The Global Maritime India Summit 2023 or GMIS 2023, one of the largest maritime summits in the world, anchored Rs10 lakh crore of investment during the three-day event, which concluded in Mumbai recently. With this huge feat, the third edition of the GMIS made a significant stride towards achievement of ‘Amrit Kaal Vision 2047’ of Rs80 lakh crore investment – a vision document shared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the development of maritime sector by 2047.
GMIS 2023 was a flagship event aimed at propelling the Indian maritime economy by promoting global and regional partnerships and facilitating investments. It was an annual meet of the Indian and international maritime community to address key industry issues and exchange ideas to bring the sector forward. Driven by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, GMIS 2023 brought together global maritime players, policy makers and regulators, key opinion leaders and industry leaders through a series of engaging dialogues, forums and knowledge exchange platforms.
The event included an investor summit and an international exhibition to facilitate interaction and collaboration among the Indian and international maritime companies, policy makers, investors and other stakeholders. In order to encourage dialogue and cooperation among key industry leaders, the event also featured a Global CEOs’ Forum. Further, to recognise partners that have made outstanding contributions to India’s development as a leading maritime centre, the event hosted the Maritime Excellence Achievers’ ceremony.
India’s first ever maritime summit was held in 2016 to provide a platform for participation, engagement and interaction from 42 countries. More than 5,000 delegates from around the globe participated in the first summit, which drew enthusiastic response from 197 exhibitors including 81 international companies, and over 110 Indian private and government owned entities.
The first summit held in 2016 showcased more than 240 projects presenting investment opportunities, highlighting the role of port led development for fast-track, sustainable economic growth. The summit secured investment commitments for 140 projects in ports, shipping and allied sectors. The second such maritime summit was held in 2021.
At the valedictory session of the GMIS 2023, held in October 2023 in Mumbai, the Union Minister for Ports, Shipping & Waterways and Ayush, Sarbananda Sonowal unveiled the ‘GMIS 2023 Mumbai Declaration’, along with the Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal; the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Bhupendrabhai Patel; the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis; Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Shripad Naik; the Union Minister of State for Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Shantanu Thakur, among others.
Speaking at the valedictory session of GMIS 2023, Sonowal said, “The Global Maritime India Summit, 2023 has made a wonderful beginning by securing an investment commitment of more than Rs10 lakh crore towards achieving the vision of our visionary Prime Minister as envisioned in the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision, 2047. The vision document launched by him charts a roadmap for the development of India’s maritime sector with a time-bound implementation plan on multiple areas.
With the record number of MoUs signed among the stakeholders, the summit has unrolled the trajectory for India to become a global maritime hub. We would like to extend our gratitude to the 10 partner countries, more than 50 partner countries, all stakeholders, delegates who established a connection during this summit to collaborate on identified areas for co-operation and create future-proof solutions. With your active support towards the success of this summit, we believe that GMIS has achieved its objective by offering a platform to boost regional cooperation, collaboration among maritime nations, across dimensions.”
Goyal praised the efforts undertaken by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways in enhancing the EXIM trade capacity of India by which it has achieved more $450 billion of trade in 2022-23. The global summit witnessed participation from more than countries, 215 international and national speakers and 50,000 physical and virtual attendees. Building upon the legacy of its preceding editions, the third meet unveiled broader prospects for domestic and international maritime stakeholders.
Highlighting the role of innovation and technology, Sonowal added, “Under the leadership of the prime minister, India has been at the forefront of research and development, and implementation of existing technologies towards driving sectoral efficiency, building capacity. Establishing the Digital Centre of Excellence for Maritime Efficiency (COEME) is one of the many initiatives that displays the government’s commitment towards technological advancement – both towards indigenous and collaborative development. In line with this, harnessing the potential of India’s maritime start up ecosystem would be a key focus area for our government.”
During this three-day discourse, there was also much discussion about sustainable development with green ports and shipping, an area in which Norway and other leading maritime nations are defining best practices and setting standards that the rest of the world should follow. “India, for example, plans to develop carbon neutrality among other globally trending areas on reduction of GHG emissions with the use of green fuels, electrified/ renewable energy-based yard equipment, vehicles”, said Sonowal.
The Union Minister of Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan said, “We acknowledge the unsung heroes of the global economy – our seafarers, designated as ‘Key Workers’ by the United Nations. India’s remarkable rise to the fifth position in global seafarer supply is a testament to our decade-long efforts in fostering industry-ready talent.”
The Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Textiles, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal and the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Bhupendrabhai Patel, along with Sonowal wrapped up GMIS 2023, sharing their thoughts on how India’s maritime sector is the backbone of the nation’s economy that contributes towards all the public and private port authorities, shipping lines, legacy companies, startups, MSMEs and other supporting industries.
