National Logistics Policy will be revisited to handle emergencies like Covid-19: Special secretary
May 13, 2020: Pawan Kumar Agarwal, the newly appointed special secretary – logistics noted that the government is revisiting the already finalized draft of National Logistics Policy to include norms on disaster management to govern emergencies like the Covid-19 pandemic.
He was talking in an interactive session organized by FICCI along with representatives from different logistics associations.
May 13, 2020: Pawan Kumar Agarwal, the newly appointed special secretary – logistics noted that the government is revisiting the already finalized draft of National Logistics Policy to include norms on disaster management to govern emergencies like the Covid-19 pandemic.
He was talking in an interactive session organized by FICCI along with representatives from different logistics associations. The stakeholders raised the need for digitalized logistics, bringing in logistics wing as the single point of contact for the industry in the government and protecting their investments in different parts of the country.
He listed at least eight points on which the logistics wing under the ministry commerce is prioritizing at this moment. This includes integrated development of logistics, streamlining bulk cargo, solving first mile and last-mile logistics, making exports competitive in the global arena, standardization of supply chain, digital transformation, and optimization of logistics assets and promoting green logistics.
#FICCIWebinar with Mr Pawan Kumar Agarwal, the newly appointed Special Secretary - Logistics for Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India begins. Watch the session live at pic.twitter.com/jUECsSSSac
— FICCI (@ficci_india) May 13, 2020
The special secretary particularly asked stakeholders to get back to him on the logistics policy as many of their representations would have changed in the wake of Covid-19. As the supply chain disruption continues to cripple the country and the expected fall in business activity, he emphasized on the need to integrate business continuity plans and disaster management plans into the logistics policy.
“Integrating the Indian logistics with the global is a priority as exports from the country could compete with that from other parts of the world. Standardizing the supply chain with that of international benchmarks could also help Indian players to leverage the opportunities thrown in by the global market,” he said.
Both the stakeholders and the special secretary hold a similar view on the digitalization process of the supply chain particularly in the backdrop of Covid-19 which helps not only in keeping social distancing but also in streamlining the freight movements.
