The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has launched the Unified Logistics Interface Platform’s (ULIP) hackathon — LogiXtics —  in order to crowdsource more ideas which will benefit the logistics industry.

The ULIP Hackathon–LogiXtics is organised by NITI Aayog and Atal Innovation Mission and supported by National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (NICDC) and NICDC Logistics Data Bank Services Limited (NLDSL).

Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP)

• The logistics sector is the backbone of economic growth in India and is one of the most important accelerators of trade.

• Logistics has been given special focus in the last few years, and many measures in terms of hard and soft infrastructure have been taken to improve the logistics scenario of India.

• The cost of logistics in India is about 14 per cent which is higher than other countries in the world. 

• An integrated view of the Indian logistics value chain is necessary and a unified system by the interconnection of the IT systems of various Union ministries, state departments, governing bodies, and private service providers is required.

• Additionally, for stakeholders to receive logistics-related services, visibility, authorisations, and certifications of the cargo seamlessly, all IT systems need to be interconnected. 

• NITI Aayog was entrusted with the task of exploring the role of technology in various sectors. 

• In January 2021, NICDC was mandated by NITI Aayog to develop ULIP by leveraging the Logistics Data Bank Project.

• Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) is designed to enhance efficiency and reduce the cost of logistics in India by creating a transparent, single window platform that can provide real-time information to all stakeholders. 

• It was also emphasised that the solution should have the visibility of multi-modal transport, and all the existing systems of various ministries, governing bodies, and private stakeholders should be integrated with the ULIP system.

• ULIP is designed to enhance efficiency and reduce logistics cost in India by creating a transparent platform that can provide real time information to all stakeholders and remove all asymmetry information. 

There are three key components which are defining the ULIP platform:

1) Integration with existing data sources of ministries: As authorisation, compliance and clearance are some of the critical activities of logistics. The integration with data points of ministries shall enable a holistic view and interlink the handshaking points.

2) Data exchange with private players: To enable the private players, logistics service providers, and industries to utilise the data available with ULIP and at the same time share their data (transportation, dispatch, delivery, etc) with ULIP, thereby streamlining the processes to bring better efficiency through data exchange.

3) Unified document reference in the supply chain: To enable a single digitised document reference number for all the documentation processes in a single platform.

• ULIP shall enable startups and private organisations to build the presentation layer, encompassing various use-cases to serve the service, trade and logistics service providers.

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