How does the Indian Coast Guard's role as nodal SAR agency fit into India's shift from SAGAR to MAHASAGAR?

The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is India's nodal agency for maritime Search and Rescue (SAR). It coordinates rescues across a ~4.6 million sq km Indian Search and Rescue Region [4], an area far larger than India's EEZ. India's maritime vision has moved from SAGAR to MAHASAGAR. Along the way, this humanitarian duty has become one of the most credible ways India shows it is the first responder in the region.

SAGAR (2015): SAR as a regional safety net

• SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) was launched in Mauritius in 2015. It aimed to build maritime safety and trust in the IOR [2].
• The SAR Convention, 1979 obliges States to coordinate with neighbouring SAR services [5]. India meets this duty through the ICG-chaired NMSAR Board (set up in 2002), which includes the coastal States and UTs [4].
• SAR keeps working when politics does not: in Dec 2024, MRCC Mumbai and MRCC Karachi worked together to rescue 9 crew of MSV Taj Dhare Haram [6].

MAHASAGAR (2025): from providing help to building partners' capacity

• MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions) extends the vision to the Global South. It stresses capacity building and mutual security [3].
• Capacity building: in 2023 the ICG ran an ITEC MRCC and SAR course for personnel from six countries, including Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Mauritius [7].
• Multinational outreach: SAREX-2026 off Paradip has 32 observers from 30 countries. PIB explicitly links it to SAGAR and MAHASAGAR [1].
• Interoperability: the exercise is a Mass Rescue Operation: an aircraft carrying 228 people ditches at sea and hits a container ship. ICG, Navy and IAF assets work alongside civil assets [1].

SAGAR (2015)                    →   MAHASAGAR (2025)
ICG rescues in its own SAR region   ICG trains partner MRCCs and
                                    hosts multinational SAREX

Fig: How the ICG's SAR role has evolved

Gaps to address

• The drill puts 15 ICG ships in one area [1]. On a normal day, ships are spread across patrols, so how fast assets can be gathered for a real disaster remains untested.
• Training happens in one-off courses. Regular, routine links between India's MRCCs and those of its neighbours are still missing.

Under SAGAR, the ICG was a regional safety net. Under MAHASAGAR, it is becoming a partner in building SAR capacity across the Global South. The next steps are public after-action reviews by the NMSAR Board [4], more ITEC training, and regular drills with every neighbouring MRCC. These would make India's SAR leadership a lasting part of the shared, rules-based maritime order the SAR Convention envisages.