India has improved its ranking in the World Bank Group’s bi-annual “Logistics Performance Index 2016”, jumping from 54th in 2014 to 35th in 2016.
In the latest ranking India has gone past countries like New Zealand, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Iceland, Latvia and Indonesia who were ahead of it in the index.
India’s jump of 19 positions in the ranking demonstrates the commitment of various Ministries and agencies of Government of India to make it easy to do business in India.
Jim Yong Kim, President of World Bank met the Prime Minister of India recently and congratulated him on this achievement.
The World Bank studies the policy regulation as well as supply chain performance outcomes across six sub-indices of the Logistics Performance Index and ranks countries based on their performance in all the indices.
Among the six sub-indices of the Logistics Performance Index, India improved the most on “the efficiency of customs and border management clearance”, jumping from 65 in 2014 to 38 in 2016.
Recent reforms at Customs, such as the introduction of a Single Window Interface for Trade (SWIFT) and electronic messaging system between Shipping lines and Custodians for electronic delivery order, filing of import and export declarations and manifests online with digital signature, extension of Customs’ risk management system to other regulatory agencies to ensure risk-based inspection, reduction of documents required for export and import, extension of 24×7 customs clearance facilities to 19 seaports and 17 air cargo complexes, removal of limit on the number of consignments released under direct delivery etc. have resulted in improvement in the indicator.
India also improved significantly in the following sub-indices:
- The ability to track and trace consignments, improving from 57 to 33;
- The quality of trade and transport infrastructure, improving from 58 to 36; and
- The competence and quality of logistics services, improving from 52 to 32.
On the remaining two sub-indices – the ease of arranging competitively priced shipments and the frequency with which shipments reach consignees within scheduled or expected delivery times – by 5 and 9 places respectively.
Top 10 Countries in Index:
- Germany
- Luxembourg
- Sweden
- Netherlands
- Singapore
- Belgium
- Austria
- United Kingdom
- Hong Kong, China
- United States
34. Turkey
35. India
36. Portugal
160. Syria
The World Bank Group’s bi-annual report ‘Connecting to Compete 2016: Trade Logistics in the Global Economy’, captures critical information about the complexity of international trade. The Logistics Performance Index (LPI) within the report scores 160 countries on key criteria of logistics performance.
The scores are based on two sources of information: a worldwide survey of logistics professionals operating on the ground (such as global freight forwarders and express carriers), who provide feedback on the countries in which they operate and with whom they trade; and quantitative data on the performance of key components of the supply chain, such as the time, cost and required procedures to import and export goods.