Comrades Editorial · 18 Sep 2026 (PDF)
In this edition
- Towards a Sustainable Blue Economy for Viksit Bharat Economic Scenario
Economic Scenario
Towards a Sustainable Blue Economy for Viksit Bharat
Source This editorial is based on “Along the coasts and in the sea, India’s Blue Revolution beckons” published in the Indian Express on 17/09/2026. The article highlights that scaling India’s marine growth requires balancing deep-sea harvesting with strict ecological safeguards and community protection. India is seeking to expand fishing beyond its heavily exploited coastal waters into the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the high seas to boost tuna exports and modernise fleets. However, succeeding in this Blue Economy requires prioritizing scientific catch limits, ecosystem restoration, marine spatial planning, and blue justice to protect traditional livelihoods over mere extraction. Ultimately, this strategic shift must focus on maximizing the economic value of marine resources rather than simply increasing the volume extracted. What are the Major Developments Shaping India’s Blue Economy?- Transition Towards Integrated Blue-Economy Governance:
- India is gradually treating oceans as an interconnected economic, ecological and strategic domain, rather than administering ports, fisheries and offshore resources in isolation.
- The Draft Blue Economy Policy identifies seven priority areas, including ocean governance, fisheries, coastal tourism, marine manufacturing, emerging industries and ocean science.
- The Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047 provides a long-term roadmap covering ports, shipping, shipbuilding, inland waterways, maritime skills and decarbonisation through more than 300 initiatives.
- India’s 2.02-million-sq-km EEZ provides the spatial foundation for fisheries, hydrocarbons, renewable energy, seabed resources and marine research.
- Port-Led Development and Smart Maritime Logistics:
- The Sagarmala Programme is transforming ports into multimodal economic gateways by linking port modernisation with industrial clusters, railways, highways, coastal shipping and community development.
- India’s major ports handled approximately 855 million tonnes of cargo in FY2024–25, an annual increase of about 4.3%.
- Mechanisation, RFID-based entry, Port Community Systems, direct port delivery and digital vessel clearance have reduced average port turnaround time to less than one day, strengthening export competitiveness.
- Projects such as the Vizhinjam International Seaport, a natural deep-water transshipment port, seek to retain Indian cargo presently routed through foreign hubs such as Colombo and Singapore.
- Maritime Finance, Shipbuilding and Domestic Shipping Capacity:
- Policy attention is shifting from merely expanding ports to building an indigenous maritime industrial complex encompassing shipbuilding, ship repair, leasing, recycling and maritime finance.
- The Union Budget 2025–26 proposed a ₹25,000-crore Maritime Development Fund for long-term financing, with government participation capped at 49% and the remainder mobilised from ports and private investors.
- Large ships have been included in the Infrastructure Harmonised Master List, improving access to long-tenure institutional finance.
- The Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Policy, domestic-content incentives and planned shipbuilding clusters seek to enlarge the Indian-flagged fleet and reduce dependence on foreign vessels for India’s seaborne trade.
- Fisheries-to-Value-Chain Transformation:
- India is moving beyond increasing fish catch towards aquaculture intensification, cold-chain integration, traceability and value-added seafood exports.
- Under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), support extends to hatcheries, fishing harbours, brood banks, refrigerated transport, biofloc systems, sea cages and disease surveillance.
- India has emerged as the 2nd-largest fish-producing country (after China), contributing 8% to global fish production, supporting 3 crore fishermen and fish farmers.
- Sagar Mitras, Kisan Credit Cards for fishers, vessel transponders and digital catch certification are progressively integrating small-scale fishers into formal value chains.
- Deep-Sea Exploration and Underwater Technological Capability:
- The Deep Ocean Mission is creating domestic capabilities in manned submersibles, seabed mapping, ocean robotics and deep-sea mineral exploration.
- Under Samudrayaan, the indigenously developed MATSYA-6000 is designed to carry three people to a depth of 6,000 metres for scientific observation and resource assessment.
