New Delhi

Industry leaders and stakeholders participated in a roundtable conference organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry to discuss the strategic expansion of India's maritime capabilities. The engagement focused on the topic, "Future of India's Shipbuilding and Ship Recycling: Decoding Budget Announcements to Power India's Maritime Future", aligning industrial efforts with government initiatives to accelerate growth in the domestic shipping sector.

Speaking to ANI at the sidelines of the event on Thursday, Sandeep Wadhwa, Chairman of the Port Shipping & Waterways Committee at PHDCCI, noted that the primary objective was to bridge the gap between policy and execution.

"This roundtable was organised by the PHD Chamber. The main purpose of this roundtable was to discuss the industry's perspective and to tell the industry about what schemes the government has put forward... PM Modi, last year, made an announcement regarding the shipbuilding funds. Since then, many companies have shown their interest in shipbuilding and ship repair facilities," he said.

Wadhwa emphasized the commitment of the chamber to facilitate this transition. "As a chamber, we will promote this and work very closely with government schemes and the industry to ensure more people engage in shipbuilding and ship repair facilities, making India a shipbuilding hub," he stated.

Jatinder Singh, Deputy Secretary General at PHDCCI, told ANI that the gathering brought together a wide array of maritime stakeholders to identify specific hurdles. "We had a lot of stakeholders from the maritime industry, and one of the objectives of this program was to understand the issues and challenges the maritime industry is facing," Singh said.

He noted that the feedback from these industry captains would be formalised into a roadmap for the government. "We also received a lot of strategic recommendations from all the industry captains. The idea is to create an action taken report based on the deliberations that happened today," he explained.

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A significant portion of the discussion centered on the financial outlay recently earmarked for the sector. Singh pointed toward the substantial budgetary support as a cornerstone for future development. "Some of the things that came into the limelight are the recent budget announcements for the maritime sector, which are humongous. There is Rs 25,000 crore allocated for the maritime development fund," he remarked.

Beyond financial capital, the industry leaders focused on the long-term structural needs of the blue economy. "Apart from this, there is a lot of emphasis on scale building, innovation, and R&D. These are some key features that will actually take us towards the Amritkal Vision 2047," Singh added.