New maritime policy can revive India's shipbuilding, boost employment

The creation of a Maritime Development Fund can provide the much-needed long-term, low-cost capital, which shipyards and shipping companies require

India Maritime Week 2025 and new policy measures aimed at reviving shipbuilding have brought the sector into focus. The recent approval by the Union Cabinet of a ₹69,725 crore package for the shipbuilding and maritime sector — including a₹25,000 crore corpus in the Maritime Development Fund — combined with the corpus of ₹24,736 crore under the Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Scheme, underscores the push to revive the country’s shipbuilding industry. Despite its over 11,000-km coastline, India accounted for only 0.06 per cent of gross tonnage in global shipbuilding output in 2024, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development