The Indian Navy, which regards itself as the 'net security provider' in the Indian Ocean Region, has also stepped up to the plate, with a warship stationed at all times off the Gulf of Aden for counter-piracy tasks. 91 Indian warships have been deployed in the region since 2008, patrolling high risk areas where piracy was rampant.
The world needs to wake up to this new dimension of war at sea and be prepared to face the 'unknown enemy' who have the advantage of attacking at their choice of location and time, cautions Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
A year after a Hamas attack against Israel on October 7 and the ensuing Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, India's trade with most West Asian countries has largely escaped any major disruption, except with countries like Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan. However, repeated flare-ups of geopolitical tensions in the region continue to drive up shipping and logistics costs.
The strong message from the prime minister is of continuity of policies he considers right with strong emphasis on execution, points out T N C Rajagopalan.
It was started when the LTTE launched a suicide attack on a ship with Indian crew.
The Navy said on Friday that the safety of the crew held hostage by armed pirates was ascertained and the Indian Navy warship continued to maintain its presence in the close vicinity of the vessel till its arrival in the territorial waters of Somalia.
India's private and state government-owned ports (non-major ports) continued to grow faster than those owned by the Centre (major ports) through the first three quarters of 2023-24 (FY24), cargo handling data shows. At 604 million metric tonnes (mmt), cargo at major ports grew by 5 per cent between April and December, while non-major ports' cargo traffic growth was 11 per cent at 531 mmt. During December 2023, central government-owned ports in India handled cargo volumes of 69.9 mmt, a tepid year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth of 0.7 per cent.
Screens in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which is now under Russian control, have begun to broadcast Russian television news programmes.
In a sea-air coordinated operation, narcotics worth Rs 480 crore were seized from a Pakistani boat with six crew in the Arabian Sea near Porbandar by a multi-agency team led by the Indian Coast Guard, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.
Mobilisation of resources close to the ill-fated cargo vessel MSC Chitra, which collided with another cargo ship off the city coast, is underway to carry out salvage operation even as some more containers fell into the sea.
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India's crude oil imports from Russia fell for a second straight month in January to its lowest in 12 months but the nation's insatiable appetite for Russian crude remains for the long term, according to data from energy cargo tracker and industry officials. Russia supplied 1.2 million barrels per day of crude oil to India in January, down from 1.32 million barrels in December and 1.62 million barrels in November 2023, according to data from energy cargo tracker Vortexa. Russia however continues to remain India's top oil supplier, accounting for a little less than a quarter of 4.91 million barrels a day of oil that the world's third largest energy consumer imported in January.
Three Indian sailors, who have been missing since their ship sank four months ago off the UAE coast, may have been rescued by Iranians, a media report has claimed. The Indian consulate is now in contact with the Iranian officials to ascertain further details.
A sessions court granted interim bail till Wednesday to the captain of cargo vessel MV Khalijia 111, which had collided with another cargo ship MSC Chitra resulting in a major oil spill off and around the Mumbai coast earlier this month.
In a year bookended by intractable conflicts and geopolitical fragmentation, India focused on ramping up military prowess by broadly firming up defence procurement worth Rs 4.22 lakh crore even as Indian and Chinese militaries completed pulling back their troops from border face-off points in eastern Ladakh.
The blast occurred in the container aboard the vessel, preparing to dock away from the Jebel Ali Port's main shipping line at around midnight.
The oil spill from MSC Chitra, which collided with another cargo ship near the Mumbai coast on Saturday, has stopped, Coast Guard sources said on Monday.
When questioned about the absence of any mention of the Indian Navy's role in the operation, Hua said China's ministry of defence should be approached for details.
A week after it guarded 13 merchant vessels from piracy attack, an Indian warship has once again warded off an attempt by sea brigands on nine cargo ships including an Indian vessel off the Yemeni coast in Gulf of Aden.
In its search to find the 'mother ship' of the terrorists who have attacked Mumbai, India on Thursday apprehended two Pakistani merchant vessels off the coast of Gujarat in a joint operation carried out by the Navy, Coast Guard and the water wing of the Border Security Force."We have apprehended two cargo ships in a joint operation near the Gujarat coast while they were sailing to Karachi. They are suspected to be the ships that ferried the terrorists near to Mumbai coast,"
The government's initiative to migrate SEZ data from NSDL software to ICEGATE system for streamlined reporting of import data caused double counting of gold imports, resulting in inflated figures and the issue has now been largely rectified, government sources said. The downward revision has provided the actual picture of trade deficit (difference between imports and exports), which was earlier looking very high. The deficit for November will now be revised downwards from $37.84 billion to about $32.8 billion. Similarly, there will be a revision in overall import numbers as well.
