India To Get Apex Body For Maritime Challenges

Apr 14, 2021

The exact contours of the NMC, which will “integrate” all the users operating along the coast as well as on the high seas, are not yet in the public domain. But sources say it’s likely to be headed by a “national maritime security coordinator” to usher in synergy among different stakeholders.

India will now finally have an apex federal body to handle all maritime affairs, from the coastline to the high seas, and ensure cohesive policymaking and effective coordination among the multiple authorities dealing with such issues in the country.

“The organizational structure of a National Maritime Commission(NMC) has been worked out after inter-ministerial consultations. It is in the final stages now, requiring only the nod of the Cabinet Committee on Security(CCS). By the middle of this year, the NMC will become a reality,” says chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat.

The exact contours of the NMC, which will “integrate” all the users operating along the coast as well as on the high seas, are not yet in the public domain. But sources say it’s likely to be headed by a “national maritime security coordinator” to usher in synergy among different stakeholders, ranging from central ministries and departments (home, shipping, fisheries etc) and state governments to the Navy, Coast Guard, customs, intelligence agencies and port authorities.

India needs a “full-time framework” to handle the “vast and critical” maritime domain, which has too many players who often work at crosspurposes with diffuse responsibilities, said sources.

The necessity for such an apex body has been stressed in the past also.

But it could never take concrete shape due to turf wars, among other things. After the deadly 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, for instance, a maritime security advisory board (MSAB), with a maritime security advisor as its chief, figured on the CCS agenda.

The 2001 Group of Ministers’ report on reforming the national security system, after the 1999 Kargil conflict, had also underlined the need for “an apex body for management of maritime affairs for institutionalized linkages among the Guard and ministries of central and state governments”.

Courtesy: TOI