National Maritime Day: India and its significance in the maritime sector

by Santhosh Mathew     31 August 2023

National Maritime Day: India and its significance in the maritime sector

India’s coastline is 7,517 kilometres long, and nine of those kilometres are coastal states with several ports that annually handle about 1,400 million tonnes of cargo. Due to its peninsular location, India has historically had maritime ties that have influenced trade, religion, and culture; these early ties, however, have since deteriorated. The emphasis of India’s international outreach has shifted nearly exclusively to the continent, particularly after independence. The liberalisation changes of the 1990s can be seen as a turning point in India’s priorities since they gave port development more priority and elevated the country’s marine position on the national agenda. Since 2014, when national policies were put in place to promote the development of the marine industry, a greater emphasis has been placed on expanding maritime capacity and outreach.

Early in the 1990s, policy directives and naval engagements started to take shape and grow, but it wasn’t until the second part of the decade that the discourse about these connections took off. The range and quantity of players participating in the conversation about maritime geopolitics, trade, infrastructure, ecology, and defence have increased recently. The geographical peninsula of India separates the eastern and western sides of the Indian Ocean.

This affects the nation’s strategic considerations, policy stances, and naval deployment on
both sides of the peninsula. The Indian Ocean’s peninsular shape distinguishes it from the
Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, according to prominent historian K.M. Panikkar, who wrote on
this in the 1940s. Asia acts as a landmass to cover this ocean expanse. He emphasised the
significance of the Indian Ocean for the nation by referring to it as a “landlocked sea” and
urged the establishment of the necessary maritime strength to take advantage of the
opportunities it presents and exert influence in difficult situations. Panikkar agrees with the
Mahanian axiom in his writings. India’s marine interests increased dramatically as a result of the  reforms that started in the early 1990s and as the country developed as a trading power.

As New Delhi became more involved with its neighbourhood, it became clearer how
important it was to rekindle old maritime relations on a political and economic level. India’s
current maritime imperative is comparable to that of the US at the turn of the 20th century
when that country turned to the sea for global markets and to exercise its maritime
capabilities. China, too, emerged at the start of the 21st century as the world’s workshop and declared its maritime destiny, pledging to build a blue water navy and uphold what it saw as its maritime rights.

To support overall defence and trade growth, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru emphasised
the importance of the marine industry and the need for a certain level of sea defence. India
did not have the necessary economic or industrial resources at the time to fully realise a
powerful marine presence. Nehru was unwilling to relate India’s regional foreign policy to
maritime power. In actuality, the naval budget was cut following the 1962 battle with China, and the navy played a smaller part in the 1965 fight. Acquisitions from the former USSR began to aid in the navy’s force expansion in the 1960s. The Navy then went on to play a crucial role in the war of 1971, the INS Vindhyagiri was sent to Seychelles in 1986 to assist in putting down a coup and the navy assisted in the 1988 rescue of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom from Male. When India asserted its role by mediating regional conflicts in the IOR, one can see how sea power and foreign policy objectives are related in this instance. An increased focus on maritime issues in policy over the past ten years has had a considerable impact on diplomatic outreach in the immediate area as well as the larger Indian Ocean region. The conviction and understanding that the nation’s geographic advantage must be used to establish maritime links and strengthen security networks are arguably more deeply ingrained today than ever before. As it has developed unique ties with important partners around the IOR, New Delhi has been increasingly conscious of the need to provide public goods in the marine realm. It has helped smaller littoral nations manage their exclusive economic zones during natural catastrophes. The Maritime Vision 2030 is the most recent version of the government’s marine development blueprint, together with the SAGAR initiative.

What is the significance of National Maritime Day and why such recognition?

It is important to recognise the reasoning behind the formulation of such a day. Apart from
the facts and figures stated above, there is a lot of emphasis going on the Blue Economy.
Gunther Pauli’s book Blue Economy has taken the world by storm. The book emphasises the potential advantages of connecting and fusing unrelated environmental issues with
open-source scientific solutions based on physical processes found in the natural world, to
produce solutions that are advantageous for the environment as well as for the economy and larger society. The book makes the case that by shifting our attention away from the use of scarce materials with high energy costs and towards simpler, cleaner technology, we can change how we manage our industrial processes and address environmental issues. Instead of focusing solely on cost reduction, the book suggests concentrating on the creation of extra value. The book tries to motivate businesspeople to embrace its insights by illuminating how doing so can generate economic benefits through the creation of jobs, less energy use, and increased revenue streams from each stage of the process while also benefiting the local communities involved. In layman’s terms, the term refers to Term “blue economy” describes the ethical exploitation of marine resources for transportation, exploration, and economic development while protecting the well-being of marine and coastal ecosystems. The complete system of ocean resources and all man-made economic infrastructure in marine, maritime, and onshore coastal zones that are subject to national legal authority are together referred to as India’s blue economy. To increase public understanding of the economy and international trade, the inaugural celebration of the day was organised in 1964. The day is observed to promote the world economy and shows appreciation for the Indian navy.

G20 Presidencey and Blue Economy

The fact that the Blue Economy (BE) has a different meaning for the global south than it does for the global north reinforces the necessity of the BE for India’s G20 presidency. This
distinction is frequently not well understood. India’s assumption of the G20 presidency from Indonesia is important because it places India in the middle of the trio of countries from the global south that will preside over the G20: Indonesia, India, and Brazil. So, it is incumbent on the Indian presidency to emphasise the BE’s importance from the standpoint of the global south. India’s G20 Presidency presents a rare chance to prioritise the BE for growth, the green economy, and social fairness. This is especially true for the vulnerable ocean-dependent people in the global south. Without the development of particular guidelines or principles, national blue economies, or sustainable ocean economies, are likely to prioritise achieving economic growth at the expense of social equality and environmental sustainability. With its active participation in international and regional conversations on the Blue Economy, and maritime and marine cooperation, India’s interest in the sector has been growing. Thus, while the oceans absorb about a third of the carbon dioxide released each year, the presence of iron aids in the growth of phytoplanktons, an essential part of carbon storage. Also, despite the upkeep costs and scaling problems, wave energy has the potential to be a green energy source.