Performance analysis of major ports in India: a quantitative approach

Abstract

This paper examines the performance of 13 major ports of India in respect of key operational performance indicators. Following rapid economic growth India's share in international trade is escalating. This puts increased pressure on these ports, which handle a substantial portion of the trade to perform with optimal efficiency. The study presents a systematic analysis of different performance indicators for a ten-year time period (2003 to 2013) using a variety of statistical methods and evaluates status of each port in different categories of performance. This will enable the ports to gauge their own effectiveness and appraise reasons for their shortcomings. In this context, the work further develops an integrated composite performance index by relegating comparative weightages to different indicators, to assess the relative overall performance of different ports. The study underlines the need of such estimates to adjudge the consistency of performance, internal and across ports to enable planning and development of measures for enhanced performance.