India’s maritime traditions are over 2,000 years old. Evidence suggests Arab traders used to buy spices from Kerala before the Common Era began. It was through the port of Surat that the British first traded with India. Small wonder that 4,500 delegates from 40 countries attended the Maritime India Summit held in Mumbai last week. At the Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that over the next 10 years, 10 million jobs would be created, four million directly and six million indirectly, by developing the maritime sector. He plans to develop major and minor ports and cater to all maritime needs. Modi has mentioned in particular harnessing India’s sea wealth using better and scientific ways of capturing fish and processing it. Practices employed by Indian fishermen are primitive and do not address concerns about depleting fish wealth fish are caught before they reach full size, and fish seeds get destroyed during fishing. It is, therefore, no surprise that fishermen sometimes wander across India’s maritime borders and land in the custody of Sri Lankan and Pakistani navies. In other words, fishing needs to be modernised, and the possibilities offered by India’s vast coastline of 7,500 km must be tapped into. The capacity of many of India’s ports, however, is not commensurate with their potential. This is due to poor investment in the sector. Take the case of Paradip port in Odisha which had few takers because roads linking it with highways were narrow and pot-holed. The problem has, in time, been addressed to a large extent. In the case of Vizhinjam, a natural port, it is surprising that neither the Center nor the state took the lead in constructing a proper port until recently. In the meantime, Sri Lanka developed a port with Chinese help that can handle even the largest ship. Modi’s promise shows that the government has drawn up an ambitious plan to invest in the construction of new ports and development of existing ones. Infrastructure growth is a key aspect of his development plan. He wants to combine it with Make in India’ so that manufacturers can manufacture close to the ports and use them to ship their products.
2016, The New Indian Express.