Tag: SCI

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 ...

The crew is said to be safe Even as India ruled out offensive action to take back a hijacked merchant vessel that is partially owned by the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) and has 10 Indians on board, Iran entered into negotiations with Somali pirates to secure its release.The MV Sinin, which is owned by the Irano Hind Shipping Company - a joint venture between Iran and India in which SCI has a 49 percent stake - was hijacked on February 14 off Oman and has been anchored on the Somali coast since. While the vessel is registered in Malta, this is the first time that a ship affiliated with the Indian government has been hijacked by Somali pirates.Officials from Irano Hind company told The Indian Express that they were in touch with the crew members of the ship. "We have been in touch with them... They are safe, the ship is in Somalia and we are currently in talks with the hijackers," an official said.Source: Indian Express