LEADS report will push healthy competition for improvement in logistics development among states: Piyush Goyal

New Delhi [India], November 8 : Releasing the Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) Report 2021, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Monday said that the inputs given by the report will push healthy competition for improvement in logistics development among states paving the way to bring down logistics cost by 5 per cent over the next five years.
Addressing the gathering after the release of the LEADS report, the union minister said India is committed to building a modern infrastructure for the 21st century, at a pace never seen before. He said the PM GatiShakti Master Plan would revolutionise the next generation of multimodal infrastructure development in the country.
He said that the speed of highway construction has increased threefold from 12 km/day in 2013-14 to 37 km/day in 2020-21 and that there was a four-fold increase in Railways Capex from Rs. 54,000 crore in 2013-14 to Rs. 2.15 lakh crore in 2021-22.
He observed that in the five years before 2014, only 60 panchayats could be connected with optical fibre and that in the last seven years, more than 1.5 lakh gram panchayats were connected with optical fibre.
Goyal emphasized that efficient logistics was pivotal to bring ease and empowerment to businesses as well as citizens. He observed that logistics contributed immensely to the country's fight against COVID-19 by taking essential supplies including liquid Medical Oxygen throughout the country during the second wave.
He named infrastructure, quality services and conducive regulatory framework as the three pillars of resilient logistics.
"Rather than just absolute improvement in one state, improvement of logistics across all states will be a force multiplier for the entire logistics ecosystem", he said.
Goyal said that the vision of logistics cost will be reduced by 5 per cent in the next five years. This will ensure that the logistics sector serves as an engine of growth and a key driver for transforming India into a five trillion-dollar economy.
He lauded Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab for having acquired the top three positions respectively.
He applauded the actions taken by the Gujarat Government against LEADS 2019 recommendations such as the widening of roads, implementation of faceless services in license renewals, expansion of warehousing etc.
Goyal said that since its inception in 2018, each year LEADS report has followed a progressive methodology to provide a granular insight on the logistics performance at State/UTs level. "LEADS 2021 has gone 2-step ahead in the analysis of domestic and EXIM logistics ecosystem of the state" he added.
The Minister said that states have an indispensable role in improving the logistics ecosystem of India. He outlined a number of suggestions for states including framing of state logistics policy and logistics master plan, use single-window clearance system for logistics establishment of grievance redressal mechanism and enabling if skilling in logistics through state skilling infrastructure.
He opined that LEADS report would be a handy and practical guide to identify strengths, opportunities and improve the logistics performance of States.
The report ranks the states on the basis of their logistics ecosystem, highlights the key logistics-related challenges faced by the stakeholders and includes suggestive recommendations.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry had launched a study, "Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS)" in 2018 with the main objective of ranking States and UTs on the efficiency of their logistics ecosystem.
The first version of the report, LEADS 2018, focused on export-import trade and assessed the efficiency of the logistics ecosystem in each State and UT. The second edition of the study - LEADS 2019, covered both international and domestic trade.
According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the LEADS 2021 exercise has gone one step ahead in analysing the domestic and EXIM logistics ecosystem of the state. Specifically, two improvements have been done in the overall assessment framework. Firstly, objective parameters have been used along with the perception-based indicators for index formulation.
The objective parameters in the LEADS 2021 Index have been introduced by way of an objective survey instrument administered to the States/UTs and by the inclusion of secondary datasets on logistics across the State/UT level. Secondly, the statistical methodologies to build the index has been updated to get more robust results, given change in the overall framework.
Alternatively, a total of 21 perception and objective variables have been statistically analysed to prepare a composite index basis upon which the states have been ranked.
The perception survey was administered to the four different categories of logistics stakeholders, like traders/shippers, transport service providers, terminal operators and logistics service providers.
The States' objective survey collected binary responses in the context of the areas related to policy, institutional framework, current enforcement mechanism, warehousing approvals and processes, smart enforcement, city logistics, drivers' empowerment, etc. to understand the initiatives taken by the different state governments towards improving the logistics environment in their respective States.
The secondary dataset was compiled with the assistance of the central government ministries, departments and associated agencies.
The LEADS survey 2021 was conducted over the period from May to August 2021 in a challenging environment when the COVID crisis was being fought across multiple fronts.
The whole exercise garnered 3,771 responses from 1,405 respondents across the country. For representation purposes, states have been ranked in three separate classes including the 'North Eastern States and Himalayan UTs' and 'Other UTs' group.
Within the North Eastern states and Himalayan Region, Jammu and Kashmir is the top ranker followed by Sikkim and Meghalaya. Delhi stands at the top rank among other UTs. Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand have witnessed a remarkable improvement in their ranks compared to the 2019 LEADS ranking and have emerged as the top improvers.
The report consists of specific section on States and UTs giving a detailed analysis of their performance in the LEADS, including issues and challenges being faced by stakeholders as well as suggestions to mitigate the issues.
States/UTs are encouraged to examine and evaluate the findings of the report and to formulate a suitable strategy and a prioritized action plan for improving logistics performance.