Saying that India’s biggest “enemy” today is dependence on other countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday reiterated his call for self-reliance and underlined that whether it is (semiconductor) “chips or ships, they must be made in India”.
Addressing the ‘Samudra se Samruddhi’ event in Bhavnagar, where he inaugurated and laid the foundation stones of projects worth Rs 34,200 crore, Modi said: “Bharat aaj vishwabandhu ke bhavna se aage badh raha hai. Duniya mein hamara koi bada dushman nahin hai. Sacche arth mein agar hamara koi dushman hai, toh woh hai doosre deshon par hamari nirbharta (India is moving forward today with the spirit of global brotherhood. It has no major enemy in the world. But, if India has an enemy in the true sense, it is dependence on other nations).”
Saying that greater foreign dependence leads to greater national failure, he emphasised that this dependency must be collectively defeated. The future of 140 crore Indians cannot be left to external forces, nor can the resolve for national development be based on foreign dependency, he said. For global peace, stability and prosperity, the world’s most populous country must become self-reliant, he added. Saying that reliance on others compromises national self-respect, he added that the future of coming generations must not be put at risk.
Modi declared that the solution to a hundred problems is one — building an Aatmanirbhar Bharat. To achieve this, India must confront challenges, reduce external dependence and demonstrate true self-reliance, he said. “If India is to become a developed nation by 2047, it must become self-reliant, there is no alternative to self-reliance and all 140 crore citizens must commit to the same resolve — whether it is chips or ships, they must be made in India,” he said.
It is with this vision that India’s maritime sector is now moving towards next-generation reforms, he said. He announced that all major ports in the country would be freed from multiple documents and fragmented processes. The implementation of ‘One Nation, One Document’ and ‘One Nation, One Port’ process will simplify trade and commerce, he said.
Accusing the previous Congress governments of “flawed policies”, he cited India’s shipping sector as an example. “Ships built in India’s coastal states once powered domestic and global trade. Even 50 years ago, India used domestically built ships, with over 40 per cent of its import-export conducted through them,” he said. But instead of strengthening domestic shipbuilding, the Congress preferred paying freight to foreign vessels, he said. “This led to the collapse of India’s shipbuilding ecosystem and forced dependence on foreign ships. As a result, the share of Indian ships in trade dropped from 40 per cent to just 5 per cent,” he said, adding that 95 per cent of India’s trade now relies on foreign ships – a dependency that has caused significant loss to the nation.
Modi said that India now pays US$ 75 billion, or approximately Rs 6 lakh crore, every year to foreign shipping companies for their services. He underlined that this amount is nearly equivalent to India’s current defence budget. “Can people imagine how much money has been paid in freight to other countries over the past seven decades? This outflow of funds has created millions of jobs abroad. If even a small portion of this expenditure had been invested by earlier governments in the domestic shipping industry, the world would have been using Indian ships today, and India would be earning lakh of crores in shipping services,” he said.
Modi said the next-generation reforms in the maritime sector would help revive this forgotten legacy. This includes a major policy reform under which large ships have now been accorded infrastructure status, he said. Outlining the benefits when a sector receives infrastructure recognition, he said shipbuilding companies would find it easier to secure loans from banks and benefit from reduced interest rates. All benefits associated with infrastructure financing will now be extended to these shipbuilding enterprises, he said.
Mentioning that India currently accounts for 10 per cent of global maritime trade, Modi emphasised the need to increase this share, and declared that by 2047, India aims to triple its participation in global sea trade.
He said the government is working on three major schemes to make India a major maritime power. These initiatives would ease financial support for the shipbuilding sector, help shipyards adopt modern technology, and improve design and quality standards, he said, adding that over Rs 70,000 crore would be invested in these schemes in the coming years.
Modi also reviewed the progress of the under-construction National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC) at Lothal in Ahmedabad district. “Once completed, it will be the world’s largest maritime museum. It will showcase India’s ancient maritime traditions while serving as a hub for tourism, research, education and skill development,” he said in a post on X. He was later scheduled to take the chopper to Ahmedabad airport, but had to travel by road due to adverse weather conditions.
