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The Logistics Data Bank (LDB) has tracked 10 crore export-import containers since its launch in 2016, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry announced.
LDB covers 100% of India's EXIM container movement using RFID-based tracking across 19 ports and 32 container terminals, with a network extending to 103 Inland Container Depots, 439 Container Freight Stations, 89 manufacturing SEZs, 5,569 railway stations, 269 toll plazas and three Integrated Check Posts.
It is operated by NICDC Logistics Data Services Limited, a joint venture established on 30 December 2015 between the Government of India — through the National Industrial Corridor Development and Implementation Trust — and Japan's NEC Corporation.
Give every stakeholder near real-time visibility of EXIM container movement across the logistics chain
Key: Launched in 2016. It attaches an RFID tag to a container and reads it at ports, terminals, ICDs, CFSs, toll plazas, railway stations and check posts, producing dwell-time and transit-time analytics that expose bottlenecks. LDB 2.0, launched in September 2025, extended tracking to the high seas for export containers and added multimodal visibility.
Let industry pull logistics data held by different government systems through a single set of APIs instead of separate integrations
Key: Launched on 17 September 2022 alongside the National Logistics Policy and developed by NLDSL. It integrates systems across ports, shipping, waterways, railways, civil aviation, road transport and highways, and DGFT and customs — reported as 24 systems, 78 APIs and 1,454 data fields.
Reduce logistics cost and improve service quality across all modes
Key: Launched on 17 September 2022. Its stated goals include lifting India into the top 25 countries on the World Bank's Logistics Performance Index by 2030 and mainstreaming logistics in skilling and higher education.
Put infrastructure planning across ministries onto a single geospatial platform for multi-modal connectivity
Key: Launched on 13 October 2021, integrating the planning of 16 central ministries with state governments. LDB and ULIP supply the operational data layer that Gati Shakti's planning layer sits above.
Benchmark logistics performance at the state level, on the lines of the World Bank's LPI
Key: A DPIIT exercise begun in 2018. States and Union Territories are grouped for comparability — coastal, landlocked, North-Eastern and Union Territories — and classified into three performance tiers: Achievers, Fast Movers and Aspirers.
Build greenfield industrial cities with plug-and-play infrastructure along major corridors
Key: The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, begun in 2007, was the first; the programme has since expanded to further industrial cities across multiple states, implemented by NICDC.
Builds and operates logistics technology platforms — the Logistics Data Bank and the Unified Logistics Interface Platform — to bring efficiency, transparency and digitisation to the sector.
The implementing agency for India's industrial corridor programme, beginning with the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor started in 2007 and extending to further greenfield industrial cities. It is the parent of NLDSL.
Ranks countries on logistics performance across six parameters: Customs, Infrastructure, Ease of arranging shipments, Quality of logistics services, Tracking and Tracing, and Timeliness. In LPI 2023 India ranked 38th of 139 countries, improving from 44th in 2018 and 54th in 2014.
Dwell time is how long a container sits stationary at a port or terminal before it moves on; transit time is how long it takes to travel between two points. Logistics cost is driven far more by dwell than by distance, because a stationary container ties up capital, yard space and equipment while earning nothing. That is why a tracking platform is a policy instrument rather than just a convenience: once dwell time is measured at every node — port, terminal, ICD, toll plaza — the specific choke point becomes visible and attributable, and 'Tracking and Tracing' is itself one of the six parameters on which the World Bank's LPI scores a country. LDB's claim to cover 100% of EXIM container movement is what makes those averages meaningful rather than a sample.
Simple Analogy: Tracking a container is like timing a relay race at every changeover rather than only at the finish — you learn not just that the team was slow but which handover lost the seconds.
The Container Manufacturing Assistance Scheme announced in the Union Budget 2026-27 targets up to 7.5 lakh TEUs of domestic capacity — LDB measures the movement of the boxes that scheme intends to build.
LDB, ULIP and the National Logistics Policy form the digital layer of trade facilitation, alongside customs measures such as faceless assessment.
NLDSL is a joint venture with NEC Corporation, and the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor has long been the flagship of Japanese participation in Indian infrastructure.
LEADS ranks states on logistics performance, making a national policy target measurable at the state level — the same instrument logic as other DPIIT state rankings.
GS Paper 3 > Indian Economy > Infrastructure, Investment Models and Logistics
General Awareness > Economy and Government Initiatives
General Awareness > Economy and Current Affairs
General Awareness > Infrastructure and Current Affairs
Logistics policy, LPI ranking and Gati Shakti recur in Prelims and in banking general awareness; the LDB milestone is the kind of platform-plus-number item SSC favours.
A shipping container carrying export or import cargo, as against domestic movement.
An inland facility with customs clearance, allowing containers to be stuffed, de-stuffed and cleared away from the port.
A facility near a port where cargo is consolidated into or de-consolidated from containers.
The period a container remains stationary at a port or terminal before onward movement — the main driver of logistics cost.
Unified Logistics Interface Platform — the API gateway through which industry accesses logistics data held across government systems.