NEW DELHI: The commerce ministry, which is working on a Logistics Performance Index (LPI) for states and union territories, would announce the rankings by December or early next year, an official said.The commerce ministry official, who is working on the project, said they have engaged Deloitte to work out the indicators for the index.Under the index, states and union territories will be ranked as per their trade related facilities. The move would help involve states in promoting the country's exports. "We have given six months time to Deloitte for their report. So the first such index will be out by year end or early next year," the official added.The ministry is also taking expertise of World Bank for this exercise.The parameters on which the performance would be compared include GST (Goods and Service Tax ) rollout, removal of check posts and time taken in tax refund.India has jumped 19 places in the last World Bank ranking in the global logistics performance. It had asked the government to invest in modernising roads, ports, railways, airports, power and customs stations.In India, the container transport mainly happens through roads due to various reasons like high railway freight rates, unreliable scheduling of freight trains and poor last-mile connectivity.

Source: Economic Times July 16, 2017 06:56 UTC