Confronted with a spate of missile and drone strikes on commercial ships, India’s maritime administration is moving quickly to shore up the safety net for the country’s 250,000-plus merchant sailors. On 30 July, Union Minister for Ports, Shipping & Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal chaired a high-level review that pulled in senior officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, the Directorate-General of Shipping (DGS) and Indian missions in West Asia, the Black Sea and the Red Sea. Briefings covered the latest risk picture on key chokepoints—from the Bab el-Mandeb and Strait of Hormuz to Ukraine’s war-hit ports—and assessed how quickly consular teams can react if Indians are caught in hostilities. Officials told the Minister that the round-the-clock Seafarer Grievance & Assistance Cell is now integrated with mission hotlines so that families can obtain status updates in minutes rather than days. The DGS has also asked Recruitment & Placement Service Licence (RPSL) agents to embed security briefings, personal-safety drills and mental-health counselling into every pre-departure orientation. A second pillar is better real-time information. The Indian Navy’s International Liaison Offices in Manama and Abu Dhabi are feeding threat intelligence directly to shipping companies and RPSLs; those alerts are being mirrored on the DG Shipping and MEA X (formerly Twitter) handles. The government is simultaneously pushing flag-state owners to activate double-hulled routing, switch off AIS only when strictly necessary, and carry citadels or safe rooms on tankers transiting high-risk waters. For shipping firms, the meeting is a shot across the bow: any company that deploys an Indian crew without registering the vessel’s itinerary with DGS risk-analysis desks can now be suspended from RPSL recruitment for up to six months. Meanwhile, EXIM shippers have been advised to factor in longer voyage times and insurance surcharges of 15-25 % on Black Sea routes when pricing contracts. Why it matters for global mobility: Indian ratings and officers crew an estimated 17 % of the world commercial fleet. Supply-chain planners, charterers and insurers rely on that labour pool; any large-scale withdrawal created by security fears would constrict capacity and raise freight for everything from crude oil to finished auto parts. The government’s proactive stance should reassure corporates moving time-sensitive cargo through volatile theaters.
Source: India Shipping News
