In order to ensure ease of trading in the international and domestic markets, the Commerce Ministry has said that a National Logistics Portal is being developed. India's logistics sector is highly defragmented and the aim is to reduce the logistics cost from the present 14% of GDP to less than 10% by 2022. The portal will link all the stakeholders of export-import, domestic trade and all trade activities on a single platform, thereby generating jobs, increasing trade competitiveness and helping the country transform into a logistics hub.
Further, stakeholders like traders, manufacturers, logistics service providers, infrastructure providers, financial services, government departments and groups and associations will all be on one platform, once the portal is created. The National Logistics portal will be implemented in phases and in the first phase it seeks to implement the logistics e-market place. Other main components of the portal include a logistics certification platform, an integrated regulatory platform and a banking and financial services platform.
The ministry underlined that the logistics e-market place will allow a trader or exporter to plan end to end shipment route, check availability, enquire the rates make bookings for a wide range of services such as freight forward, ocean freight, truck, warehouse, air freight, ICD services and packaging services, exchange e-contract, generate invoice, pay electronically, and monitor physical flow of goods.