NSIM

Shri Nitin Gadkari :Calls For Massive Skill Development In The Maritime Sector : According to the minister, a large number of employment opportunities are expected to be generated from the shipping and allied sectors in the coming years

New Delhi, 22nd July 2016

The Minister of Shipping and Road Transport & Highways Shri Nitin Gadkari has called for massive skill development in the maritime sector. Addressing the 129th meeting of the National Shipping Board (NSB) in New Delhi today, Shri Gadkari said that necessary policy level and administrative reforms must be effected urgently so that training institutions are able to run skill development and training modules for a wide ranging variety of disciplines. He said that employment generation is a major priority with the present government and many jobs will open up in the shipping and allied sectors in the coming years. The prestigious Sagarmala Programme itself is expected to throw up about one crore jobs. In addition, he said, the twelve major ports are being modernized and mechanized, three new ports are coming up soon, 111 inland waterways are being developed across the country and coastal shipping is also poised for major growth. All this will open up many employment avenues, so we need to train our youth so that they can take advantage of the job opportunites.

Shri Gadkari also said that we need to expand the scope and content of training modules so that Indian seafarers can be trained for multi-tasking and be the preferred choice for sea faring companies. According to a presentation made during the meeting, India ranks very poorly in terms of the number of seafarers it supplies to sea faring companies. One reason for this is that the Indian seafarers are not trained for multi-tasking.

Speaking about the need to promote ease of doing business the Minister called upon members of the National Shipping Board to study best practices from across the world in the maritime sector, look at successful experiments and administrative reforms, be in constant dialogue with stakeholders and then come out with recommendations for an integrated development of the maritime sector. He urged them to suggest ways to improve policies, remove obstacles and bring about administrative changes through cost effective and eco friendly means. He urged all concerned to work with a positive, proactive and pro-reforms approach to develop the sector.

Shri Gadkari also released the logo of the National Shipping Board.

The National Shipping Board is the highest advisory body on matters related to Indian Shipping and matters arising out of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958. The Board was established on 1st March 1959. Opening the deliberations today the Board Chairman Shri Vishwapati Tripathi informed that over the past two years NSB has made several recommendation for revamping the maritime sector, and many of these recommendations have also been implemented. Today’s meeting was also attended by Dr K Hariprabhu and Shri C.M. Ramesh, both Members of Parliament and Members of NSB. Shri Alok Srivastava, Addl Secretary, Ministry of Shipping, Representatives of DG Shipping, DG, Naval Operations, DG, Indian Coast Guard and stakeholders comprising of ship owners, seafarers union as well as representatives of Indian Navy, Coast Guard and maritime experts attended the meeting and deliberated over issues like enhancing skills of seafarers in maritime sector, ease of doing business in the maritime industry and promotion of public private partnership in the maritime sector.

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