India climbed 6 places on World Bank's Logistics Performance Index from 44th in 2018 to 38th in 2023. This improvement is welcome. In 2014 – the year when the Modi government came to power in the Centre – India had stood at 54th rank and reacting to the latest development, the Prime Minister hailed it as an encouraging trend, powered by reforms and focus on improving the country’s logistics infrastructure.

The latest report - which is usually released every two years but delayed due to difficult times during 2021-22 – takes into account six factors: customs performance, infrastructure quality, ease of arranging shipments, competence and quality, timeliness of shipments, and tracking and tracing – and this time India performed particularly well in logistics competence, quality, and timeliness. The performance is worst in customs.

It is worth mentioning here that the Centre in 2021 announced the PM Gati Shakti initiative, a National Master Plan with an aim to develop a multi-modal infrastructure to ensure seamless last-mile connectivity at reduced cost. This was followed by the launch of National Logistics Policy, which aims to transform the sector and bring it in line with global standards. These efforts seem to be paying off now.

India’s logistics sector has been facing some major challenges. According to a report, our freight share is heavily skewed towards road transport while the cost-effective railways have been losing this share. Also, there is dearth of skilled personnel in this area and several operational and connectivity issues are still facing the sector. Given these challenges, no doubt, a lot is yet to be done to achieve the country’s logistics goals.