AMICIE set to influence government policies
Experiencing a huge success with their previous webinar titled – Fuel & Environment – An Explosive Mix; Association of Maritime International Commercial Interests and Expertise (AMICIE) – a think tank of professionals in maritime trade, invited the shipping industry to deliberate out of the box topics – Reserve Indian Fleet: Embargoes & Wars; & Emergency response Fleet – Pollution & Natural Disaster on 05th June.
In his welcome address, Dr (Capt) K Vivekanand, Educationist, introduced AMICIE to more than 150 stalwarts present. He spoke on Mobilization of reserved Indian fleet for embargoes and wars in foreseeable future.
On the purpose of such webinars, Capt S Pullat, President, AMICIE said, “We are trying to influence government policies. However, remember government policies work on socio-economic political vote bank issues. As a group, we may be politically and professionally correct but we need to be heard with good intent. The outcome of this webinar will be submitted to the government.”
Speaking about Reserve Indian Fleet: Merchant navy as a second line of defense, Commodore RS Vasan R Iyengar, (Retd), Head strategy and securities studies at the center for Asia Studies, Chennai, raised issues of reserve fleet such as cost, availability, resources and manpower to maintain the reserve fleet, obsolescence, islands on both flanks for creating support and infrastructural facilities etc. so that we will be heard by the government.
Mr S Hajara, Former CMD, SCI and Former President, INSA confined his talks to the relevance of not exactly the reserved fleet, but relevance of merchant fleet for any nation.
Controlled Tonnage- Focal point of Maritime Ecosystem by Mr Jagmeet Makkar, Chair, ICS, HK and Director SkillPlus focused on to build and expand the entire maritime ecosystem. Case studies on tonnage concerns and various disasters India has faced in tonnage were explained in brief by Mr K Shankar, Former President, India Cements Shipping Division and GC Member, IMEI.
Overview of Marine disaster Management was delivered by Donny Michael, Inspector General CG, Deputy DG, CG Selection Board, New Delhi. Risked involved in International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) was highlighted by Capt Suresh Amirapu, and salvor on IMDG incident on Neptune Alexandrite by Capt Imam Farhat, created awareness about the incident on MV Express Pearl and MT Prestige. Mr Ishwar Achanta, Joint Managing Director of Portman India Private Limited spoke on hurdles of emergency response.
Rear Admiral Kapil Gupta, NM, IN (Rtd) gave Navy’s view on accidents and their emergency response. “Every response has a solution, and the solution is based on the incident, and the environment,” he stated.
Capt KN Ramesh and Capt Neel J Nair summarized each session respectively. The second session had a panel discussion headed by Dr Malini V Shankar, Chairperson, NSB, VC, IMU.
Capt Kamal Chadha, Managing Director, Marex Media Pvt Ltd conducted the Q&A’s.
IMS
(Courtesy: Marex Media)