BS Infra Summit: India must support logistics, say industry veterans

India's maritime sector eyes growth with ₹80,000 lakh crore plan, focusing on ports, coastal shipping, logistics, and tech adoption to strengthen trade and blue economy

Shipbuilding, logistics and ports will drive India’s blue economy, according to two senior maritime industry experts who discussed the sector’s prospects at the Business Standard Infrastructure Summit in New Delhi. 

Logistics and shipbuilding can be sectors of national pride, said Amit Singh, head of business, MOL South Asia Middle East (Mitsui OSK Lines) and Kapil Mahajan, chief information and technology officer at Allcargo Logistics, during a panel discussion moderated by Business Standard’s Ruchika Chitravanshi. 

“The government is very interested in building our maritime interests. We have lagged for two decades. But now the time has come that in the next 15-20 years, we have to increase our market share in shipbuilding significantly,” said Singh. He called for expanding the use of Indian-flagged vessels, tankers, and gas carriers. 

India accounts for 0.06 per cent of global shipbuilding and controls only 5 per cent of its own maritime tonnage. Over 90 per cent of the world’s shipbuilding in 2018 was done in China, South Korea, and Japan. 

India plans investments of ₹80 trillion to make the country a maritime power by 2047, according to Amrit Kaal Vision 2047, a policy formulated by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways. Of that amount, around ₹54 trillion is expected to be spent on developing indigenous shipbuilding and shipping capabilities. 

Vision 2047 proposes developing “world-class ports” and promoting inland water transport, coastal shipping and a sustainable maritime sector. The government has established a Maritime Development Fund for shipbuilding, repairs, tonnage, and port infrastructure. Initially given ₹25,000 crore in Union Budget 2025, the fund’s allocation has been increased to ₹70,000 crore. 

World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI) Report 2023 ranked India 22nd in the international shipment category as against 44th in 2014. India’s container dwell time is three days, compared to four days in the United Arab Emirates and South Africa, seven days for the United States of America and 10 days for Germany. 

“We see the impact of the Gati Shakti programme that was launched for Indian logistics, with the e-way bill and goods and services tax coming in. We are also seeing a lot of positive impact from the infrastructure in the container freight stations,” 

Mahajan said. 

As the logistics industry adopts artificial intelligence and other technologies, Mahajan stressed India should build its own capabilities. “On the technology side, we still don’t have any global platforms other than a few government initiatives that have grown out of India. If we can build tech here, it’s bigger than a few countries put together. One gets that scalability and knowledge when you build systems of that scale. We need a push there. Maybe a logistics platform built out of India would be a sense of pride for all of us,” he said. 

Mahajan believes that properly executing the Gati Shakti scheme by 2030 “should do the trick” for India. Gati Shakti aims to bring together about 16 ministries, including Railways and Roadways, for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects. 

Industry experts further expect the Coastal Shipping Bill, passed by the government in April 2025, to have a positive impact on shipping and overall logistics. The bill is aimed at making coastal trade easier, more competitive, and better aligned with the government’s broader transport vision under the National Logistics Policy. 

“This is very encouraging for a company like Mitsui OSK. We are here in this country, and we know the potential of India having a long coastline,” Singh said. 

As India charts ambitious plans for its maritime economy, global uncertainties like tariff threats by US President Donald Trump and wars, have affected the country’s logistics sector. 

“In India, we are seeing a lot of demand patterns getting impacted, probably because a lot of the export-import (exim) trade is getting impacted. From the hinterland to the ports, goods movements have seen the pattern getting disrupted. The sector is badly hit because of the situation worldwide, with wars going on and very headstrong leaders in powerful countries,” Mahajan said. 

Further, according to Mahajan, disruptions in vessel movements are driving up costs. 

“It's kind of a spiral right now in terms of where we stand. It's very difficult to predict. All our prediction engines are going for a toss because we are not able to feed enough outside stimulus into the system for us to do some prediction on the different trade lanes where we operate. We're hoping the situation will improve,” Mahajan added. 

At the same time, Singh believes that the shipping sector has been very adept at handling “changes”. “I would not call it disruptive; I would call it a changed scenario. We, as a shipping company, are examining all these changing geopolitical scenarios.”