The three days of the summit witnessed a series of insightful roundtables and sessions, each addressing critical aspects of the maritime sector including the key regional development initiatives with discussions on India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), BIMSTEC, Chabahar port INTSC corridor. Aspects like development of multiple ports of connectivity between Indian and EU countries combat geopolitical uncertainties, promoting maritime as gateway for BIMSTEC and IMEC economic corridors and facilitating joint forums to represent pertinent focus areas at IMO were some of the key areas of discussion.
The GMIS 2023 highlighted the opportunities in India’s cruise sector while bringing to light the government’s commitment to developing the cruise sector with measures including creation of cruise terminal infrastructure, incentivisation with relaxation in taxes, institutional capacity building with training academies dedicated to cruise, and an attractive and stable regulatory policy framework in line with international standards inviting international players to set up their base in India. The government is planning to release a holistic Cruise promotion policy.
The GMIS 2023 summit concluded with relevant sessions related to the shipping industry chaired by Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare and Chemicals and Fertilizers and Shantanu Thakur, Minister of state for Ports, Shipping & Waterways. Mandaviya said, “Maritime clusters play a pivotal role in fostering collaboration, innovation, and efficiency within the industry and are indispensable in propelling our industry forward. By establishing well-equipped and specialised clusters, we aim to attract vessels from around the world seeking high-quality repair services at competitive rates. This was followed by a special discussion led by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on maritime financing, insurance & arbitration.
Highlighting the achievements of the country’s maritime sector, the FM said, “Over the past nine years, our efforts have transformed the maritime sector, with a remarkable $4.2 billion in foreign direct investments, driving progress in this vital industry. India’s ports now lead globally, boasting a mere 0.9-day turnaround time, outperforming even international hubs like Singapore and Dubai.” The session talked about establishing an Indian P&I club based on international best practices and an arbitration centre in GIFT City for all maritime sector disputes in India.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the GMIS 2023 and laid foundation stones for 21 projects worth Rs18,800 crore with 34 MoUs worth Rs3.24 lakh crore were inked during the inaugural session. This included Green Projects having a share of Rs1.8 lakh crore and Projects of Port Development and Modernisation worth Rs1.1 lakh crore. The PM also launched Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047 – a roadmap for maritime sector development for the next 25 years, the Amrit Kaal to make India Atma Nirbhar by 2047. PM Narendra Modi shared his vision of unlocking investment of Rs80 lakh crore for the development of maritime sector during this period.
‘Let’s not out-price our advantage’
India is one of the world’s top suppliers of crew to the global shipping industry, and Hong Kong-headquartered Anglo-Eastern Group is the largest employer of Indian seafarers. Global shipping conglomerate Anglo-Eastern Group’s Indian arm, Anglo-Eastern Ship Management India is headed by a veteran marine engineer, Vineet Gupta. Currently managing director, Anglo-Eastern Ship Management India, Gupta joined the company in 2003. Excerpts from his interview with Hemang Palan:
What are the major challenges faced by ship management companies operating in India?
Ocean-going ships primarily need trained and qualified seafarers for efficient and safe operations. Historically global seafarers supply has always lagged the needed numbers, Indian seafarers have successfully positioned themselves as solution to this short supply and they have slowly become preferred nationality for many foreign ship-owners. Now, due to multiple global issues and crisis, Indian seafarers are in great demand; this has helped Indian seafarers to grow faster and also increased their employability.
On the down side, high demand has sparked a wage war, as there are many shipping companies entering the Indian market with higher wages offered to lure seafarers. Our big challenge is to keep this under control to not out price our advantage. Being a largest employer of Indian seafarers, Anglo-Eastern as a responsible company, always remained alert to this threat and never allowed wage war to initiate from our side. We continue to be conservative in deciding seafarers’ wages.
Also, demand of Indian seafarers in the global market has impacted domestic supply of seafarers to Indian flag ships due to disadvantages of the Income Tax Regime. Hence, one of the major challenges is the crew wages for Indian ship management companies, as the Income Tax Regime is unfavourable for seafarers serving on Indian flag vessels. With this tax deduction, the take home salary difference can be up to about 25-30 per cent.
Compensating this may increase per day operating cost of vessels up to $400-500 (about 10 per cent), this puts Indian ship management companies at disadvantage in global industry. All Indian ship-owners may not accept this extra burden, so many Indian registered vessels keep struggling to get competent seafarers to operate their vessels.
How do you foresee the growth of Anglo-Eastern’s Indian operations in the near future? Also, how many Indian seafarers are expected to get added to your existing pool?
