatly.
Commenting upon the issue, Assocham’s senior VP Vineet Agarwal stated that there is a necessity to focus on more incremental changes instead of very large interventions for the sector to enhance in terms of policy and regulatory issues. Also, standardisation and design innovation based on India-centric demands along with streamlining of processes would lessen time and logistics costs.”
Assocham’s secretary-general Deepak Sood in his welcome speed shared- “As India aims on becoming Atmanirbhar, we would see a restructuring of domestic ecosystem and improved alignment with the global supply chains – both of which will be greatly dependent on the strength of logistics and warehousing.”