India’s shipbuilding industry is undergoing a strategic transformation. From the final overseas warship commission to high-profile joint ventures and acquisitions, India is moving steadily toward maritime self-reliance. Government support, indigenous innovation, and international partnerships are aligning to shape a globally competitive and economically vital shipbuilding ecosystem.

India’s Maritime Vision 2030 and Maritime Amritkaal 2047 got a boost with three recent shipbuilding related developments. First, the Indian Navy announced that INS Tamal, built by the Yantar shipyard, Kaliningrad in Russia and commissioned on 01 July 2025, would be the last Indian warship to be built in overseas shipyards. Like many of the earlier warships built in Russia, the indigenous component i.e. armament and sensors, in this ship is over 26%. As many as over 33 systems onboard INS Tamal are made in India and include the Huma NG Mk2 sonar, ASW C2 system, surface surveillance radars, and the supersonic BrahMos missles. The major Indian OEMs for these are the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited; Bharat Electronics Limited; Keltron; Nova Integrated Systems by the Tata; Elcome Marine; Johnson Controls India and others. While the above is a valuable contribution by the Indian OEMs, it is fair to acknowledge the USSR-Russian shipyards which built 51 warship in the last 65 years.

As far as indigenous warship shipbuilding is concerned, earlier this year on 15 January, at the commissioning of three warships i.e. INS Surat, INS Nilgiri and INS Vaghsheer at Naval Dockyard in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed satisfaction noting that 39 out of 40 naval vessels including aircraft carrier INS Vikrant and nuclear submarines like INS Arihant and INS Arighaat were built in Indian shipyards. Furthermore, 60 large ships valued around ` 1.5 trillion for the Indian Navy, are under construction in the country. He also noted that this investment is “expected to generate an economic circulation of around ` 3 trillion” and each warships construction project results in “14,000 direct and indirect jobs”. Also, a large number of ship parts are sourced from domestic micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). According to an official release by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) “every rupee invested in shipbuilding has nearly double the economic impact”.

Second, in June 2025, the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE), Kolkata and Norway’s Kongsberg, Oslo announced joint plans to build a Polar Research Vessel (PRV) with “cutting edge design and operational features tailored for extreme polar conditions”. The two companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Oslo during the Nor-Shipping 2025, Kongsberg under which “critical design expertise” will be provided by Kingsberg and GRSE will build the vessel at its yard in Kolkata.

The GRSE is now an established shipyard in India and built 790 specialist vessels including 110 warships for the Indian Navy, Coast Guard. It has also built war vessels for friendly countries such as Mauritius, Seychelles and Guyana. A Marine Acoustic Research Ship (MARS) which is deployed for SAGAR MAITRI (Marine & Allied Interdisciplinary Training & Research Initiative) missions was built by the GRSE. The shipyard has also signed “strategic” MoUs with Berg Propulsion in Sweden, Denmark based SunStone, German shipping company Carsten Rehder and Dubai-based Aries Marine which has expanded its marine engineering portfolio.

Third, in June 2025 Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), a Public Sector Shipyard of India announced the “acquisition of a controlling stake” in Colombo Dockyard PLC (CDPLC) valued at up to $ 52.96 million. It involves “a combination of primary infusion and secondary share purchase, including the acquisition of shares from Onomichi Dockyard Co. Ltd.”; the latter holds majority shares which means that the CDPLC will be the subsidiary of MDL.

The CDPLC is a well-established Sri Lankan shipyard with five decade of experience in shipbuilding, ship repair, and heavy engineering. It has an in-house design and construction department, can offers advance repair facility and provide steel fabrication for ships. There are four dry docks and multiple births under CDPLC and can handle vessels up to 125,000 DWT. It is also “ISO and classification standards” compliant such as the as DNV, Lloyd’s Register, ABS, and IRS.

The CDPLC has delivered maritime platforms such as offshore support vessels, cable-laying ships, tankers, and patrol boats to customers in Japan, Norway, France, the UAE, India, and several African nations. The CDPLC has an active order book valued at over US$ 300 million to supply cable laying ships, multi-purpose utility ships, and new build fleet support vessels.

