Navy is India's prized symbol; the hinterland should take note

"The vital feature which differentiates the Indian Ocean... is the subcontinent of India, which juts out far into the seas for a thousand miles. It is the geographical position of India that changes the character of the Indian Ocean..." Said more than 70 years ago, these words by Sardar KM Panikkar are a stark reminder that in India's wonderful and long history, it has always been the seas that have ensured the prosperity of the nation.  

Since 1498, however, we started looking away from our maritime cultural, trade, and financial links (connected intrinsically to the predictable monsoon weather system in the Indian Ocean region) and concentrated on the battles of the land frontiers. 

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It is then, that colonial powers (starting with the Portuguese, Dutch, and then the British!) started getting closer and closer; and the seas around India, from being a source of strength became our underbelly and our vulnerability, and lead to the loss of our trade, our finance, our industrialisation, and our very sovereignty. 

This piece proceeds in the spirit of the recently concluded Presidential Fleet Review (PFR) and Exercise MILAN 2022 in February/ March this year and has twofold purposes. First, it provides statistics to highlight that the Indian Navy is simply a backstop for India's diplomatic and economic efforts to open, nourish, and safeguard commercial access to the most important shipping routes across the Indian Ocean Region. 

Second, it draws upon the leverage that 'holistic' maritime security by collaboration between all stakeholders can offer to India’s Blue Economy, to enable its economic progress and national development.

The Indian Navy ensures Access

Anyone topping up his car's fuel tank at a petrol station in any of India's heartland cities may not even realise how the Indian Navy contributes to this free-flowing movement of energy resources from their origin to their destination. 

India is the fourth highest energy consumer in the world. Consequently, 96 per cent of India's oil needs and 85 per cent of her natural gas requirements are sourced from the seas. Between 2003 and 2020, India's oil imports have ballooned in value from $18 billion per year to $119 billion. During the same period, our oil demands have nearly tripled from 122 million metric tons (MMTs) to 302 MMTs. 

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It is further estimated that India's energy demand (not limited to oil and natural gas!) will grow to over 1464 million tonnes of Oil Equivalent (MTOE) by 2035. Our nation's current annual per capita consumption of energy is only 0.58 TOE, as against the world average at 1.8 TOE. This low per capita energy consumption is evidence that India's energy demand has a long way to reach its saturation. Thus, for the foreseeable future, imported oil and natural gas will remain the most important sources of energy for India.

So what? Why should anyone care?  

Care we must! Because despite this jet and commercial age, 90 per cent of all goods worldwide travel by sea. The seas have always been central to human development as a source of resources, and as a means of transportation, information exchange and strategic dominion. 

In 2020, an article from the Centre for International Maritime Security suggested a 66-70-80-90-99 rule, highlighting that 66 per cent of global wealth comes from or near the sea; 70 per cent of the globe is oceanic; 80 per cent of its population is coastal; 90 per cent of goods arrive by sea, and 99 per cent of international digital traffic goes by submarine cables. 

Historically, navies were first raised by states to protect their own trade from pirates. The economic strangulation of Germany by the Royal Navy in the First World War presents an excellent example to illustrate the significant influence that navies can have on politics, society and wartime decision-making. 

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Consequently, while the difficult task of deploying the Indian Navy for the protection of India's seaborne trade may look easy, it is in fact an objective that demands a bigger, stronger and more capable seagoing force.

The Indian Navy supports Blue Economy

Based on our civilisational ethos that views the oceans as an enabler for shared peace and prosperity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi put forward the vision of SAGAR -- an acronym for 'Security and Growth for all in the Region' in 2015. 

Consequently, India's Blue Economy policy was formulated by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister in September 2020 and is a consolidation of recommendations made by seven working groups, focused on: 

a) Leveraging India's unique maritime geography, including approximately 11,084 km long coastline.

b) Nine coastal states

c) Four coastal Union territories

d) 1382 islands

e) Twelve (+2) major ports and 200 minor ports 

f) Resources resident in over two million square kilometres of Exclusive Economic Zone, which is rich in living and non-living resources

g) A diverse coastal infrastructure to fuel India's economic growth.  

The primary objective of India's Blue Economy is to recognise the oceans as the latest frontier of our economic development, and this initiative is essentially a strategy to explore the ocean's potential as a source of resources, livelihood and services for the citizens of our nation. 

In addition, the Blue Economy aims to enhance India’s GDP by promoting sustainable and inclusive growth in this new domain while aligning India's development agenda with its commitment as the 'preferred security partner' in the Indian Ocean Region and Indo-Pacific.
  
Delivering on this vision of a thriving Blue Economy, thus constitutes a vital national interest. This national interest in turn is intrinsically linked to ensuring free and open access through the global commons and maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region.  Consequently, a sustainable Blue Economy with a focus on 'sustainability' and 'inclusiveness' is largely dependent on maritime security. There seem to be two primary interactions between Blue Economy and maritime security. 

First, maritime security is an enabler for the Blue Economy. Safeguarding shipping routes and protecting rights over activities and resources in the EEZ, will promote economic interdependence and ensure globalised free trade, a reference to which was made by the Prime Minister during his address at the UNSC on August 9, 2021. 

Second, maritime security advances economic development and vice versa. The future expansion of the Blue Economy is likely to create surplus wealth which can then be ploughed back to fund the expansion of India's maritime security capabilities and this, in turn, will lead to enhanced investment in adventures that gain by the way of the sea.  
Much to Man and Cheer

In the Navy, there is a custom of manning the sides of a ship and shouting out three cheers or three 'Jais' to a personage who is inspecting the fleet or to cheer an important victory or to bid farewell to a Fleet Commander or the Captain of the ship by doffing sea caps. 

As the majestic visuals and images of the man and cheer ship during the President's Fleet Review reverberates in our minds, Indians would do well to remember that the Indian Navy remains one of the central pillars supporting India's pursuit to become a regional economic powerhouse in Asia, in an evolving multi-polar world. It is indeed a prized symbol of India's growing prowess as a maritime power and the accompanying opportunities for our collective prosperity and well-being.

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