India-based P&I entity needed to reduce nation’s vulnerability to international sanctions: FM

Mumbai, Oct 19 (Mayank Nigam) A full-fledged Indian-owned and India-based Protection and Indemnity (P&I) entity is needed in order to reduce India’s vulnerability to international sanctions and pressures and to provide greater strategic flexibility in shipping operations, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday. P&I insurance provides coverage for shipowners and operators for their liabilities, costs and expenses arising from a number of incidents related to ship operations. Addressing a session on ‘Maritime Financing, Insurance and Arbitration’ in the Global Maritime India Summit (GMIS) 2023 in Mumbai today, the Minister said that such P&I entity would provide protection of liabilities to the ships operating in coastal waters as well as inland waters during their operation. Sitharaman said that this will also provide India a foothold into the specialized segment of Protection and Indemnity (P&I) business, which is currently dominated by very few players internationally where presently India does not have any presence.

She said that the Indian Protection and Indemnity (P&I) services can also help in encouraging and increasing Maritime arbitration in India. The FM said that financing, insurance and arbitration and creation of more diverse options is required to boost the country’s ship-building capacity. Speaking about the proposed India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor, Sh said, “We are looking at reaching Europe, Central Asia through maritime plus land route, thus cutting out on logistics costs”. Sitharaman said that 31 projects have been identified in nine major ports for monetisation under the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) launched in 2022 with total estimated capex of Rs 14,483 crore for FY 2022-25. She also informed about the establishment of ‘SAROD-Ports’ (Society for Affordable Redressal of Disputes – Ports) which provides an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism.