Maritime alert on rise after 26/11

Feb. 6: The chairman of National Maritime Foundation, Admiral Arun Prakash, said on Saturday maritime terrorism was one of the reasons behind the revival of maritime consciousness in the country.
Delivering a guest lecture at an international seminar on ‘Opportunities for maritime in academia and industry’, organised by AMET University here, he said, “Seven tonnes of explosives which caused Mumbai terror attack in 1993 were brought by sea from Pakistan and so did Ajmal Kasab and other terrorists.”
He said India was not a significant contributor to international maritime activity and many Asian countries had surged way ahead. However, in recent times, there was slow and steady improvement, he added.
Admiral Arun Prakash said 95 per cent of international trade was carried out by container ships and over 70 per cent of our hydrocarbons were coming by ships and added that the country’s booming economy was inextricably linked to sea-borne trade.
Dr Bjorn Kjerfve, president of world maritime university, Sweden, stressed the need for energy conservation and usage of alternative energy like bio-fuel, wind energy, solar energy. A political agreement would be needed for using nuclear power in maritime industry, he added.
Explaining the theme of the conference, emeritus professor of AMET, Dr L. R. Chary, said the university was working on creating Gandhian engineering, which would help increase production with less resources. AMET chairman, Dr A. Ramachandran, said there was need for research on maritime law, insurance, crisis communication and safe e-navigation. He appealed to the industry to patronise and contribute towards maritime research works.