Indian Maritime University News

India's Centre of Excellence in Maritime & Shipbuilding (CEMS), a well-funded startup in skill development for maritime and shipbuilding sector has announced thatits hi tech labs at Visakhapatnam are ready for starting orientation programmes for trainees. A seminar was held on 13th July 2018 in Vishakhapatnam to inform stakeholders about the facilities in the labs and to begin the process of training. This is shortly after CEMS announced the readiness of its Mumbai labs. CEMS is promoted by Indian Register of Shipping (IRClass) in partnership with Siemens and Ministry of Shipping. Its Visakhapatnam campus is located in the Indian Maritime University (IMU) premises.

Shortly after announcing the launch of its labs in Mumbai, Center of Excellence in Maritime & Shipbuilding (CEMS), a startup in skill development for maritime and shipbuilding sector, has announced readiness of its labs in Visakhapatnam.CEMS is promoted by Indian Register of Shipping (IRClass) in partnership with Siemens and support from Sagarmala, Ministry of Shipping. Its Visakhapatnam campus is located in the Indian Maritime University (IMU) premises.CEMS has planned 18 labs for its Visakhapatnam campus of which six labs are ready and will be operationalized shortly.

Taking ahead the bilateral relations between India & Republic of Indonesia, Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Shipping met General (Retd.) Luhut Binser Pandjaitan, Coordinating Minister of Maritime Affairs of Indonesia, in New Delhi. Ahead of the visit of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Jakarta in May 2018, General (Retd.) Pandjaitan, who is on a 2-day visit to India met Shri Gadkari to discuss bilateral cooperation in the maritime sector between the two countries. The bilateral talks covered a wide range of topics including river rejuvenation, wastewater treatment, generating revenue streams from waste, enhancing shipping linkages between the two countries, developing ports and airports, training on light house technology and development of navigational aids.

A world class Center of Excellence in Maritime and Ship Building (CEMS) is being set up by Ministry of Shipping in collaboration with  Siemens and Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) under the Ministry’s flagship Sagarmala Program. CEMS will have  campuses at Vishakhapatnam and Mumbai, and will provide industry-relevant skill development, equip students with employable engineering and technical skills in the port and maritime sector and contribute to the Government of India’s ambitious Sagarmala programme. Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation had announced this at an event in Cochin last week.

In order to support the Indian shipping industry, the Government of India has exempted Customs and Excise Duty leviable on bunker fuels used in Indian flag vessels for transportation of mix of EXIM, domestic and empty containers between two or more ports in India. Government has brought in a uniform abatement of service tax for transportation of goods by rail, road and sea vessels. Indian shipping industry has been provided cargo support through Right of First Refusal (RoFR). Government has taken policy decision to allow shipping enterprises based in India to acquire ships abroad and also flag them in the country of their convenience. As a step towards promoting “Ease of Doing Business” methodology for computation of period of stay of seafarers in India has been redefined.

India will soon get its second maritime university, Gujarat Maritime University (GMB), which will primarily be focusing on the commercial maritime courses. According to sources, the first course likely to be rolled out in 2018. The government of Gujarat has already given an in-principle approval for the establishment of the university. The new Gujarat Maritime University will focus on commercial maritime courses instead of technical programmes that are being offered in over 130 Indian training institutes and the existing Indian Maritime University, say sources. A report in DNA quoted AK Rakesh, chairman and chief executive officer of the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) as saying: "At present, the Indian maritime institutes offer pre-sea and post-sea training programmes.

As the Industry waits for the Ministry of Shipping, Government of India to roll out the much hyped policy to boost Coastal Shipping and Inland Waterways transport, ClassNK & Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) took the first step to conduct a workshop on “Super Eco Ship For India Coastal Trade” as a strategy to be first to cash in on the opportunities when the policy gets implemented. Held in Mumbai last week at the IRS auditorium, both the classes presented to the gathering of ship owners, coastal operators, barge owners, representatives of manning companies, shippers and other allied trade the large number of options and opportunities that the trade and industry could avail of in order to get the full advantage of coastal shipping and inland waterway transport.

Union Minister for Shipping Shri G K Vasan yesterday inaugurated the Karaikal campus of the Indian Maritime University (IMU) in the Union Territory of Puducherry. To fulfill the aspirations of the youth in maritime training, education and career building, the Union government opened IMU campuses in all of the country’s maritime states. The government has already opened campuses of the University at Kandla and Cochin. A feasibility study conducted by the Ministry of Shipping concluded that new campus at Karaikal would benefit the rural youth to pursue a career in the maritime field. Speaking at the occasion, the Minister told that the efforts of the government as set out in the Maritime agenda 2020 has made the country a major supplier of the most efficient and cost effective manpower.