India's ranking in World Bank's logistics index improves by 19 places

India's ranking in the World Bank Group's bi-annual "Logistics Performance Index 2016" has improved by 19 places in 2016, said Ministry of Commerce & Industry in a release.

As per the release, India's ranking jumped from 54th to 35th demonstrating the government's policies and ease of doing business in the country, as pointed out the World Bank Group in a recently launched report.

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. 

"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", said the release.

Among the six sub-indices, India improved the most on "the efficiency of customs and border management clearance", jumping from 65 in 2014 to 38 in 2016.

According to the release, recent custom reforms, filing of import and export declarations, 24*7 customs clearance facilities to 19 seaports and 17 air cargo complexes, 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.