Sops, schemes to fuel India's ship engines

The monster shipyards of China, Korea and Japan have dominated the world's shipmaking for long. Now, India wants to muscle in.

- Subhash Narayan & Rhik Kundu

A series of measures to build, repair and finance ships in India are likely this year, two people aware of the plans said, as the country aims to become a global maritime hub. The government is working on nearly a dozen mission-mode measures to fire up the local shipping industry, including a maritime development fund, a revamped shipbuilding assistance scheme, and policies to strengthen domestic ships and ports, the people said on the condition of anonymity.

Apart from shipbuilding, repairs and recycling, the new schemes will also cover financing, insurance, technical management, staffing-crewing and manning, and arbitration.

"The idea is to plug every critical gap in the value chain so that India is not just building ships, but also financing, insuring, managing, and resolving disputes, essentially offering end-to-end maritime solutions," one of the two people cited above said.