The India Maritime Week event, headlined by the Prime Minister, signifies a crucial shift in Indian government policy, moving beyond viewing shipping merely as a business to recognizing it as an essential component of national strategy and security. This change in perspective was largely triggered by the vulnerabilities exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Strategic Imperatives Driving the Policy Shift
The government’s renewed focus is a direct response to the strategic vulnerabilities of relying heavily on foreign-owned shipping, which left India with little leverage to manage its own trade during global disruptions. The key strategic goals now being pursued include:
- Ensuring Supply Chain Resilience: The pandemic was a “rude awakening,” highlighting that in times of disruption, war, or protectionism, depending on foreign ships for critical trade (like oil) is a major risk to energy and trade security.
- Strengthening the National Carrier: There are now initiatives to actively beef up the fleet strength of the state-owned Shipping Corporation of India (SCI). This reverses a decades-long trend where SCI was allowed to decline, with favorable policies (like first rights to transport Indian oil) being withdrawn in the name of liberalization. Government support is seen as bringing the curtains down on SCI’s long-delayed privatization.
- Gaining Leverage Over Foreign Fleets: A major push is to encourage foreign shipping companies to register their ships in India through their local subsidiaries. This is intended to give the Indian government leverage to compel these ships to serve Indian needs and to support allied domestic businesses such as insurance.
Investment Focus and New Operating Models
The massive investment commitments secured at the Maritime Week event are largely directed at building up the supporting infrastructure and capacity:
- Port-Led Development: A major part of the investments announced (lakhs of crores of rupees) is port-related. This includes significant spending on port connectivity and Sagarmala projects.
- The Landlord Model: The government is successfully running its ports under a landlord model, where it shares revenue with private and foreign companies that handle terminal operations. This has given the ports the financial heft to take on ambitious new projects, such as the transshipment hub project in the Andamans being pursued by the Chennai and Kolkata ports.
- Human Capital: Investment is also focused on Indian seafarer training, continuing the historical trend of India being a key supplier of skilled manpower to the global fleet.
Areas Lagging Behind
While port infrastructure and policy intent have seen strong movement, progress in one critical area remains “barely visible”:
- Indian Merchant Shipbuilding: This sector has not seen the same momentum. Greater progress here would signal the development of industrial, technical, and project management expertise in heavy industry. The text suggests that true maritime success will be achieved only when Indian shipyards can quickly roll out state-of-the-art vessels like LNG ships or futuristic green fuel-burning vessels.
The government’s new approach marks a clear departure from the purely commercial and liberalized framework of the past, strategically repositioning the maritime sector for a competitive and potentially protectionist global trade environment.
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Source: The Hindu
