Discuss the role of the Blue Economy, underwater domain awareness, and coastal security in enhancing India’s maritime economic and technological capabilities. Critically assess the balance between resource exploitation, security, and environmental sustainability.

Question

PocketIAS · Accepted Answer

Context India’s maritime domain underpins trade, energy security, and strategic autonomy, with over 90% of trade by volume seaborne and a 2.37 million sq km EEZ. The Blue Economy, underwater domain awareness (UDA), and coastal security together shape India’s maritime economic and technological capabilities.

Enhancing Maritime Economic and Technological Capabilities

Blue Economy:

Growth avenues in fisheries, aquaculture, port-led development (Sagarmala), offshore wind, marine biotechnology, and seabed minerals under the Deep Ocean Mission.
Supports employment, logistics efficiency, and indigenous shipbuilding and ocean-tech innovation. Underwater Domain Awareness:
Use of coastal radar chains, AIS, satellites, sonar, and autonomous underwater vehicles.
Institutions such as the National Maritime Domain Awareness project and Information Fusion Centre–IOR improve data integration and surveillance capabilities. Coastal Security:
Secures sea lines of communication, deters smuggling, piracy, and grey-zone threats.
Enhances investor confidence and protects coastal economic infrastructure.

Critical Assessment: Emerging Trade-offs

Resource exploitation vs environment: Deep-sea mining, port expansion, and intensive aquaculture risk damaging coral reefs, mangroves, and fisheries, affecting coastal livelihoods.
Security vs ecology: Coastal infrastructure and surveillance installations can fragment habitats if poorly planned.
Governance gaps: Limited capacity for cumulative impact assessment and real-time environmental monitoring.

Balancing Competing Objectives

Policy instruments: Marine spatial planning, ecosystem-based management, and stronger EIAs for ocean activities.
Technology use: Ocean observation systems to align surveillance with sustainable extraction.
Institutional and regional cooperation: Coordination among MoES, Navy, Coast Guard, and IOR partners for shared UDA and sustainable fisheries governance.

A calibrated integration of economic growth, maritime security, and ecological safeguards is essential for resilient and sustainable maritime development.

✍️ Practice Mode

Write. Evaluate. Improve. Repeat.

The model answer is ready.

Comments (0)