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By:

Prithvi Asthana

20 August 2025 at 5:20:30 pm

‘Just the beginning of the new revolution’

Gen Z says their next target is Nitin Gadkari and Nirmala Sitharaman Mumbai: Dancing on the tunes of ‘Zinghaat’, the Gen Z at Dadar, was celebrating Dharmendra’s Pradhan’s resignation. The ‘Tiranga’ rally called up by Thackeray brothers on Thursday for protesting was turned into a celebration rally after Pradhan’s resignation. ‘The Perfect Voice’ went on ground to know the real reaction of the Gen Z at the rally. A NEET student who gave the NEET and re-NEET exams this year, said that she...

‘Just the beginning of the new revolution’

Gen Z says their next target is Nitin Gadkari and Nirmala Sitharaman Mumbai: Dancing on the tunes of ‘Zinghaat’, the Gen Z at Dadar, was celebrating Dharmendra’s Pradhan’s resignation. The ‘Tiranga’ rally called up by Thackeray brothers on Thursday for protesting was turned into a celebration rally after Pradhan’s resignation. ‘The Perfect Voice’ went on ground to know the real reaction of the Gen Z at the rally. A NEET student who gave the NEET and re-NEET exams this year, said that she feels very happy that he has resigned now, and today all the students have won this battle. “I felt quite devastating when I heard about the paper leak. After the leak it was very tough to study again because I am in 12th standard as well. I was de-motivated and did not want to study again but I had no other option. I was continuously studying for seven months. It took a lot of toll on my mind, I was not able to focus on my 12 th standard. ” Talking about the results she said, “ I was not satisfied with the marks I got in re-NEET, and will take a drop. Looking at the sad state of Indian education system, I will go to study abroad.” A commerce student, present at the site, said, “ Now they know what will happen if they continue to repeat mistakes like this.” New Revolution A law student, Pranjal Khatu, said that this resignation will act as a deterrent for the government. She said, “This movement has established fear in government’s mind. This punishment given by the Gen Z will now actually send a message that the ministers should work responsibly, while listening to its public. I want to say thank you to PM Modi, because of him people from all religions have come together to hate someone.” Saying that this is just the beginning. This is just the beginning of the resignations, we are going to demand more resignations, the new revolution has just begun.” Sampada More, a graduate, said that it will definitely establish fear, but the government should have listened to us earlier, they should not have stretched this matter so long. “The next number is of Nitin Gadkari and Nirmala Sitharaman,” she said. A MBBS doctor in Nutraceuticals, joined the rally as well. She said, “He was supposed to resign way before. The government has clearly failed, because as Gen Z we were standing with the Truth, we are standing for what India’s stands as democracy. This is the reason we won the and the government lost. We are going to demand resignation of the Punjab minister responsible for Pharmacy exam paper leak. We will also demand the resignation of corrupted ministers like Nitin Gadkari and Nirmala Sitharaman next.” Fighting for Justice A class seven student rallying with his parents said, “We have finally got justice. I am very proud taking part in the rally and standing for my future. I supports this movement because when I grow up, I do not want any paper leaks happening at that time. I want to see some better minister who actually also focuses on the security of the examination system.” Another student currently in fourth year engineering said, “ This was the tipping point and we actually tried protesting before this as well but we were supressed a lot of times, but this time the government was not able to supress us because it was large. The CJP has done a commendable job in uniting youth of this country, and I am glad that he has taken the accountability and resigned.” Jay, a MBBS student said, “This is a celebration of togetherness, I have never seen such celebration in long time. This is a new sort of Independence.” Demanding more resignations, he said, “This will continue, the stars have aligned with us. This is Inqualab Zindabaad.”

Indian Shipbuilding A Must Win Marathon

Shipbuilding

With a coastline of 7500 KM, it is hard to imagine, that for the first 20 years (1947-1967) India had no ‘shipping ministry’. In 1967 a Shipping ministry “coupled” with ROAD transport was established. Since then, this ministry has been on a name changing ride, not once, not twice but six times. In 2009 the “ROAD Transport and Highways” was de-coupled and ‘Shipping’ ministry was formed. Turning point came in 2015 with a clear maritime vision for 2030 and 2047. Ministry was re-christened, aptly to Ministry of “Ports, Shipping and Waterways” in 2020.


