The PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (NMP) completes five years on 13 October 2026. Built to end ministry-by-ministry planning, it now holds 23,493 data layers, screens large connectivity projects through the Network Planning Group and is open to private users — the open question is how far better planning has lowered India’s logistics costs.

• Sagarmala (2015) for port-led development, UDAN (2016) for regional air connectivity and Bharatmala Pariyojana (2017) for highway corridors — each optimised one mode of transport.
• National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), December 2019 — a project list of about ₹111 lakh crore for FY2020–25; it listed projects but did not integrate their planning.
• 15 August 2021 — a ₹100 lakh crore GatiShakti plan announced; 13 October 2021 — the NMP launched; October 2021 — the CCEA approved its three-tier institutional framework.
• Union Budget 2022-23 — GatiShakti named one of four priorities, driven by seven engines.
• National Logistics Policy (NLP), 17 September 2022 — the process-and-software complement to GatiShakti’s network planning; it targets a top-25 rank in the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI) by 2030.
• October 2025 — the platform opened to the private sector; October 2026 — five-year stock-take.

Figure 1 — The Six Principles of PM GatiShakti

The six principles shift planning from “project-by-project” to “network-and-area” thinking. Infographic courtesy Press Information Bureau (source: DPIIT); reproduced with credit for educational use.

• Integrated development — every ministry plans on one shared map, so overlaps surface at the drawing-board stage rather than on site.
• Multimodal infrastructure — road, rail, water and air links designed to hand cargo to each other; Multimodal Logistics Parks (MMLPs) are the physical form.
• Last-mile connectivity — closing the gap between a trunk network and the factory, farm cluster or port gate.
• Expedited land acquisition — alignments chosen with land records in view to cut disputes and delays.
• Minimised / expedited clearances — forest, wildlife and utility conflicts flagged early through “Go/No-Go” layers.
• Reduced ecological impact — routing around forests, eco-sensitive zones and water bodies wherever possible.

• Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) — chaired by the Cabinet Secretary; oversees implementation and approves changes to the Master Plan.
• Network Planning Group (NPG) — heads of network-planning divisions of infrastructure ministries; examines proposals for unified planning, integration and optimisation.
• Technical Support Unit (TSU) — domain and subject experts who support evaluation and assist the Logistics Division as Secretariat.

As of 11 August 2026, the NPG had evaluated 396 projects with an estimated cost of about ₹18.66 lakh crore. Of these, 256 had been sanctioned and 198 were under implementation.

Figure 3 — PM GatiShakti: Five Years of Scale and Reach

Data layers and onboarded ministries show the platform’s breadth; NPG figures show its weight in project approval. Infographic courtesy Press Information Bureau (source: Ministry of Commerce & Industry); reproduced with credit for educational use.

The NMP stacks infrastructure, geography, demography and economic-zone data on one GIS base, supported by satellite imagery. Planners can add project data, measure proximity, mark Go/No-Go areas where development may be restricted, and move towards clearances on the same screen.

• DUMS (Data Uploading and Management System) — decentralised, real-time data ownership: each ministry or State updates its own layers.
• PM GatiShakti NMP Dashboard — multi-sector reporting to track project progress.
• ULIP (Unified Logistics Interface Platform) — rolled out under the NLP; links government logistics systems through APIs: 46 systems across 12 Central Ministries via 142 APIs (July 2026).
• Logistics Data Bank (LDB) — real-time tracking of EXIM containers using RFID tags.
• Private access (October 2025) — a Query-Based Analytics Mechanism built by BISAG-N gives regulated access to 230 non-sensitive datasets for site suitability, connectivity mapping, alignment planning and compliance checks.

Beyond drawing lines, the NMP plots economic, social and logistics nodes — textile and pharmaceutical clusters, defence corridors, electronics parks, industrial corridors, fishing clusters and agri-zones — to spot missing links that slow the movement of goods and people.

• Example — Khagaria–Purnea corridor (Bihar): the upgrade is planned to connect 5 economic nodes (a textile cluster, Mega Food Parks, fishing/seafood parks) and 11 logistics nodes.
• Static hook: Mega Food Parks run under the PM Kisan SAMPADA Yojana; the two Defence Industrial Corridors are in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

• Pune–Bengaluru Expressway (Maharashtra–Karnataka): 699 km, expected by 2027–28; links 15 National Highways, 25 State Highways and 6 railway stations. Using the NMP, the alignment was revised to cut forest-land overlap by 19%.
• The Government expects the expressway to save 7–8 hours of travel time, about 16 crore litres of fuel and around 39 crore kg of carbon emissions a year (government projections).
• Jogighopa Multimodal Logistics Park (Assam) and the Ladakh–Haryana Green Energy Corridor were also planned or recommended through GatiShakti — see Also in News.
• Capacity building: Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, Vadodara, had trained 2.4 lakh+ officers on GatiShakti courses by July 2026.

• Logistics cost: an NCAER study for DPIIT (December 2023) estimated India’s logistics cost at 7.8–8.9% of GDP for 2021-22 — lower than older 13–14% estimates, but every point saved improves export competitiveness.
• Global ranking: India ranked 38th of 139 in the World Bank LPI 2023, up from 44th in 2018.
• High-capex era: Union capital expenditure has exceeded ₹11 lakh crore a year since 2024-25 — at this scale, a planning error is expensive.
• Cooperative federalism: States run State Master Plans on the same platform, giving the Centre and States a common evidence base.
• Beyond transport: social-sector ministries now use the platform — for example, to map infrastructure gaps in PVTG habitations under PM-JANMAN.

