The Hindu Business Line : Govt clears proposal for Indian ships to have foreign officers

Long-term measures
DG-S initiates measures to increase domestic supply of trained manpower
Strengthening training institutes, ensuring that ship owners provided for more sea-time training for officers

Amit Mitra

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Mumbai, July 10 Indian ships will soon sail with foreign officers on board.

Finally, the Government has cleared the long pending plea of Indian ship owners to allow them to employ foreign officers on board their ships in order to tide over the shortage of trained maritime officers in India. The Directorate General of Shipping (DG-S), the statutory maritime authority, is expected to issue the circular to this effect next week.

“However, the permission will not be a blanket one and there will be certain conditions,” Ms Kiran Dhingra, Director General of Shipping, told Business Line on the sidelines of the India International Maritime and Logistics expo.

Indian ship owners will be permitted to employ foreign officers, but permission will be given by the DG-S on a case-by-case basis. And there will be a cap of employment — a maximum of two foreign officers on board a vessel, she said.

This does not hold good for ratings, as there is an over-supply of ratings in the domestic market.

An official of the Indian National Shipowners Association said Indian shipping companies were facing a shortage of about 1,000 officers at present. And this is set to rise with shipping industry lining up a massive capital expenditure programme to buy new ships.

“Feedback from different parts of the world suggests that Indians are among the most competent officers in the industry and more than 3,000 Indian officers are employed on foreign-flagged vessels,” an official of the DG-Shipping pointed out.

However, a shipping industry analyst said that this step could, at best, be an ad hoc solution to the growing problem of officers’ shortage. He felt that the Government should take long term measures — such as beefing up the training mechanism in the country — to shore up the supply of trained officers to man ships.

As a matter of fact, the shipping industry has been demanding permission to employ foreign officers for the last about five years. A common refrain of the industry has been that while the aviation sector could hire expatriates, why the domestic sector should not be given the permission.

Although the DG-S had sent a proposal to this effect to the Ministry of Shipping, it took some time for the Government to take a decision, as it also involved the approvals of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Labour. Both the ministries have given their approvals, which paved the way for the Government to take the final decision.

Trained personnel

According to sources, what swung the proposal in favour of the ship owners was the pressure mounted by the oil companies. The PSU oil companies have noted that many of the vessels that bring in their crude did not have adequate experienced hands on board. As this posed a threat to the safety of their oil parcels, the refiners wanted the Shipping Ministry to allow Indian ships to have trained foreign officers to man the vessels.

Meanwhile, the DG-S has initiated a string of measures to increase the domestic supply of trained manpower for the maritime industry. This includes strengthening of the training institutes and ensuring that ship owners provided for more sea-time training for trainee officers.

However, the proposal could face some opposition from the seafarers’ unions. The National Union of Seafarers of India had been opposing this move for quite some time. “India is a labour intensive country, so how can there be shortage in manpower. The issue here is proper maritime education and training,” the union feels.

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