Tag: India

Government plans to acquire four training ships Aiming to increase the global share of Indian merchant navy officers to 9% by 2015 in the wake of shortage of personnel, the government plans to acquire four training ships at a cost of Rs 500 crore.India is the fifth largest supplier of officers globally at present having a share of 6.3% out of 5,50,000 officers."The acquisitions will be made through state-owned Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and each dedicated training vessel is likely to carry 400 trainees. The cost for four vessels to be acquired is estimated at Rs 500 crore," a Shipping Ministry official told PTI.There is acute shortage of trained manpower in the space in view of increasing fleet size and the number of officers globally is likely to swell to 6,60,000 by 2015, he said."Shortage of officers is likely to be become acute by 2013 and India can very well aspire to increase its market share to 9%, the official said adding it will have to supply 65,000 additional officers by 2015.In this regard, the Ministry is planning to increase the on board training slots from 4,000 at present to 16,000 in the next few years.Also, the Ministry plans ...

Constitution of a welfare fund for the victims of piracy India is lobbying for a reference to the sufferings of hostages in a proposed United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution against maritime piracy so that there is greater pressure on ship owners to resolve hijack situations.India also wants the constitution of a welfare fund for the victims of piracy.The UNSC is scheduled to take up a resolution on piracy April 11 that is expected to moot an international judicial mechanism for prosecuting captured pirates."India is hoping that this resolution will also have a reflection on the plight of hostages," a senior external affairs ministry official told IANS, not wishing to be identified because of service rules.According to latest figures, 53 Indian sailors are being held hostage on five different ships. Of them, 17 have been held the longest on MT Savina Caylyn, an Italian ship which was captured over a year ago Feb 8, 2010.Russia has circulated a draft resolution which aims to set up a judicial mechanism to prosecute pirates caught by international navies patrolling the waters off the Horn of Africa. It calls for the establishment of three specialised courts, as well as the construction of two new ...