The MDL is upbeat about the acquisition of the CDPLC and Capt Jagmohan, Chairman and Managing Director of MDL noted that the acquisition of the dockyard would enable the MDL to make “international foray” which is in line with the company’s “ambition to transform into a global shipbuilding enterprise”. MDL also hopes to be “a key player in South Asia and lay the foundation for our emergence as a global shipyard,” The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has observed that the acquisition of the CDPLC “aligns closely with India’s Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047, which envisages India’s emergence as a leading maritime power with strong regional integration and industrial capabilities”.

These are indeed notable developments and augers well for the indigenous shipbuilding sector. In the past India had struggled to produce large size commercial vessels despite having 28 domestic shipyards. It merits mention that significant amount of India’s sea based trade is conducted using foreign-owned ships. In 2019/20 Indian companies paid freight costs of US$ 85 billion for use of foreign vessels and it is estimated that freight costs will rise to US$ 400 billion by 2047 which would necessarily require indigenous shipbuilding capacity.

The Indian government has now accorded high priority to indigenous shipbuilding given that the current capacity is abysmally low with a market share of just 0.07 per cent in the global shipbuilding industry and ranks outside the top 15. The government is committed to build this sector and aims to emerge among the “top 10 global shipbuilding nations by 2030 and top 5 by 2047”. The government has set up a Maritime Development Fund with a corpus of `25,000 crore which also encourages foreign shipbuilding partnership to boost indigenous shipbuilding.

The Union budget for 2025-2026 prioritizes shipbuilding sector and Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal has termed it as a symbol of progressive maritime policy statement. He has noted that a “key highlight is our ministry’s development of new shipbuilding clusters of 1.0 to 1.2 Million Gross Tonnage (GT) each” which would give “.strategic push” to achieve the country’s vision of becoming a $30 trillion economy by 2047”.

A slew of announcements in the union budget for 2025-2025 relating to shipbuilding sector are noteworthy: (a) Establishing Shipbuilding Capability Development Centres (SCDC) for development of innovative ship design and engineering solutions as well as testing & evaluation of Shipping projects with an outlay of `1200 crores; (b) Provision of `1040 crore as capital and operational assistance to the existing and upcoming shipbuilding design and training centres from the private sector; (c) Budgetary allocation of `610 crore for a support scheme for Research & Development (R&D) and innovation in ship technology. Also, the Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Policy (SBFAP) 2.0 has been extended and will continue to provide direct financial subsidies to Indian shipyards. These initiatives will strengthen domestic shipbuilding industry which will be financed via `18,090 crore budgetary support.

The government has set a target to build 50 very large crude carriers (VLCC) or similar class of seagoing vessels with 3.2 lakh dead weight tonnage (DWT) capacity each. South Korea, the third largest shipbuilding country in the world, has come forward to help boost indigenous shipbuilding capability. The Korea Marine Equipment Association (KOMEA) a non-profit government entity, has pledged to help build Indian shipbuilding sector. Korean shipyards i.e. Samsung Heavy Industries, Hanwha Ocean, and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and Deendayal Port Authority (DPA) in Gujarat is looking to lease 2,000 acres in Kutch district to develop a shipbuilding cluster.

Meanwhile, Cochin Shipyard Ltd. (CSL) and HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) of South Korea signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for “cooperation” in “joint exploration of ship building opportunities in India and abroad, sharing of technical expertise to scale up to the global standards in shipbuilding, identification of initiatives to enhance productivity and capacity utilization, and joint efforts to up skill and strengthen workforce”.

Concluding Remarks

This current government policies and plans are noteworthy and are primed for creating favourable settings for foreign investment to augment the shipbuilding sector. The private sector too sees immense opportunities to increase its share in the national shipbuilding market.

This is supplemented by a renewed focus on training and human development by a skilled workforce that is not only proficient in shipbuilding but also possesses expertise in emerging technologies for use in the shipbuilding sector. This holistic approach can potentially catapult India as a global leader in shipbuilding and maritime innovation. Also, the Indian government has prioritized sustainability in its shipbuilding policy and has encouraged green fuels and hybrid propulsion systems for vessels through financial incentives.

Dr Vijay Sakhuja is Professor and Head, Center of Excellence for Geopolitics and International Studies (CEGIS), REVA University, Bengaluru.