Posted on December 1, 2025
India is eyeing a future as a leading shipping and shipbuilding nation, backed by big investments – and expertise from South Korea and Japan
Centuries ago, Indian merchants rode monsoon winds across the seas, their cargoes stitching together a maritime world stretching from East Africa to Southeast Asia.
It was more than a sales pitch. Modi’s administration seeks to reclaim India’s maritime prowess and anchor itself as a resilient economic and strategic force at a moment of rising geopolitical uncertainty.
“When the global seas are rough, the world looks for a steady lighthouse,” Modi told the Global Maritime CEO Forum on October 29. “India is well poised to play that role with strength and stability.”
India conducts almost all of its trade by sea, yet carries just 5 per cent on Indian-flagged vessels. Illustration: Huy Truong
In his speech at India Maritime Week, the prime minister pitched his country as “a symbol of strategic autonomy, peace and inclusive growth” that would weather global tensions, trade disruptions and shifting supply chains.
Investors appear to have listened. Investment pledges totalling US$135 billion poured in during the event, from October 27 to 31, with commitments spread across port development, shipping, shipbuilding, sustainability and port-led industrialisation, marking a 41 per cent increase from the country’s last major maritime forum in 2023.
Behind the investment blitz is a deeper ambition: to build industrial muscle, strengthen naval capability, command the sea lanes that carry India’s trade and assert maritime influence over the Indo-Pacific.
“It’s really time for us to rise as a maritime nation,” said policy analyst Vivek Mishra of the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. “We are so behind the curve.”
It’s really time for us to rise as a maritime nation
Employees of Cochin Shipyard stand beside “Vikrant”, India’s first domestically developed aircraft carrier, during a launch ceremony in 2013. Photo: Reuters
For India, a country that conducts almost all of its trade by sea – yet carries just 5 per cent on Indian-flagged vessels – the opening is strategic as well as commercial.
“This environment presents an opportunity,” said Rajalingam Subramaniam, CEO of global ship management company Fleet Management Limited, adding that India’s focus should be on price competitiveness, enhancing port efficiency and investing in advanced logistics infrastructure to strengthen its position.
Foreign partnerships
In addition to shipping, India has set itself the goal of becoming one of the world’s top 10 shipbuilding nations by 2030. It currently occupies only a sliver of the global commercial shipbuilding market, far behind China, South Korea and Japan.
But analysts say its leading shipyards currently operate to global standards and have the potential to scale up if policy momentum is sustained.
“I would really like to see the domestic capacity being augmented,” said Mishra, deputy director of the Delhi-based think tank’s strategic studies programme.
The investment pledges unveiled at India Maritime Week come on the heels of a 700 billion rupee (US$8 billion) reforms package approved by the cabinet in September to boost domestic capacity. The measures include a shipbuilding financial assistance scheme and the creation of a Maritime Development Fund aimed at shoring up weaker links across the value chain.
“South Korea’s shipbuilding giants are eager to team up with India,” said analyst Srinivasan Balakrishnan, director of Indo-Pacific strategic engagements and partnerships at the Indic Researchers Forum think tank.
“It’s a smart, symbiotic play that’s turbocharging our defence sector.”
These moves, alongside collaborations with UK companies, “could amplify our maritime edge”, he said.
A strategic coastline
Geography is one of India’s greatest natural advantages in the maritime domain. With a long coastline and a central position in the Indian Ocean, its waters have so far been relatively insulated from the disruptions roiling global shipping routes, including attacks linked to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
The Indian Ocean is a vital artery for commerce and energy supplies connecting Europe, Asia and Africa, carrying oil cargoes and critical raw materials. Yet Delhi has only recently begun to attempt to systematically consolidate this advantage, both commercially and militarily.
In a recent editorial, The Hindu newspaper lamented that past policies had hastened the decline of marquee entities such as the state-owned Shipping Corporation of India – once a global leader in ship ownership – including by withdrawing its priority right to transport India’s oil imports.
A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Photo: Reuters
The newspaper said the country had received a “rude awakening” when the pandemic upended global supply chains and revealed how little leverage Delhi had over its own trade, given its heavy dependence on foreign-owned vessels.
“The government has realised that shipping, though a business, has much strategic importance, especially during times of disruption, war and where protectionism and resurgent national interests of Western countries rule trade,” it said.
Recent policies have strengthened the finances of major ports such as Chennai and Kolkata – enabling them to embark on new projects – and simplified regulations for foreign shipping companies. But the paper warned that India was still a long way off producing “state-of-the-art LNG ships or futuristic green-fuel burning vessels”.
Policy bottlenecks
To turn declarations and investment pledges into hulls and tonnage, analysts say Delhi will need a sustained, private sector-led modernisation drive that continues well beyond the high-profile announcements made at events like India Maritime Week.
High steel costs, policy bottlenecks and a dependence on imported components inflate the industry’s operating costs.
“There’s a mismatch between what’s on the ground and what’s there on the policy level,” said Anil Kishore Singh, a shipping industry consultant, adding that many Indian shipyards operated far below their potential and had made little headway despite having “infrastructure status”.
This status is supposed to make it easier and cheaper for shipowners and shipbuilders to access long-term, low-cost finance, including commercial loans from non-resident lenders.