Anglo-Eastern ship Management has always trusted Indian seafarers for operating their vessels. Pool of Anglo-Eastern Indian seafarers has gradually increased to a proud number of more than 21,000 in the last 50 years, since the inception of Anglo Eastern. At any given time, there are more than 11,000 Indian seafarers on board Anglo-Eastern ships.
It is good to point out that ‘Anglo-Eastern Indian seafarers’ bring close to half a billion dollars home every year, this is a large contribution of one company in improving foreign currency reserve of India. Anglo-Eastern has made a name for itself as a reliable ship manager with top quality of delivery to ship-owners. There are ship-owners associated with Anglo-Eastern for decades and many new big ship-owners who partnered with Anglo-Eastern in the last 25 years have stayed as happy customers.
And, we are partners in the vision of the Directorate General of Shipping of India to keep increasing numbers of Indian seafarers in global shipping. Anglo Eastern signed an MoU with Directorate General of Shipping of India during recently concluded Global Maritime India Summit 2023 to add at least 1,000 seafarers every year by bringing more shipboard berths to Indian seafarers, and hence generate more jobs for Indians. Anglo-Eastern already has one in four trainees serving on board foreign ship owner’s vessels.
How should ship management companies operating in India and Indian shipping associations collaborate to attract youth of India to join the merchant navy?
With 250 million Indian youth available as a young workforce, India stands out as the most powerful country to control all industries. Global ship management companies can also benefit from this abundance of Indian educated, smart and hardworking youth. This supply of highly able manpower can easily be trained for this niche industry in the high-quality maritime training infrastructure, guided by thousands of already trained officers and leaders of industry.
Ship management companies and reputed shipping associations like Maritime Association of Ship-owners, Ship-managers & Agents are already geared up with top quality training facilities.
What kind of role does Anglo Eastern Maritime Academy or AEMA plays in skilling Indian youth keen on joining the merchant navy? Do female candidates enjoy any special incentives at AEMA?
Anglo Eastern Ship Management takes pride in maintaining high standards of safety and professionalism. AEMA has been entrusted with the task of identifying young men and women from all over India, who have the right aptitude to fit in this role, and to prepare them to achieve our standards. Anglo-Eastern Academy is at an advantage to attract better talent due to assured jobs on board ships of one of the largest and best ship management company, having vessels of all types and sizes. In our world class facility, we prepare these talented youngsters to be one of the best seafarers.
Training in theory and practical subjects is provided by experienced maritime professionals, on state-of-the-art equipment. AEMA cadets have the advantage of having the backing of one of the biggest ship management companies in the world. Besides the professional subjects the cadets get adequate coaching in ‘soft skills’ or human element as well, preparing them to face the challenges of sea-life by building resilience, learning coping skills, understanding gender equity and acquiring all that it takes to become a global citizen.
Women seafarers are treated as special and made welcome to AEMA, in this generally male dominant industry. We prepare them to be equal on-board ships, though we ensure all gender sensitive special requirements are taken care of during training and even later on board vessels. At AEMA a culture of DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) prevails. Most of the rules and facilities are gender-neutral. Selection process is purely on merit and not gender-driven.
We take special efforts to prepare our seafarers to adjust to this change in the on-board environment and also in the way staff handles colleagues on board vessels.
Please list ‘environmental sustainability governance (ESG) initiatives of Anglo in the past 12 months, as Anglo was honoured with a prestigious award at the Global Maritime India Summit 2023 (GMIS 2023) held in Mumbai recently.
The ESG initiatives, which were acknowledged at the GMIS 2023, are:
As a decarbonisation initiative, our shore offices are going green by subscribing to renewable energy from the grid. Prominent being the Solar PV installations at AEMA Karjat, Mumbai. AE Shore operations are carbon-neutral from 2019. Anglo-Eastern Technical Services is engaged in building ships that will use alternate fuels for future Zero Carbon ships.
Our Fleet Performance Centre is a platform to reduce our carbon emissions and optimise operations. Anglo-Eastern Maritime Academy is a green and sustainable campus. It is providing Training to Cadets and generating employment in India. We are focussed on DEI principles and gender diversity, including promoting Women seafarers through AWOS platform and all overseas Alliances. AE Training Centre is imparting futuristic training and supporting the just transition cause.
Training as a means to achieve enhanced safety and decarbonisation, including online platform ‘Marine FLIX’. Our digitalisation and transparent corporate governance include AE Mariners App, Seafarer Feedback Surveys, Code of Conduct and a strong corporate policy to drive towards business excellence. We follow the best business ethics as UN GCN member, MACN Member and signatory to Neptune declaration.