India aims to become a shipbuilding powerhouse, with the Cabinet of Prime Minister Narenda Modi signing off on a package worth almost 850 billion rupees ($9.6 billion) Wednesday to help local shipyards compete with global shipbuilding giants in China, Japan and South Korea over the coming years.
The ambitious industrial push is part of a multipronged approach aimed at strengthening the South Asian nation’s shipbuilding capacity, improving long-term financing and promoting domestic shipyard development as India seeks to boost resilience and strategic self-reliance as China speeds ahead to become a global maritime power.
“We want to be able to build our own ships, flag them here … We think this plan will not only be commercially sensible but also strategically,” T.K. Ramachandran, India’s port, shipping and waterways secretary, told reporters.