This World Maritime Day, let us spare a thought for India’s 300,000-strong seafaring workforce, increasingly caught in wars and piracy they had no part in starting

This year’s World Maritime Day theme is “From Policy to Practice: Powering Maritime Excellence”, which sounds bureaucratic. Every year, the day reminds us that ships carry more than 80 per cent of world trade. For India, this year’s theme is a stark indictment. The distance between rules on paper and safety at sea is now being measured in coffins.

India supplies more than 300,000 seafarers to the global merchant fleet: engine-room fitters, cadets and chief engineers whose wages sustain entire villages. Since the war on Iran began, at least ten Indian sailors have been killed and dozens injured around the Strait of Hormuz, in attacks by both American and........

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