- India also holds an exploration contract for polymetallic nodules in the Central Indian Ocean Basin, which contain strategic minerals such as nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese.
- Emergence of Offshore Renewable and Marine Energy:
- The ocean is increasingly being incorporated into India’s energy-transition strategy, especially through offshore wind, tidal-resource assessment and ocean-energy research.
- The government has retained a long-term objective of developing 30 GW of offshore-wind capacity by 2030, with high-potential zones identified off Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
- A ₹7,453-crore Viability Gap Funding scheme was approved to support the first 1 GW of offshore-wind projects and associated port upgrades.
- Research on wave energy, tidal power and Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)—including NIOT’s work in Lakshadweep—could provide decentralised energy and desalinated water to island territories.
- Marine Biotechnology, Seaweed and High-Value Blue Products:
- India’s Blue Economy is acquiring a knowledge-intensive dimension through the commercial use of marine organisms for food, pharmaceuticals, biofuels and industrial compounds.
- The Seaweed Mission and PMMSY encourage seaweed cultivation in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, especially through women’s self-help groups.
- Seaweed supplies hydrocolloids, bio-stimulants, nutraceuticals and biodegradable packaging inputs, while absorbing nutrients and carbon without requiring freshwater or cultivable land.
- Blue Carbon, Coastal Resilience and Nature-Based Livelihoods:
- Ecological restoration is increasingly being recognised as productive natural infrastructure, rather than as a constraint on maritime development.
- Under MISHTI—Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats and Tangible Incomes, approximately 22,560 hectares across 13 coastal States and Union Territories were taken up for mangrove plantation and restoration during 2023–25.
- Mangroves function as blue-carbon sinks, fish nurseries and biological barriers against cyclones, erosion and saline-water intrusion, while supporting honey collection, fisheries and ecotourism.
- Blue Flag beach certification, Integrated Coastal Zone Management and community-based conservation in areas such as the Gulf of Mannar and Odisha coast are linking tourism revenue with waste management and ecosystem protection.
- Modernisation of Maritime Legal Frameworks:
- India is replacing colonial-era maritime laws with modern frameworks to simplify regulations, strengthen domestic capacity, and align with international standards.
- The Coastal Shipping Act, 2025 removes licensing requirements for Indian-flagged vessels in domestic trade and promotes integration with inland waterways, while the Indian Ports Act, 2025 modernises port governance, strengthens Centre-State coordination, streamlines dispute resolution, promotes greener ports, and supports digital operations.
- Degradation of Marine and Coastal Ecosystems:
- Port dredging, land reclamation, sand mining, bottom trawling and coastal construction are fragmenting mangroves, coral reefs, mudflats, seagrass beds and turtle-nesting beaches.
- The Great Nicobar Island Project, involving in-principle approval for diversion of 130 sq km of forestland, illustrates the tension between strategic infrastructure and the protection of tropical forests, coral ecosystems and indigenous communities.
- Project-specific environmental clearances often fail to assess cumulative ecological impacts when several ports, tourism projects and industrial corridors operate within the same coastal landscape.
- Marine Pollution and Emerging Contaminants:
- India’s coastal waters receive untreated sewage, industrial effluents, agricultural runoff, abandoned fishing gear, oil and plastic waste, producing eutrophication, hypoxic zones and bioaccumulation.
- According to data submitted by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board to the NGT, approximately 1,338 million litres of Mumbai’s 2,814 MLD sewage generation was entering the Arabian Sea untreated.
- The sinking of MSC ELSA 3 off Kerala in May 2025, with 640 containers, including hazardous cargo, and substantial fuel onboard, released oil, containers and plastic pellets, exposing weaknesses in hazardous-cargo regulation and polluter liability.
- Microplastics and ghost nets enter marine food chains, damage fishing gear and threaten turtles, cetaceans and commercially important species.
- Climate Change, Ocean Warming and Coastal Erosion:
- The Blue Economy is highly exposed to sea-level rise, marine heatwaves, ocean acidification, cyclones and shoreline retreat.
