Blue Economy- India's Pathway to a Sustainable, Secure and Resilient Economy

Key Takeaways:

• A nuanced and focused approach on the ‘blue’ in Blue economy terminology would be essential for a holistic development of the oceans.
• India needs to and must adopt a targeted approach for blue economy for the regions of IORA, ASEAN and QUAD. Blue economy needs to be at the centre point or a pillar in all discussions on maritime security, sustainability or trade.
• There has been an increase in civil society and research community contribution on the topic, the blue economy working group reports are testament of the collaboration amongst government, civil society, think tanks and research community.
• Further rigour and analysis is required for conducting an elaborate accounting of blue economy’s contribution to economy as a whole and of ocean resources. The valuation should focus on highlighting the significance of biodiverse resources, whose value is critical and highly significant. There is a need to focus on evaluating the contributions of biotic and abiotic resources otherwise we won’t be able to understand their impact. However, these evaluations should not focus only on their economic contributions but evaluate it from the perspective of their impact on overall health of oceans and biodiversity conservation.
• There is a need to build a knowledge based economy and invest in processes of knowledge and distribution in the blue economy sector
• Focus on changes in our path dependency approach, just transition evaluation in order to assess the impact on communities and coastal areas, greater role of Human Capital and maritime awareness is required for enhancing the blue economy framework.
• The financing requirements are currently being fulfilled by public requirements, however there is a need for the increase of private financing, such as

1. Debt financing (Low risk, low return)
2. Blended financing
3. Impact only financing
4. Equity financing (High Risk and High return, a place where institutional investors need to come in)

• There should be adequate facilities to increase the share of fisheries globally, which is currently at 6.3% compared to China’s 18%
• In order to capitalize on the development of the India’s blue economy paradigm, the nation must

1. Develop ports for the largescale development of water connectivity
2. Establish sewage and waste water treatment infrastructure
3. Focus on marine transportation
4. Reduce post-harvest loss with the help of cold storage
5. Focus research on the nutritional value of fish and how it can replace traditional food sources.

• Marine fisheries sector is currently underperforming and the cost of fishing is increasing. The thrust should be on increased mechanization process to optimize the potential. Increase in reserved area for artisanal fishers is required for stabilizing income. There is an imperative need to ensure declaration of fish reserves to improve fish stocks. The cold chain facility should be enhanced to improve revenue from fisheries and arrest wastage
• Major issues in the fisheries sector includes over capacity of fishing fleet, declining catch efficiency, and emissions. The total fuel consumption in fisheries sector is 1% of total fossil fuel consumption in India, and emits 3.17 MMTCO2eq. These challenges could be reduced with measures including Solar and LNG powered boats, square mesh technology, strengthening monitoring, control and surveillance as well as improving the cold chain
• Fisheries are seen as male dominant activity but looking at the supply chain work done by women, it is clear that they work in pre harvesting and post harvesting stages. 85% of workforce is women for processing stage. Social stigma is a challenge that hampers greater participation of women in blue economy. Women should be actively involved in decision making for transformational changes. Without gender inclusiveness, economic development, sustainable development, just transition would not be seen.
• Disaster management organizations in India largely focus on communication and community based actions to mobilize disaster relief measures. We need to align our measures with implication of disaster to combat its consequences
• Indo pacific region has impressive intra-regional trade, out of 43 countries 38 are WTO members. Going forward, the focus should be on Indo Pacific economic co-operation and trade facilitation for largescale economic opportunities
• In order to prevent dumping of wastes and harmful chemicals, countries need to strengthen their implementation and patrolling initiatives so as to deepen their judicial powers within the seas. Cooperation at the High seas would be definitely be an aspect that Indo-Pacific countries should deliberate on.
• Research on Gas Hydrate and its elements needs to be expanded, given its potential ramifications for energy development
• In order to protect our seas, we need to share information and data with our partners across, to build databases and create prediction systems that can help us better understand the future
• Decision making framework for SDG14 and its indicators should be given priority for a long term vision for a healthy ocean including

1. Multi sector collaboration
2. Integrated long terms solutions
3. Ecosystem based management
4. Increase in marine spatial planning

• Technological shift in the country has changed the way shipping routes and travel management is undertaken, and moving forward, technology will command the direction of shipping development and the industry within the context of blue economy
• Technology would also be central to moving ports to a sustainable and resilient infrastructure. Technology could also aid in ensuring India’s compliance to several international commitments, monitoring, evaluating and reporting for maritime security and sustainability.
• In order to make our coastal areas more disaster resilient, we need to

1. Mainstream coastal disaster management
2. Invest in disaster resilient infrastructure
3. Focus on knowledge management communication and association
4. Develop monitoring framework for costal disaster management

• Given that marine fisheries sector is underperforming, we need to focus on the overall mechanization process to optimize our catch potential