India’s Maritime Policy

Why India's ₹25,000 Crore Maritime Vision Faces Choppy Waters

The Maritime Development Fund, announced in India's Maritime India Vision 2030 (MIV 2030), promises ₹25,000 crore to modernize ports and shipping infrastructure. This is ambitious, but it comes with a sharp irony: while aiming to position India as a global maritime power, the fund pales against China's enormous investments across the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative has poured billions into port projects like Gwadar (Pakistan), Hambantota (Sri Lanka), and Djibouti, creating geopolitical pressure far beyond India’s current capacity to counter. The question here is not ambition, but viability: can India scale up enough to influence the IOR materially?

The Institutional Framework for India's Maritime Policy

India’s maritime governance rests on a patchwork of policies, agencies, and programs. The Sagarmala Programme, initiated in 2015, takes charge of leveraging India’s coastline for port-led industrial growth and connectivity. As of today, 802 projects worth ₹5.5 lakh crore have been identified under Sagarmala, targeting areas such as coastal berth development, rail-road connectivity, cruise shipping, and fish harbours. This integrates well with MIV 2030’s aim to elevate India to a top 10 shipbuilding nation by 2030.

Equally important is India's defense-centric maritime push. Modernisation efforts include commissioning indigenous warships like INS Vikrant and enhancing maritime domain awareness. Indigenous shipbuilding receives notable attention, with the Ministry of Defence partnering closely with shipyards such as Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders and Cochin Shipyard Limited. Naval investments have surged, reportedly crossing ₹45,000 crore in budgetary allocations for high-impact projects in the last five years alone.

Legally, India's United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) commitments and the definition of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) — a massive 2.02 million sq km — frame its maritime reach. However, substantial gaps remain, particularly concerning enforcement in areas like Illegal, Unregulated, and Unreported (IUU) fishing and coastal surveillance.

The Numbers Speak—But Do They Tell the Full Story?

India’s vision rests heavily on its unique geographical advantage: an 11,000-km coastline and a central position in the IOR. The region handles 50% of global container traffic and 80% of seaborne oil trade. These statistics reinforce the enormous economic stakes tied to IOR stability and access.

And yet, India’s blue economy capability remains severely decentralized. For instance, despite hosting 212 minor ports and 12 major ports, inefficiencies persist in hinterland connectivity—a chronic problem undermining India's transshipment potential. MIV 2030 seeks to promote coastal tourism, renewable energy, and seabed minerals, but infrastructure gaps continue to fragment these efforts. For all the talk of Sagarmala’s scope, less than 40% of identified projects have reached operational stages since 2015.

Even the ₹25,000 crore Maritime Development Fund cannot mask broader constraints. It is dwarfed by regional competitors: Bangladesh has invested $1 billion in transforming Port Payra into a deep-sea hub, while China’s funding for Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port exceeded $1.5 billion, tying Colombo into spheres of influence India cannot yet match economically.

Structural Tensions: Where India's Maritime Vision Falters

The heart of India's maritime challenge lies in governance bottlenecks. Efforts like Sagarmanthan—a dialogue to position India as a center for maritime strategic discourse—highlight the importance of soft power. Yet domestic coordination gaps undermine this ambition. India's Ministry of Shipping, Ministry of Fisheries, and Ministry of Defence often operate in silos, creating delays in project execution and fractured policy coherence.

Take the Indo-Pacific construct, which expands the strategic importance of the Indian Ocean into a theatre bridged by the Western Pacific. While India actively promotes regional coalitions under MAHASAGAR, the reality of regional cooperation is more troubled. Indonesia and Malaysia remain lukewarm to India’s blue economy outreach. Meanwhile, Chinese-funded ports across Southeast Asia continue to redefine regional dependencies.

Critically, India's security posture in the IOR faces asymmetric challenges: piracy near the Horn of Africa, arms trafficking, terrorism exploiting porous coastal borders, and Chinese survey vessels collecting sensitive oceanographic data. Despite advancing India's maritime deterrence capacity via indigenous warships, regional surveillance capacity (such as radar networks) lags behind China's technological ecosystem.

The International Lens: Why India's Maritime Policy Lacks Japan's Precision

Japan offers a sharp comparative case. Much like India, Japan balances maritime economic ambitions and security needs. However, Tokyo’s institutional governance excels where India's falters. The Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT) seamlessly integrates shipping infrastructure into national logistics chains. Japan’s state-driven alliances, such as those with Southeast Asian nations through the Partnership for Quality Infrastructure, combine financing, technology, and diplomacy in a focused manner.

In contrast, India's fragmented governance structures dilute maritime operational precision. Initiatives like Sagarmala promise integration yet falter in execution, leaving economic corridors underdeveloped and hinterland connectivity incomplete.

What Success Should Look Like

To measure success, India must rethink metrics. It isn’t enough to track port throughput or project completions. Real progress would mean:

• Doubling transshipment volumes handled by Indian ports within five years.
• Reducing dependency on external military alliances for maritime domain awareness.
• Achieving full utilisation of Sagarmala funding without cost overruns or delays.

Ultimately, the biggest unresolved issue remains China's unchecked expansionism. Without stronger regional partnerships—rooted not just in diplomacy but economic investment—India risks falling behind despite its geopolitical advantages.

UPSC Integration: Key Questions

Mains Study Question

Q: Critically evaluate whether India's Maritime India Vision 2030 can effectively respond to China's expanding influence in the Indian Ocean Region. Identify institutional and economic constraints that might hinder India’s ambitions.

Practice Questions for UPSC

Prelims Practice Questions

Frequently Asked Questions