To improve India’s infrastructure and logistics sectors, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and GatiShakti Vishwavidyalaya (GSV) have joined forces today. In accordance with the terms of this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), GSV will serve as the central organisation in India responsible for designing, developing, and implementing the curriculum for the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan and National Logistics Policy at various locations in various states.

PM GatiShakti will serve as the global planning tool, according to Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, and Textiles Sh. Piyush Goyal. He praised the value of GSV, which helps logistics professionals enhance their skills and capacities and pave the road for formalisation in the logistics industry. For the signing of the MoU, more than 16 Central Ministries, including NITI Aayog and CBC, gathered. Three visions—smarter planning and implementation, structured specialty development, and capacity building—will be greatly realised through this partnership.

Shri Goyal said that it will bring academic vigour to PM GatiShakti approach leading to reduced logistics cost, efficient logistics, and fostering a competitive business ecosystem. He said that this will lead to a virtuous cycle of growth and achievement of the vision of Amrit Kaal. This MoU is scripting a new chapter in Bharat logistics and infrastructure story. This shall give momentum to comprehensive logistics sector development and embarks Bharat’s journey to become a Vishwaguru.

Union Minister for Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology and also the Chancellor of the Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, Sh. Ashwini Vaishnaw, spoke about the importance of the industry focussed and innovation driven university offering courses on railway, metro and high-speed railways. He highlighted the development of focussed programs for specific industry/ sector. For instance five courses on railway have been developed, including  with a focus on tracks technology, rail-wheel interaction, thermodynamics, signalling systems, etc. Focussed courses offered at GSV will make students ready for future workforce- 15000 students will be trained at GSV to get assured jobs in the aviation industry. GSV will ensure Indian skill development needs are aligned with global standards.

The MoU was signed by the Vice-Chancellor, Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, Prof. Manoj Choudhary, and Joint Secretary, Logistics Division, DPIIT, Sh. E. Srinivas in the august presence of the respective Ministers, Sh. Piyush Goyal and Sh. Ashwini Vaishnaw.

 

Ms. Sumita Dawra, Special Secretary, DPIIT, emphasised the significance of India raising its logistics performance rating to international norms by 2030. The flagship project of the government, the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan, was introduced on October 13, 2021, by the honourable prime minister of India. It outlines the transformational reforms of the Indian government for the development of multimodal infrastructure to facilitate ease of doing business and ease of living, as well as ease of EXIM trade related logistics. This is for constructing a globally competitive logistics ecosystem and building next-generation infrastructure.

GatiShakti Vishwavidyalaya is the brainchild and vision of the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. The idea was to utilise the existing infrastructure and resources, augment it suitably, so that it can be used for creating professional courses for logistics. It is India’s first Railway University and only third such in the whole world after Russia and China, which was dedicated to the nation in December 2018.

PM Gati Shakti Master Plan is a critical tool that also integrates economic and infrastructural planning with socio-economic development. In the last two years, remarkable progress in terms of development of the digital platform (NMP) and individual portals, data and quality management on these portals, onboarding of Ministries and States, and training and capacity building, besides usage, has been made.

As on date, 1463 data layers of Central Ministries and States/UTs have been uploaded on the GIS-data based National Master Plan portal. 39 individual portals for line Ministries and 36 States/UT portals have been developed and integrated.  Twenty-two out of the above mentioned 39-line Ministries are Social Sector Ministries, which have also been onboarded onto the PM GatiShakti in last few months. This has paved way for enabling comprehensive socio-economic development in the spirit of Area Development Approach, across the country.

The National Logistics Policy (NLP), which was introduced by the Honourable PM on September 17, 2022, was designed to complement the PM GatiShakti NMP and address soft infrastructure and logistics sector development issues, such as process reforms, better logistics services, digitization, human resource development, and skilling. Through an integrated, smooth, effective, dependable, green, sustainable, and affordable logistics network, the NLP is a step in the right path for promoting economic growth and business competitiveness of the nation. As a result, logistical performance will increase and costs will decrease.

The Comprehensive Logistics Action Plan (CLAP), which is the umbrella organisation for the National Logistics Policy, mentions developing a Logistics Human Resources Development & Capacity Building Strategy. Under this plan, competency frameworks for formalising the profession of logistics professionals are being created, and steps are being taken to mainstream supply chain and logistics in course curricula across various institutions.

Key action areas like the development of domestic data-based decision support systems, the digital integration of processes, the tracking and tracing of 100% of EXIM containerized cargo, State engagement, the development of human resources, the reduction of logistics costs, the improvement of EXIM logistics, etc. have all seen significant progress.

GSV shall co-work with the Logistics Division to conceptualize and establish “knowledge centres” of PM GatiShakti in different states and institutions which shall serve as repository of best practices of PM GatiShakti approach, best practices in logistics, centres of further research and innovation in logistics. Using the “hub and spoke” model, and leveraging infrastructure of Central Training Institutes and State Administrative Training Institutes, GSV shall co – work with the Logistics Division and build a repository of resource persons, both Public and Private Sector who have wide practical experience in logistics policy and sector.

Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya (GSV) Vadodara was established as a Central University through an Act of Parliament in 2022, for creating best in class manpower and talent for the entire transportation and logistics sectors. This Central University is sponsored by the Ministry of Railways, Govt.

Following a demand-driven curriculum and leveraging state of the art infrastructure of all the Centralized Training Institutes of Indian Railways, the GSV shall create a resource pool of professionals across technology, economics, management and policy comprising multidisciplinary teaching (bachelors/masters/doctoral), executive training and research.

Being an Industry-driven and Innovation-led university, GSV has a very strong focus on collaborations with leading institutions and industries across the world.

The outcomes of usage of PM GatiShakti NMP by Ministries and States/ UTs in the last 2 years, is demonstrating the variety and scale of NMP in planning infrastructure. It is important to share learnings of the benefits of using PM GatiShakti NMP among various stakeholders, for which an institution such as the GSV shall play a pivotal role.

International interest that PM GatiShakti is generating can also be taken forward through the collaboration with GSV which can serve as a knowledge centre for GatiShakti and logistics infrastructure related planning.