- The Ministry of Earth Sciences’ climate assessment found that the tropical Indian Ocean warmed by about 1°C during 1951–2015, considerably faster than the global average tropical-ocean warming.
- A National Centre for Coastal Research assessment found that 33.6% of India’s assessed coastline experienced erosion during 1990–2018, threatening settlements, ports, beaches and fishing infrastructure.
- Frequent marine heatwaves and coral bleaching in the Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar and Gulf of Mannar regions can reduce tourism revenue, fish productivity and coastal protection.
- Fishing Pressure and Ecological Unsustainability:
- Rising fishing capacity, destructive gear and competition between mechanised fleets and artisanal fishers are producing fishing-effort overcapacity even where national catch figures appear stable.
- Bottom trawling, juvenile fishing, bycatch and discards damage benthic habitats and kill non-target species such as turtles, sharks and rays.
- Declining nearshore catches compel small fishers to travel farther, increasing fuel costs, accident risks and conflicts over territorial fishing grounds.
- Aquaculture expansion may also cause salinisation, antibiotic discharge, disease outbreaks and conversion of coastal wetlands when carrying capacities are ignored.
- Marginalisation of Traditional Coastal Communities:
- Port expansion, tourism enclaves, conservation zones and offshore-energy installations may dispossess fishers from both physical settlements and customary access to the sea.
- Compensation frameworks generally value titled land but overlook customary fishing routes, seasonal occupations, fish-drying spaces and cultural attachment to coasts.
- Women engaged in sorting, drying, processing and vending remain under-recognised because policy support is frequently vessel- and owner-centric.
- This produces ocean grabbing, where the benefits of blue growth are privatised while ecological and displacement costs are borne by vulnerable communities.
- Fragmented Regulation and Deficient Marine Spatial Planning:
- Ocean governance is divided among ministries dealing with environment, fisheries, shipping, petroleum, renewable energy, tourism, defence and science.
- India lacks a binding nationwide Marine Spatial Planning framework capable of scientifically allocating ocean space among fishing grounds, shipping lanes, conservation areas, offshore wind farms and submarine infrastructure.
- Project-level assessments rarely incorporate carrying capacity, ecosystem-service valuation, climate risk and transboundary impacts.
- The absence of comprehensive ocean natural-capital accounting encourages policymakers to count port revenue while ignoring losses from habitat destruction and declining fisheries.
- Structural Dependence, Financing and Technological Gaps:
- India’s maritime economy remains dependent on foreign shipping, imported equipment and capital-intensive technologies, limiting domestic value capture.
- Approximately 93% of India’s EXIM (Export-Import) cargo has been carried by foreign-flagged vessels, with an estimated annual foreign-exchange outgo of around USD 52 billion on freight and related services.
- Deep-sea mining presents unresolved questions regarding baseline biodiversity data, irreversible seabed damage and liability, while commercial technology remains unproven.
- Shortages of marine biologists, ocean engineers, hydrographers, underwater welders and maritime-finance specialists constrain the creation of a genuinely indigenous blue-technology ecosystem.
- Enact a Unified Blue Economy Governance Framework:
- Establish a National Ocean Council, chaired at the highest political level, to coordinate shipping, fisheries, environment, energy, tourism, defence and coastal States.
- Create an independent Ocean Sustainability Regulator to conduct cumulative-impact assessments, monitor compliance and resolve competing claims over ocean space.
- Mandate five-year State Blue Economy Plans aligned with SDG-14, India’s climate commitments and district coastal-zone plans, replacing fragmented departmental planning.
- Scale Up Marine Spatial Planning through a Digital Ocean Twin:
- Every coastal State should scientifically demarcate zones for fishing, conservation, shipping, tourism, offshore energy and strategic infrastructure.
- Develop a continuously updated Digital Twin of India’s EEZ, integrating bathymetry, fish breeding grounds, vessel traffic, erosion, pollution and climate-risk data.
- New projects should pass carrying-capacity and cumulative-impact tests, not merely isolated project-level EIAs; ecologically critical areas should be designated no-go and low-impact zones.
- Institutionalise Blue Justice and Community Co-ownership:
- Establish Blue Gram Sabhas or Coastal Community Councils with prior consultation rights over projects affecting landing centres, fishing routes, beaches and coastal commons.
- Introduce community-benefit agreements, requiring ports, tourism projects and offshore-energy developers to share revenue, jobs and local infrastructure benefits.
- Community-owned seaweed, ecotourism and mangrove enterprises should follow a benefit-sharing model, preventing “ocean grabbing” by large investors.
- Shift from Catch Maximisation to Fisheries Co-management:
- Create species- and region-specific harvest-control rules, based on real-time stock assessment, spawning seasons and maximum sustainable yield.
- Cooperatives, scientists and fisheries departments should jointly manage local resources through territorial-use rights in fisheries (TURFs) and community quotas.
- Deploy low-cost electronic observers, satellite-linked transponders and QR-based catch traceability to curb Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and improve access to premium export markets.
- Introduce a gear buy-back programme for destructive trawls and an Extended Producer Responsibility system for fishing nets, requiring manufacturers to collect and recycle ghost gear.
- Build Ocean Accounts and Innovative Blue Finance:
- MoSPI should create annual Ocean Natural-Capital Accounts under the UN’s System of Environmental-Economic Accounting, measuring both economic output and changes in ecosystem assets.
- Introduce an Indian Sustainable Blue Finance Taxonomy so that blue-labelled investment cannot finance ecologically destructive ports, mining or aquaculture.
- Scale up blue bonds, sustainability-linked loans, blended finance and resilience bonds for sewage treatment, coastal restoration and clean shipping. The World Bank identifies these as important instruments for bridging the ocean-finance gap.
- Create Climate-Resilient Coasts and Livelihood Insurance:
- Combine mangrove belts, restored dunes, seagrasses, permeable breakwaters and beach nourishment with cyclone-resilient fishing harbours and elevated cold chains.
- Prepare dynamic coastal-risk maps incorporating sea-level rise, subsidence, storm surges and future erosion, and prohibit new high-value construction in retreat zones.
- India can adapt the Caribbean’s COAST parametric-insurance model, under which predefined cyclone or wave-intensity thresholds trigger rapid payments to fishers, crew members and vendors.
- Establish a Green Maritime-Industrial Ecosystem:
- Develop green shipping corridors connecting selected Indian and foreign ports, with assured demand for green methanol, ammonia and hydrogen.
- Create a domestic manufacturing programme for electric coastal vessels, fuel cells, offshore-wind foundations, subsea cables and pollution-response ships.
- A progressively increasing port-emissions levy on highly polluting vessels could finance cleaner harbour craft and a just transition for maritime workers.
- Build an Ocean-Technology and Regional Security Commons:
- Establish Blue-Tech Innovation Clusters around NIOT, INCOIS, coastal IITs, research vessels and shipyards to develop autonomous underwater vehicles, marine sensors, robotics, corrosion-resistant materials and marine bio-products.
- Create an interoperable National Ocean Data Grid combining satellite data, sonar, weather buoys, electronic catch records and pollution sensors, with open access for researchers and start-ups.
- Use AI-based vessel-anomaly detection and satellite surveillance against IUU fishing, smuggling and unauthorised seabed activity, while protecting fisher data from commercial misuse.
- India’s new Blue Revolution must measure success by enduring welfare from a healthy ocean rather than mere extraction volume. For the Blue Economy to become a pillar of Viksit Bharat, a transformative strategy is required—one that combines science-based harvesting, modern technology, value addition, social justice, and ecosystem restoration. Ultimately, India must treat its ocean simultaneously as a vibrant economic frontier, a protected ecological commons, and a secure source of traditional livelihood security.