The commerce ministry will come out with a logistics Performance Index (lPI) on Monday, ranking states in terms of the logistical support they provide to promote trade, a Senior Government official said.
“This will be a perception based ranking and it is the first time in the world that it is coming at the sub-national level,” the ministry official said. The index will act as a dynamic toll for the ministry to identify bottlenecks in this area.
“We will be able to see why perception is negative for some states,” the official added. The World Bank has assisted the ministry in preparing the index. The ranking is based on about eight parameters such as transportation facilities available in states and documentation procedures.
The ranking aims at encouraging states to work and improving upon their logistics related infrastructure. Inadequate infrastructure is impacting the country's trade and investments. logistics services such as customs and ports are Central Government matters but, “why they are functioning smoothly in certain states and not in other, the ranking would help us in understanding this also,” another official said.
The issue would be discussed during the third meeting of the Council for Trade Development and Promotion on January 8. Exporters body FIEO Director General Ajay Sahai has said that the logistics cost in India is very high and there is an urgent need to work on this parameter. High logistics costs make exports uncompetitive.