Why is Shipbuilding important for a country?

a. A Shipyard becomes an opportunity hub and like a queen bee requires the support of an industrial colony to manufacture machinery and equipment.

b. National Shipyards support fleet renewal needs of the Navy.

c. Contributes to national GDP, increases inflow of FOREX.


Korea shipbuilding is 8% of GDP. Japan’s automobile industry is 2.9% of GDP. India’s shipbuilding a meagre 0.000578% of GDP. In context, India’s pharmaceutical industry, ranked third largest in the world is 1.72% of India’s GDP.


International Shipbuilding Market

The market is estimated to reach around USD 200 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 4.84%. While India is at bottom with 0.07% of world share, behind Philippines 1.5% and Vietnam 1%, however on the positive side, India has done well in taking care of its defence needs, with 37 of 39 Naval ships being built in India yards. Rear Admiral S Shrikhande researching on maritime as a Fellow at Wollongong University, Australia, says “Shipbuilding in India needs both, serious incentivisation and dogged determination and not harping on being a big ship breaking country. That Garden Reach shipyard has a $54 million order for merchant ships from a German owner, is a good sign.”


Were Shipyards of 20th century in Flight mode?

Prominent shipyards in India were built in the colonial period. Mazagon Dock 1774, Garden reach 1884, Hindustan shipyard 1941 to cater to British navy and merchant fleet needs. Cochin shipyard 1972, Adani Katupalli 2013, Reliance Naval and Engineering, Rajula Gujarat 1997 and others have limited capacity, hence a lot more work to do. Capt. Subhangshu Dutt (Singapore) a mariner and now a shipowner, says “GOI should hold hands in any collaboration till the marriage with the foreign entity is reasonably stable. He also suggests that “new shipbuilding sites should be given to existing successful shipyards since they have decades of experience and talent. Consortium of 3 or more parties may also be good idea”.


Shipbuilding GOLD

As per SPLASH report the demand for LCO2 carriers could reach 2,500 ships by 2050. As per other estimates, 40% of global fleet of ships could have wind propulsion by 2050. A surge in such vessels is due to an unparallel waves of decarbonization in the shipping industry. Demand for ships with ‘carbon neutral’ badges, such as Dual fuel, Wind assisted, Nuclear fuel ships, Hydrogen powered ships, Liquified CO2 (LCO2) carrier, is outstripping supply. A must in the ‘bucket list’ of every Shipyard. Pinning down a standard ROI in shipbuilding is not easy, but experts suggest it could range from 4% to 15% for the high demand ‘carbon neutral’ ships. While an LNG new build vessel could cost US$ 250 million upwards.


International collaboration

On China’s shipbuilding success story, Manoj Pandalanghat (Singapore) a mariner and ship owner believes that “China has around 50 active Shipyards. Each have a few large dry docks. In each dock two or more large vessels are built simultaneously. Thus, a single yard is able to roll out 2/3 vessels/month, 36 vessels/year and 50 shipyards roll out 1800 vessels/year”.


China could be a jaldi-5, but India needs a sturdy Mount Fiji. Besides technology, Japanese bring the most important hand baggage of soft-skills and culture, essential for success from keel laying to delivery. Maruti’s is a standing example.


Food for thought for New Delhi

a. Expertise: Hire Naval Architects and shipbuilding experts with current international experience.

b. Government assistance: Land, Financial support, subsidies and timebound clearances.

c. Monitoring: PMO should monitor the first 5 to 10 years till Shipbuilding takes-off on this long-haul flight to destination 2047.


India’s Shipbuilding is expected to grow to $237 billion by year 2047. On a back of the envelope calculations this works out to about 4% of India’s 2047 projected GDP of $ 5 trillion. While cars are driven on roads, however the Ministry of roads and transport has little to do with “Automobile manufacturing”. On a similar note, ‘Shipbuilding’ as an industry has little to do with Ports, Shipping and Waterways, thus it may be worthwhile to consider a separate ‘Ship-building’ wing in the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways headed by a dynamic cabinet rank minister. Since 2047 targets are stiff and an uphill task, so in all probabilities, the officials in Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways are likely to push beneath the carpet, delays and failures of Shipbuilding with sweet success stories of “Ports, Shipping and Waterways” and if this does happen then India will not only miss the Shipbuilding bus of 21st century but a lot more from a national security and strategic perspective.


(The author is a Shipping and Marine consultant. Member Singapore Shipping Association and empaneled with IMO as a specialist consultant. Views personal.)

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