India has an extensive coastline of 7,516km, 1,55,889sqkm of territorial waters, and 20,13,410sqkm of exclusive economic zone. It has about 5,30,000sqkm of legal continental shelf for economic exploitation, and the deep sea mining area is about 1,50,000sqkm.
All this points to a new Indian narrative being scripted on the seas, and it is in this backdrop that THE WEEK is organising its Maritime Conclave 2024 in Chennai on November 5. The event will host the Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal, the Minister of State Shantanu Thakur, Tamil Nadu Minister for Public Works, Highways and Minor Ports E.V. Velu, senior ministry and port officials, naval officers, the captains and leaders of the private sector, diplomats, academics, financiers and other stakeholders of this burgeoning domain.
For long, the seas were the stuff of misadventures from where men often never returned. That is till man discovered trade and business. It led to military expeditions to faraway lands, unleashing a barrage of tales that showed the good, the bad and the ugly sides of mankind.
The Indian subcontinent’s narrative began on a bright note. From ancient times to the meticulously planned cities of the Indus Valley civilisation, the seas gave a reason for prosperity. That is why ancient Indian beads, artefacts, textiles and seals are found in distant lands, and vice versa.
The medieval era, too, saw bustling maritime activity leading to the formation of key kingdoms and empires. Historians say the Cholas in particular had almost transformed the Indian Ocean into a ‘Chola lake’.
In the modern era, there was a surprising neglect of this domain. The post-independence period saw this worsen. There was a despondency in India’s maritime domain, which found reflection in the neglect of the Navy, too.
But the times are changing fast. There is a growing realisation that the seas offer a new route to power and prosperity. Our Navy’s submarines lurk in the dark depths on missions across the world, while warships carry missiles that can create devastation far and wide.
India’s new maritime mantra is that of developing ports and shipping; building, repairing and breaking ships; offering berthing facilities; and establishing commercial dominance on shipping routes.
At the moment, India’s coastline is dotted with 12 major ports that primarily provide necessary cargo handling capacity to meet India’s export-import trade. There are about 200 non-major ports administered by state governments.
India’s ports handle around 90 per cent of export-import cargo by volume and 70 per cent by value. The new effort to develop ports includes capacity enhancement and improving operational efficiencies through mechanisation, digitisation and process simplification.