Ending a six-month ordeal, the crew of nine Indian and 12 Iranian sailors of cargo ship MV Sinin was freed on Saturday by Somali pirates. "Nine Indian sailors along with 12 Iranians of M V Sinin have been released by the pirates today. All of them are safe," said Director General of Shipping S B Agnihotri. The Somali pirates had on February 12 seized the Malta-flagged, 52,000 tonne bulk carrier 315 nautical miles off Masirah (Oman) while it was on its way to Singapore.
Armed Somali men, helping out coast-guards in the African waters, have managed to free an Indian cargo ship with 13 sailors on board, after it was hijacked by pirates off the northern coast of Somalia.
Prabhas may be the face of Kalki 2898 AD's heroics but the real bang for your buck is delivered in Amitabh Bachchan's indefatigable energy providing Kalki's biggest wolf-whistle moments, applauds Sukanya Verma.
Eleven Indians, who were hijacked by Somali pirates 11 months ago, were released on Wednesday. Babu, father of Roji V John, a second officer in a cargo ship and a native of Pathanamthitta district, told PTI that authorities of the Rack International company, which owns the ship, handed over the ransom amount. John was part of the 26-member crew of M V Rack Africana, which was hijacked on April 10, 2010 while on its way to Morali in Africa.
The government on Thursday said it was making all possible effort to seek the early release of 64 Indians held hostage by Somali pirates, including six on board an Egyptian cargo ship hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, in August last year. "I share the anxiety and concerns of the family members and we are making all efforts to ensure the safety of Indians and also to expedite their release," Shipping Minister G K Vasan said.
The Indian Navy's 'mission deployed' guided missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam responded to the attack within an hour of receiving a distress call from the vessel Genco Picardy, they said.
After nearly 32 months of being held captive on board the cargo ship MV Iceberg, five Indians sailors released by Somali pirates returned home on Saturday.
The protocol is being maintained with all help in case of fever or sickness to those on board.
The Kerala high court on Tuesday stayed till July 30 further proceedings before a local court in Kollam against two Italian marines in connection with the shooting to death of two Indian fishermen from cargo ship Enrica Lexie.
With India rushing its warship to Gulf of Aden after pirates attacked cargo ships carrying its nationals, the US says it is keen to partner with New Delhi to jointly patrol the high seas off the African coast to deter the armed outlaws. "The Indian ships presence in Gulf of Aden will provide both of us an opportunity to work together (against pirates) and we are looking forward to it," said US Navy Captain Kenneth J Norton on board USS Ronald Reagan.
As a model of transport, the A380 strikes a parallel -- a shared fragility -- with giant container ships, observes Shyam G Menon.
The Adani Group is planning to invest Rs 20,000 crore more to complete the remaining three phases of the Vizhinjam International Seaport, the first transshipment port in the country, managing director of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) Karan Adani said in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. Talking to PTI after the official reception ceremony for 'San Fernando', the first mothership to dock at Vizhinjam, Adani said the port will be a game changer for Indian manufacturers as it reduces logistics cost by 30 to 40 per cent.
All the 17 Indian sailors, who survived the capsize of their cargo ship off the Bahrain coast, spent almost three hours in a life raft in extreme cold before being plucked to safety in a dramatic rescue operation by a police helicopter. The ship Siddnath, loaded with rice from the United Arab Emirates, was heading to Iraq when it capsized on Friday morning, but no one was injured in the incident despite the waves rising as high as 10 feet.
India's export of fuels like diesel to the European Union jumped 58 per cent in the first three quarters of 2024, with a bulk of them likely coming from refining discounted Russian oil, according to a monthly tracker report. The EU/G7 countries in December 2022 introduced a price cap and an embargo on the imports of Russian crude oil in a bid to cripple Kremlin's revenue and create a vacuum in its funding for the invasion of Ukraine.
India, the world's third largest oil consuming and importing nation, in July bought $2.8 billion worth of crude oil from Russia, second only to China which remains the largest importer of Russian oil, a report said. Russia emerged as India's biggest supplier of crude oil, which is converted into fuels like petrol and diesel in refineries, after Russian oil was available on discount following some European nations shunning purchases from Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A foreign cargo ship, which collided with another vessel about 10 km off Mumbai harbour, tilted further spilling oil for the third day as Navy and Coast Guard made hectic efforts to contain the leak.
The deep depression in Bay of Bengal that crossed the coast close to Kakinada in East Godavari district on Tuesday morning left a trail of devastation as it brought with it a massive downpour in several districts of Andhra Pradesh.
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