The First Extraordinary General Meeting of the 37 members of Indian Maritime Centre was held on 4th July 2025, where CEOs and Senior officials from Major Ports, State Maritime Boards, major Trade Associations and prominent companies & institutions such as IMU, CSLA, SCI, CONCOR, IRS, IPGL, IPRCL, DGLL, SDCL, NUSI, ACTO, INA etc attended the meeting.

Presiding over the meeting, Mr Devki Nandan, Chairman of IMC presented the vision and mission of the IMC, and a roadmap of how IMC will facilitate the fulfilment of objectives of Government under the Maritime India Vision-2030. Stressing on the strong fundamentals for growth of India, where India is poised to become the second largest economy in the world by 2047, he explained that a ‘Viksit Bharat’ would also need a ‘Viksit Maritime Sector’ and IMC will be one of the catalysts to achieve this Vision. IMC will amplify the voice and value proposition of India’s maritime industry across the world and support the realisation of the Honourable Prime Minister’s vision of a Viksit Bharat with the cooperation & contribution of all the prestigious members.

Shri Shankar Shinde, Vice Chairman, Capt Sankalp Shukla, Director & Hon. Secretary, Capt Vikas Vij, Director &Treasurer and other board members Mr Rahul Modi, and Mr Maneesh Pradhan, explained that IMC will provide a common platform for all the stakeholders, act a think tank for policy formulation and conduct flagship events both nationally and internationally. They further highlighted the future partnership with Niti Ayog, German Maritime Centre, and a strategic Partnership with Informa Markets for INMEX SMM India, and having India Pavilion at SMM Hamburg, taking a lead role in organizing Maritime Leaders Forum, and participating in India Maritime Week-2025
organised by MoPSW.

Dr. Malini Shankar, Vice Chancellor of Indian Maritime University highlighted that IMC can
act as a think-tank for assisting the Government on important themes of international
corporation. She further suggested that proper statistical analysis and surveys are
required to have a solid evidence-based policy-formation and IMC should develop the
necessary framework for this. She further informed that IMU has set up a Centre for Policy
Research and IMC can be a partner with this Centre.

Shri Sunil Vaswani, Executive Director of Container Shipping Lines Association stated
that IMC can further add areas of common interests such as digitalisation, simplification
of processes, ease of doing business etc.
Capt Arvind Verma, Director, India Port Rail and Ropeway Corporation Ltd (IPRCL) stated
that the DG Shipping is the backbone of shipping matters, and IMC should collaborate
with DG shipping in all policy and regulatory matters.
Mr Amit Verma, General Manager, SDCL stated that Sagarmala Finance Corporation Ltd
(SFCL) was launched at the hands of Hon’ble Minister of MoPSW on 26th June 2025 to
meet the demand the financing of maritime sector, and IMC should help the members in
finalising the details and giving its inputs wherever necessary as SFCL is planning to start
the debt financing activities very soon.
Chairman and the Board thanked all the members for their contribution, and expressed
deepest gratitude to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways for the leadership
in conceptualising IMC and providing the guidance to strengthen IMC’s impact and its
outreach globally.