MARITIME SECURITY: THREATS AND PROSPECTS

5th April, 2022

Organized by Amity Indian Military College for Women (AIMCW) in collaboration with Indus International ResearchFoundation (IIRF)

On 5^th April’ 2022 at 15.30 Hrs to 17.00 Hrs.

1. The main highlights of the webinar are as under:
   1. The format of the webinar was “Panel Discussion”anchored by Gp Capt R S Mehta of IIRF. Two eminent highly experienced expert speakers of the Indian Maritime were invited.  Although, Ashutosh Srivastava, Director AIMST was tasked by AUUP to arrange speakers from the Industry, he was unable to do so and hence only two speakers participated in the panel discussion. The details of the speakers are as follows:
2. Vice Admiral MP Muralidharan, AVSM & Bar, NM Ex Director General of Indian Coast Guard.
3. Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha,PVSM, AVSM, NM & Bar, Ex Chief of Integrated Defence Staff, Ex FOC-in-C, Western Naval
4. In the webinar three students of Semester – 6 of B A ( Gen) programme  of AIMCW namely Anushka Singh, Ms. Prajna Sapamand Ms. Shristi Singh were utilized for anchoring and introduction of the guest speakers.
5. Arjan Dutta, Director of AIMCW and ASSBA, welcomed the speakers and audience.  Brig. Arjan  Dutta also made everyone aware about the vision of our Hon’ble Founder President and various defence related activities undertaken by institutes and other training programmes being run at AMITY.
6. Vijay Chenji, President of IIRF welcomed all the audience and speakers on behalf of IIRF.
7. Gp Capt R S Mehtaanchored the ‘Panel discussion’ part of the webinar .  Both the Admirals started by giving an introduction and background of Indian Maritime.
8. Vice Admiral M P Muralidharangave an elaborate presentation on the history of Indian Maritime activities.  Also brought out several important points to explain why our national geographic location is important and why we should have strong naval power and maritime security.  He also explained the advantages of Indian geography with respect to marine trade and commerce.
9. Vice Admiral S K Sinha gave a brief presentation wherein he brought out the importance of Indian geography with respect to the salients

• of communication.  Also, he pointed out that we are paying more to foreign shipping companies for import and exports and also emphasized on need to develop new indigenous ventures and technologies in this field.  He explained that maritime is not merely about strategic defence but also very much about the commercial shipping where we must strive hard to control the routes and volumes of the marine trade.

1. After the presentation by both the speakers, the house was opened for questions from the audience. Due to time constraints, only two questions were permitted.  The first question asked by a student of AIMCW semester – 4 Ms. Nzanroni Odyuo.  The second  question was from a student of AIDSS. The questions were answered by Vice Admiral M P Muralidharan and Vice Admiral S K Sinha..
2. Finally, the webinar was concluded after a note of thanks delivered by Arjan Dutta, Director of AIMCW at 17.10 Hrs.
3. The maximum number of attendees at any one time were 75. The attendees were students from AUUP, ex defence officers and faculty of AUUP.
4. The following Lessons were learnt out of this webinar:
5. The geography of Indian subcontinent is such that it had to face several natural calamities and foreign invasions in the past, hence, importance of Indian Maritime with respect to National Security and Strategic Defence, assumes paramount importance.
6. Maritime security does not restrict to only defence of the mainland but it extends to safeguarding of economic resources and transportation means.
7. In order to develop “Blue Economy” there is a need to focus on development of marine Industry and commercial ship building.
8. The webinar was well conducted on Webex Portal and was also streaming live on YouTube.  The YouTube link to the Webinar recording is as follows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTDwYPXEDhg