Raise the tide to lift all-of-economy

India Maritime Week 2025, which kicked off in Mumbai on Monday, is a good time to underline that the country's potential as a maritime economy can serve as a growth driver over the next decades. Fortunately, policy has become proactive and India's maritime advantages will become apparent to private capital. The country is located in the centre of the Indian Ocean, and is a junction for sea trade lanes between Europe and Asia. It has a sizeable exclusive economic maritime zone that can be prospected for resources. Fishing, a significant contributor to exports, is underexploited. An extensive internal waterways network feeds the country's extensive coastline. The domestic merchant fleet needs to acquire scale to keep pace with economic growth. Capacity must be created to build ships to service rising trade.

Development of the marine economy is typically influenced by an economy's export orientation. In the case of India, there is an added impetus to build marine infrastructure because of its dependence on energy imports, most of which come by sea. India plans to become a manufacturing base for the world market. This requires efficient port and internal logistics infrastructure. Industrialisation of the economy is concentrated in its coastal states, which will seek to improve their competitiveness through access to global supply chains. Again, peninsular India has an advantage in RE that can lower the fossil fuel intensity of rapid economic growth.

But India has a lot of catching up to do. Principally, this is about building its transport shipping fleet. At the moment, it's dependent on foreign shipbuilders that are inundated with orders. Domestic capacity is soaked up by the navy. Port infrastructure is another area of focus for the government that is trying to lower logistics costs economy wide. GoI is also trying to swing investment decisions by global manufacturing companies seeking a 'China Plus One' strategy. Potential in the maritime economy can be unlocked by addressing both supply- and demand-side constraints.