• Planning is not execution: only 198 of 396 evaluated projects are under implementation. Land, finance and contractor capacity still decide the pace.
• Clearances remain statutory: the NMP can flag conflicts but cannot replace appraisal under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980 (renamed in 2023), the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and the EIA Notification, 2006. “Minimised clearances” must mean faster, not thinner, scrutiny.
• Data is only as good as its uploaders: State and district capacity is uneven, and stale layers can mislead planners.
• Openness vs security: the National Geospatial Policy, 2022 liberalised access, but opening data to private users needs strict filtering of sensitive layers.
• Thin outcome metrics: there is no annual official series on logistics cost, and the LEADS index (since 2018) is largely perception-based.
• Equity: node-based planning tends to favour already dense economic regions; hill, tribal and North-Eastern areas need explicit weightage.

The Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana (PMDDKY) completed its first year on 11 October 2026. At its review, the Centre named Gaya (Bihar), Nagaur (Rajasthan) and Umaria (Madhya Pradesh) the best-performing districts and said Year 2 will be judged on measurable farm outcomes rather than on structures and plans.

• Aspirational Districts Programme (January 2018) — 112 districts, 49 indicators across 5 themes; Agriculture & Water Resources carried 20% weight.
• Aspirational Blocks Programme (January 2023) — the same model taken to 500 blocks.
• PMDDKY — announced in the Union Budget 2025-26; approved by the Union Cabinet on 16 July 2025; launched on 11 October 2025, the same day as the Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses.
• What changed: ADP was multi-sectoral; PMDDKY applies the convergence-and-ranking method to agriculture and allied sectors alone.

• Raise agricultural productivity.
• Increase crop diversification and sustainable practices.
• Augment post-harvest storage at panchayat and block level.
• Improve irrigation facilities.
• Ease access to short-term and long-term credit.
• Better governance and service delivery (the basis of the sixth award category).

Besides the three overall winners, 18 districts were recognised — three under each of the six objectives. Three districts also presented field models that the Centre wants replicated.

• Gadchiroli (Maharashtra) — water conservation and drought resilience; a heavily forested district in eastern Vidarbha with a large tribal population.
• Alluri Sitharama Raju (Andhra Pradesh) — high-value horticulture; a hill district carved out in 2022 and named after the leader of the Rampa Rebellion (1922–24); home to Araku Valley Arabica coffee (GI-tagged, 2019).
• Banka (Bihar) — the Lilawaran Natural Farming Land Revival Model. Static link: the National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF), approved in November 2024 with an outlay of ₹2,481 crore.

The Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare said the first year laid foundations and the second must deliver visible results: higher productivity and cropping intensity, better irrigation and water management, wider credit, high-value agriculture, post-harvest infrastructure and higher farm incomes.

• Scale-up: successful district interventions are to be replicated across all 100 districts.
• Khet Bachao Abhiyan: a nationwide soil-health campaign from 22 October to 30 November 2026 on balanced fertiliser use — see Also in News.

• Targets the laggards: national farm growth depends on lifting the bottom districts, not only on high-yield belts.
• Ends scheme silos: irrigation, credit, storage and extension schemes are delivered as one district plan rather than 36 separate streams.
• Data-led governance: 121 indicators and monthly ranking create transparency and peer pressure among districts.
• Links to national goals: pulses self-reliance, natural farming and soil health all land on the same district platform.

• Limited additionality: because PMDDKY works by converging 36 existing schemes, much of its annual outlay flows through existing budget lines. Gains must come from better targeting, not new money.
• Dashboard risk: monthly ranking on 121 indicators can reward reporting over real change; third-party verification of key outcomes is needed.
• Structural limits: rainfed land, falling groundwater, fragmented holdings and weak market access cannot be fixed by a district plan alone.
• Credit exclusion: tenant and women farmers often lack land titles, so credit indicators may improve mainly for landowners.
• Administrative continuity: Collector-led samitis depend on officer tenure; frequent transfers disrupt multi-year plans.
• Sustainability trade-off: raising cropping intensity in water-stressed districts such as arid Nagaur must not deepen groundwater stress.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) hosted the second edition of Exercise Tarang Shakti at Air Force Station Jodhpur from 26 September to 12 October 2026. With seven partner air forces flying and 32 nations observing, the exercise served defence diplomacy as much as combat training.

• LCA Tejas: single-engine, 4.5-generation multirole light fighter; designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) under DRDO and built by HAL; first flight 4 January 2001; inducted into the IAF in 2016.
• LCH Prachand: twin-engine Light Combat Helicopter by HAL, designed for high-altitude operations; inducted into the IAF at Jodhpur on 3 October 2022; contracts for 156 more (66 IAF, 90 Army) signed in March 2025.

• Operational lessons: the release links the exercise to Operation Sindoor (May 2025) — the IAF’s precision strikes on terror infrastructure after the Pahalgam attack of 22 April 2025. Multinational exercises turn such lessons into shared practice.
• Partner mix: Quad partners (USA, Australia), European powers (France, Germany), a Gulf partner (UAE) and neighbours (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) — a picture of India’s multi-alignment.
• Defence industry: industrial tours pitch Indian manufacturing; India’s defence exports reached a record ₹23,622 crore in FY2024-25, against a Government target of ₹50,000 crore by 2029.
• Civil–military bond: the Open Day and cultural events build public connect and soft power.

• Showcase vs strength: the IAF fields about 29 fighter squadrons against a sanctioned 42, after the MiG-21 retired in September 2025; Tejas Mk1A deliveries have been slowed by GE F404 engine supplies.
• Scripted training has limits: real value depends on complex scenarios — electronic warfare, contested airspace — and on sustained follow-up exchanges.
• Balancing partners: hosting Western and regional partners together requires care not to signal bloc alignment.