DPIIT and GatiShakti Vishwavidyalaya sign MoU for advancing PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan

NEW DELHI : The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry and GatiShakti Vishwavidyalaya (GSV) entered into collaboration to advance India’s infrastructure and logistics sectors. Under this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), GSV shall be the nodal agency across India to design, develop and deliver courses and curriculum related to PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan and National Logistics Policy at various centres in different states.

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, and Textiles, Sh. Piyush Goyal said that PM GatiShakti will become the planning tool for the entire world. He acknowledged the importance of GSV that offers skill development and capacity building of logistics professionals paving way for formalisation in the logistics sector. More than 16 Central Ministries, including NITI Aayog, CBC came together for the signing of MoU. This collaboration shall mark the great culmination of three visions, i.e., smarter planning and implementation; structured specialised development; and capacity building. 

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.

Special Secretary, DPIIT, Ms. Sumita Dawra highlighted the importance of India improving its logistics performance ranking to global standards by 2030. The transformative reforms of Government of India for multimodal Infrastructure development to facilitate Ease of Doing Business and Ease of Living, and also facilitate EXIM trade related logistics, Government’s flagship initiative namely PM GatiShakti National Master Plan was launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India on 13th October 2021. This is for building Next Generation Infrastructure and developing a globally competitive logistics ecosystem. 

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.

To complement the PM GatiShakti NMP, the National Logistics Policy (NLP) was launched on 17th September 2022 by Hon’ble PM, to address the soft infrastructure and logistics sector development aspect, inter alia, including process reforms, improvement in logistics services, digitization, human resource development and skilling. The NLP is a step in the right direction to drive economic growth and business competitiveness of the country through an integrated, seamless, efficient, reliable, green, sustainable and cost-effective logistics network. This will reduce logistics cost and improve logistics performance.

National Logistics Policy, under the Comprehensive Logistics Action Plan (CLAP) talks of creating a Logistics Human Resources Development & Capacity Building Strategy under which competency frameworks for formalization of logistics professionals are being developed, steps are being taken to mainstream logistics and supply chain in course curriculums in different institutions.

Significant progress has been made across key action areas such as services improvement; development of indigenous data-based decision support systems, digital integration of processes; tracking and tracing of 100% EXIM containerized cargo; State engagement; human resource development; logistics cost reduction; improved EXIM logistics; etc.

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. of India and is mandated to work across railways, shipping, ports, highways, roads, waterways, and aviation etc.

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. GSV shall also undertake training for Indian Railways probationers and serving officers. 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 .