Export thrust: India should move goods like a horse to trade like a tiger

The ‘trading across borders’ indicator from the World Bank’s 2020 Doing Business data-set showed that exporting from India took significant time and money. On average, border procedures alone took 52 hours and $212 per container. Export documentation consumed 12 hours and $58. Importing took even more—with around 65 hours and $266 needed for border clearance, and 20 hours and $100 for documentation.

In comparison, China was processing the same export shipments within 21 hours at a slightly higher cost of $256 per container. It processed documents faster too, in 9 hours on average, although the documentation cost is $74, slightly higher than in India.

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India was better placed than the likes of Bangladesh and Vietnam, but behind countries like South Korea, which was the world leader on those counts. South Korea was doing border checks in just 13 hours at a cost of $185, and document processing in 1 hour for only $11. All these numbers showed the gap India needed to cover in competition with the world’s best export performers. While Doing Business data is old and the World Bank has discontinued this study, its broad 2020 rankings may not have changed very much (except in Vietnam’s case perhaps).

More recent data from the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI) offers us another picture. This index tracks the transportation of goods within and between countries, taking into account six measures: customs efficiency, infrastructure, ease of coordinating international shipments, logistics quality, tracking and tracing ability, and punctuality (frequency of on-time shipments).

As reported by the 2023 LPI report, India has taken significant strides on logistics, moving its world ranking from No. 54 in 2014 to No. 38 in 2023, with its score rising from 3.08 to 3.4. Its ranking on timeliness rose from No. 51 to No. 35, and its score for logistics competence and quality rose from 52 to 38, signifying higher professionalism and reliability in freight services. Moreover, in terms of infrastructure (covering ports, roads and railways), India’s rank rose from No. 58 to No. 47, reflecting the impact of recent investments in physical logistical infrastructure.

Still, China is ahead of India on an absolute basis, at 19th place with a score of 3.7. It scores better on all the key factors: timeliness, quality of logistics and impressively on infrastructure, indicating the strength and dependability of its supply chain mechanisms. India’s progress is heartening. Yet, continued efforts are needed to reach the logistics performance of global leaders.

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India has also achieved impressive reductions in ‘dwell time’—the number of days that cargo is held at a terminal or port before it can proceed. In the LPI 2023 report, while 4 to 8 days is the typical dwell time for economies at every level of income, India is on par with Singapore with a dwell time of only 3 days. This is an achievement ahead of the UAE, South Africa, US and Germany, indicative of improved coordination between customs officials, port authorities and logistics firms. 

Underpinning these efficiency gains is India’s massive investment in transport and logistics infrastructure. The coverage of National Highways (NH) increased from 65,569km in 2004 to 146,145km in 2024, with four and more lane stretches rising 2.6 times since 2014. 

The construction tempo has picked up sharply, from 12.1km per day in 2014-15 to 33.8km per day in 2023-24. Flagship programmes such as the Bharatmala Pariyojana launched in 2017, are developing 26,000km of economic corridors, ring roads, bypasses and elevated corridors to ease city congestion and enhance freight movement. As of November 2024, 18,926km of roads had been constructed under this scheme.

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Apart from this, 35 multimodal logistics parks are also being built under the Bharatmala plan, with an aggregate outlay of ₹46,000 crore. On commissioning, these parks will be capable of transporting 700 million metric tonnes of cargo, increasing India’s capacity to integrate various modes of transport in a cost-effective manner.

India’s port cargo handling capacity has nearly doubled from 800.5 million tonnes annually in 2014 to 1,630 million tonnes in 2024, an increase  of 87%. India has also climbed in terms of its world ranking in shipments, from No. 44 in 2014 to No. 22 in 2023. Concurrently, the turnaround time (TRT) at major ports—the time that ships spend at port—has declined significantly from 94 hours in 2013-14 to 48.06 hours in 2023–24. Average berth-day production has gone up by 52% and India is also seeing increased tourism through cruise  terminals and lighthouse sites.

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These reforms can be said to represent a paradigm shift. India is slowly putting in place the logistical framework necessary to support its dream of becoming an export-led economy. Continued and deepened, these reforms could bridge the gap between India’s expansive trade aspirations and the harsh realities of trading on the international stage, thus making India not just a significant exporter but a truly competitive one.

These are the author’s personal views.

The author is a research associate, NCAER, New Delhi.