There’s a mismatch between what’s on the ground and what’s there on the policy level
There’s a mismatch between what’s on the ground and what’s there on the policy level
The government had also offered shipbuilding subsidies but these excluded the small vessels crucial for transport on inland waterways, Singh said.
Costs further erode competitiveness. Steel, a key raw material in shipbuilding, is more expensive in India than in China and importing specialised parts and equipment is cumbersome.
“All these will add to costs. We have put the cart before the horse,” said Singh, a veteran industry executive, urging policymakers to focus on building a broader ecosystem, much as India did with its automobile industry.
Global carmakers, including South Korea’s Hyundai and Japan’s Suzuki Motor, are now among the leading players in the world’s third-largest auto market thanks to sustained efforts to build a deep, domestically rooted supply chain.
“It is related to the ease of doing business,” Singh said. “I suppose the Koreans are thinking the way they are making cars in India, they will be making ships. But the initial experience may be tedious.”
A Hyundai Motor India Limited car is seen outside a local workshop in Mumbai, India, last year. Photo: EPA-EFE
He added that cost competitiveness could be even more challenging in shipping due to many key components and equipment being imported. “This will impact cost competitiveness for customers both local and foreign.”
The urgency is heightened by external pressures, including US tariffs. Delhi is working towards a trade arrangement to ease Washington’s steep 50 per cent tariffs on certain Indian products.
But analysts say a more robust maritime ecosystem would offer greater insulation against such shocks.
China spent roughly two decades nurturing its shipbuilding industry, Singh said, learning from Western manufacturers before emerging as a dominant global player. Indian shipyards at Dahej and Pipavav, which he described as “world-class”, had yet to produce vessels that made a comparable mark.
Vessels under construction at a shipbuilding facility in Yangzhou, east China’s Jiangsu province, in October. China spent decades nurturing its shipbuilding industry. Photo: AP
Subramaniam recommended a multipronged strategy to realise India’s maritime ambitions, spanning global partnerships, investments in next-generation shipbuilding and workforce and supply chain development.
“The path to becoming a global leader in commercial shipbuilding requires more than just infrastructure, it requires supportive policies,” he said, adding that this should also advance India’s sustainable development goals.
“To support the future development of the maritime industry, one of the crucial areas to address is a growing demand for vessels powered by green fuels.”
Private sector help
Analysts agree that building ships in isolation will not be enough. Infrastructure projects such as the Great Nicobar transshipment hub – envisioned as an Indo-Pacific gateway – are also needed.
“Otherwise, there is an asymmetry,” Mishra said. The Great Nicobar project aims to reduce India’s dependence on foreign ports for cargo, strengthening its naval and surveillance capabilities and creating a major maritime and air connectivity hub in the Indian Ocean that could eventually rival the throughput of ports such as Singapore.
Rather than viewing such a hub as a competitor, Mishra said countries like Singapore could become partners given strong diplomatic ties, adding that industrial groups such as Adani and JSW, already on an aggressive spree of port acquisitions and development, could also expand into shipbuilding if offered the right policy incentives.
“Some focus has been restored [to shipbuilding] by roping in the private sector both from India and abroad, but unless the private sector really pitches in, the pace of development remains a challenge,” he said.
Each voyage needs an origin and a destination, and the maritime industry is inherently global
Subramaniam agreed that public-private collaboration would be essential. “Each voyage needs an origin and a destination, and the maritime industry is inherently global,” he said.
“Strategic cooperation between ports could optimise trade routes for wider benefit, as well as increase port efficiency by deploying technologies and solutions faster.”
There are some promising early signs. Port cargo volumes recorded a more than 60 per cent annual increase to almost 1,600 million tonnes in the financial year ending March 31. Average turnaround times for ships have also fallen to less than two days, down from around four days a decade ago, helping Indian ports attract more global traffic.
“This synergy helps us to have self-reliant fleets and resilient supply chains,” Balakrishnan said.
Naval rewards
Indian Navy personnel prepare for guard of honour duty during a commissioning ceremony at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai earlier this month. Photo: EPA
If India succeeds in its maritime bid, strategists say the dividends will not be limited to commerce.
“A vibrant shipping industry, apart from being the engine of the nation’s economic prosperity, is also a great force-multiplier,” said Girish Kumar Garg, a former rear admiral of the Indian Navy.
Garg forecast that the government’s plan would energise private shipbuilders. “We will see existing shipyards prospering and many new private shipyards come up in the next few years,” he said, adding that a revitalised shipbuilding ecosystem would be especially beneficial to small and medium-sized enterprises.
Naval modernisation has been moving in parallel with maritime industry advances. India is adding a new warship or submarine every 40 days and aims to operate 200 vessels by 2035, according to Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi.
The INS Mahe, the first of India’s Mahe-class anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft, during its commissioning ceremony on Monday. Photo: EPA
Speaking at the India Defence Conclave earlier this month, Tripathi said the navy aimed to become fully aatmanirbharta (self-reliant) by 2047.
The navy recently partnered with Rolls-Royce to build its first electric warship using hybrid propulsion systems to create quieter, more efficient vessels.
“The electric warship will be a quantum leap in warship technology for the Indian Navy,” Garg said, adding that it would place India “among the very select group of countries having this capability”.
For Modi’s government, the voyage ahead will test whether bold investment and global partnerships can deliver a self-reliant ecosystem capable of realising India’s maritime potential.
“We are against the clock if we want to become a maritime power,” Mishra said.
