{"id":54785,"date":"2025-09-22T19:15:45","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T13:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=54785"},"modified":"2025-09-24T14:39:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T09:09:54","slug":"large-ships-infrastructure-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/22-09-2025\/large-ships-infrastructure-status","title":{"rendered":"Large Ships Granted Infrastructure Status\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/ Infrastructure<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Ministry of Finance has finally given <strong>infrastructure status<\/strong> to large ships, meeting one of the shipping <strong>industry\u2019s longest-standing demands.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Large ships <\/strong>are defined as<strong> Indian-owned and flagged commercial vessels<\/strong> with a <strong>gross tonnage of 10,000 or more<\/strong>, or Indian-built, owned, and flagged commercial ships of 1,500 gross tonnage or more.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>Ministry of Finance included &#8220;large ships&#8221;<\/strong> in the harmonized master list of infrastructure sectors under the<strong> &#8220;Transport and Logistics&#8221; category<\/strong>, making them eligible for all benefits accorded to infrastructure projects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Significance of Inclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Enables access <\/strong>to infrastructure lending under easier terms, including higher limits on loans.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Facilitates access<\/strong> to larger external commercial borrowings (ECB).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Opens up opportunities for <strong>viability gap funding and tax incentives.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Status of India\u2019s Shipping Sector<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India has an approximately 11,099 km <strong>long coastline,<\/strong> with 13 major ports and over 200 non-major ports.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>India accounts for ~1.3% of world fleet tonnage, despite handling ~95% of its trade by volume and ~70% by value through <strong>maritime routes.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>India is the largest supplier of seafarers after the Philippines<\/strong>, contributing nearly 10% of global seafarers, and ranks among top 5 nations in officer supply.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Low Indian-flag share: <\/strong>Over 70% of India\u2019s cargo is carried on foreign ships, raising freight bill vulnerabilities (~$75 billion annually).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Shipbuilding constraints: <\/strong>High input costs, lack of scale, limited financing support, competition from East Asian yards.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Port efficiency gaps: <\/strong>Though improving, turnaround time still lags behind global leaders like Singapore and China.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Recent Developments (2024\u201325)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Launch of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/17-04-2025\/india-middle-east-europe-economic-corridor\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/17-04-2025\/india-middle-east-europe-economic-corridor\">India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC)<\/a><\/strong>, boosting the importance of Indian ports.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>India joined IMO\u2019s Green Voyage 2050 programme<\/strong>, committing to sustainable shipping.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Sagarmala Project:<\/strong> Focused on port modernisation, connectivity, port-linked industrialisation, and coastal community development.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Maritime India Vision (MIV) 2030:<\/strong> Roadmap for \u20b93 lakh crore investment, aiming to increase Indian flag tonnage to 23 million GT by 2030.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Amrit Kaal Maritime Vision 2047:<\/strong> Seeks to make India a global maritime hub with focus on green shipping, digitalisation, and cruise tourism.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Growth in cruise tourism: <\/strong>The<strong> <\/strong>passenger traffic crossed the 1 million mark in 2024, aided by Mumbai, Kochi, Goa cruise terminals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.business-standard.com\/economy\/news\/large-ships-get-infrastructure-status-in-boost-to-maritime-industry-125091901066_1.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Ministry of Finance has finally given infrastructure status to large ships, meeting one of the shipping industry\u2019s longest-standing demands.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>About<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Large ships are defined as Indian-owned and flagged commercial vessels with a gross tonnage of 10,000 or more, or Indian-built, owned, and flagged commercial ships of 1,500 gross tonnage or more.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Ministry of Finance included &#8220;large ships&#8221; in the harmonized master list of infrastructure sectors under the &#8220;Transport and Logistics&#8221; category, making them eligible for all benefits accorded to infrastructure projects.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/uncategorized\/22-09-2025\/large-ships-infrastructure-status\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":54815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/09\/large-ships-infrastructure-status.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54785"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55022,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54785\/revisions\/55022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}