India spends billions of dollars annually on foreign freight despite a long coastline and trade volume. Examine the structural reasons behind India's limited domestic shipping capacity and the measures under the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047 to address this.

India moves the bulk of its overseas trade on foreign-flag vessels, and the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways estimates an annual foreign freight outgo of nearly $75 billion [1]. This is less a geographic failing than a structural one — thin fleet ownership, weak shipyard capacity and costly finance — which the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision (MAKV) 2047 now seeks to correct.

Structural reasons for limited shipping capacity

• Small merchant fleet: Indian tonnage stands at about 13.52 million gross tonnes, far too small to carry a meaningful share of EXIM cargo, leaving freight earnings with foreign carriers [1].
• Shallow shipbuilding base: domestic yards hold a marginal share of global order books; the Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Scheme exists precisely because Indian yards face a cost disadvantage against subsidised global competitors [2].
• Capital-intensity and costly finance: ship acquisition needs long-tenure, low-cost credit that Indian lenders have not supplied, prompting a dedicated Maritime Development Fund [2].
• Outdated legal framework: shipping was governed by the colonial-era Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 (561 sections), raising compliance costs and deterring Indian-flag registration [3].

Measures under MAKV 2047

• Investment roadmap: ~₹80 lakh crore across ports, shipping, shipbuilding and inland waterways, with the goal of ranking among the top five shipbuilding nations by 2047 [4].
• Financing: MDF with a ₹25,000 crore corpus (49% government), targeting a 20% share for Indian-flagged ships in global cargo by 2047; SBFAS outlay of ₹24,736 crore [2].
• Fleet expansion: a plan announced at the National Shipping Board's Sagar Samvad to add 100 ships to cut the freight bill [1].
• Legal modernisation: the Merchant Shipping Act, 2025 and Coastal Shipping Act, 2025, the latter aiming at 230 MMT coastal cargo by 2030 [3][5].

The freight bill is thus a symptom of shallow ownership, yard and finance capacity rather than of coastline. MAKV 2047 rightly attacks all three together; sustained execution — timely disbursal under MDF/SBFAS, skilled seafarer supply and green-fuel-ready tonnage — can convert a forex drain into a source of earnings, advancing both Atmanirbhar Bharat and SDG-14's sustainable ocean economy.