Indian Maritime University, Chennai

India has had a long maritime tradition and is the 20th largest maritime country in the world. The single largest contributing factor to this glorious tradition is the presence of a strong, dedicated, efficient and reliable reservoir of officers and ratings of the Merchant Navy in India. The ever- increasing demand of Indian seafarers worldwide is a testament of the quality of education and training received in India. However, of late, India has been facing a stiff challenge to her position in this regard from countries like Philippines, China and Bangladesh. Hence there is a need to further upgrade our training capacity and capabilities so that India stays ahead of the other nations in this sector. There is also a need to augment the share of India in the world maritime manpower fleet from the present level of around 6% to at least 20%. Further, the 29% share of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries is dwindling rapidly due to lack of interest of their youth in this career and this presents an opportunity that we should exploit to our advantage.

For further strengthening the institutional framework for imparting maritime training in India the Government decided to establish a Society namely Indian Institute of Maritime Studies (IIMS) on 6th June, 2002 placing four Government-run- maritime institutions within the domain of this Society. The Government also set up the National Institute of Port Management now renamed as National Maritime Academy, Chennai and Indian Institute of Port Management, Kolkata as registered Societies for capacity building of personnel of port and shipping industry.

In order to encourage private sector participation in maritime training, the Government of India announced liberalized guidelines in 1997 and as a result around 125 training institutes came up in the government and private sector, which impart both Pre Sea and Post Sea training. The Directorate General of Shipping, Mumbai, accorded recognition to the private institutes. The Committee on Maritime Education and Training set up by the Government in 1991, had recommended the establishment of an autonomous body under an Act of Parliament, to be designated as the Indian Maritime University (IMU) to manage, control, supervise, direct and monitor the maritime training institutions, currently running under Government control. An Expert Committee was constituted by the Ministry, which inter-alia included representatives of the University Grants Commission, to look into the feasibility of the formation of an Indian Maritime University by an Act of Parliament under the aegis of the Ministry, which also strongly recommended the formation of such a University. The Expenditure Reforms Commission in its 9th Report had also recommended that the IIMS should be given the status of a Deemed University or of an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and should become totally autonomous. Formation of the IMU will facilitate and promote maritime studies, research and extension work with focus on emerging areas of studies including marine science & technology, marine environment, socio-economic, legal and other related fields, and also to achieve excellence in these and connected fields. It will promote advanced knowledge by providing institutional and research facilities in such branches of learning as it may deem fit, make provisions for integrated courses in science and other key areas of marine technology and allied disciplines. As we have a sizeable number of private institutions imparting maritime education and training, the University will standardize the quality of such education and training through affiliation and academic supervision.