Indian Maritime Centre (IMC) conducts its 1st EGM and prepares roadmap to contribute in Viksit Bharat Vision

The First Extraordinary General Meeting of the 37 members of Indian Maritime Centre was held on 4th July 2025, where CEOs and Senior oƯicials from Major Ports, State Maritime Boards, major Trade Associations and prominent companies & institutions such as IMU, CSLA, SCI, CONCOR, IRS, IPGL, IPRCL, DGLL, SDCL, NUSI, ACTO, INA etc attended the meeting.

Presiding over the meeting, Mr Devki Nandan, Chairman of IMC presented the vision and mission of the IMC, and a roadmap of how IMC will facilitate the fulfilment of objectives of Government under the Maritime India Vision-2030. Stressing on the strong fundamentals for growth of India, where India is poised to become the second largest economy in the world by 2047, he explained that a ‘Viksit Bharat’ would also need a ‘Viksit Maritime Sector’ and IMC will be major catalyst to achieve this Vision. IMC will amplify the voice and value proposition of India’s maritime industry across the world and support the realisation of the Honourable Prime Minister’s vision of a Viksit Bharat with the cooperation & contribution of all the prestigious members.

Shri Shankar Shinde, Vice Chairman, Capt Sankalp Shukla, Director & Hon. Secretary, Capt Vikas Vij, Director &Treasurer and other board members Mr Rahul Modi, and Mr Maneesh Pradhan, explained that IMC will provide a common platform for all the stakeholders, act as a think tank for policy formulation and conduct flagship events both nationally and internationally. They further highlighted the future partnership with Niti Ayog, German Maritime Centre, and a strategic Partnership with Informa Markets for INMEX SMM India taking a lead role in organizing Maritime Leaders Forum, participating in India Maritime Week-2025 organised by MoPSW and curating ‘India Pavilion’ at World’s leading Maritime Trade Fair SMM Hamburg in Sep 2026.

Dr. Malini Shankar, Vice Chancellor of Indian Maritime University highlighted that IMC can act as a think-tank for assisting the Government on important themes of international cooperation and bilateral agreements. She further suggested that proper statistical analysis and surveys are required to have a solid evidence-based policy-formation and IMC should develop the necessary framework for this. She further informed that IMU has set up a Centre for Policy Research and IMC can be a partner with this Centre.

Shri Sunil Vaswani, Executive Director of Container Shipping Lines Association stated that IMC can further add areas of common interests such as digitalisation, simplification of processes, ease of doing business etc.

Capt Arvind Verma, Director, India Port Rail and Ropeway Corporation Ltd (IPRCL) stated that the DG Shipping is the helm of shipping policy matters, and DG shipping should consider consulting IMC for holistic involvement of maritime trade for shaping policy and regulatory matters.

Mr Amit Verma, General Manager, SDCL stated that Sagarmala Finance Corporation Ltd (SFCL) was launched at the hands of Hon’ble Minister of MoPSW on 26th June 2025 to meet the demand the financing of maritime sector, and IMC should help the members in finalising the details and giving its inputs wherever necessary as SFCL is planning to start the debt financing activities very soon.

Chairman and the Board of Directors thanked all the members for their contribution, and expressed deepest gratitude to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways for the leadership in conceptualising IMC and providing the guidance to strengthen IMC’s impact and its outreach globally. EGM was followed with a lively ‘meet & greet’ session of IMC members for further in depth knowledge of their maritime domains.