India Maritime Technology Conference (IMTC) 2011 Jointly Hosted by CII and NMF at NIOT Chennai

Inaugural Session:

Opening Address by Mr T T Ashok – Dy Chairman, CII Southern Region & Managing Director Taylor Rubber Pvt Ltd.
Theme Address by Admiral (Retd) Arun Prakash – Chairman, NMF & former Chief of Naval Staff.
Keynote Address by Dr T S Sridhar, IAS – Principal Secretary & Commissioner of Archaeology, Govt of Tamil Nadu.
Address by the Chief Guest – Vice Admiral Anup Singh – Flag Officer Commanding in Chief, Eastern Naval Command.
Vote of Thanks by Commodore (Retd) S Shekhar, IN – Regional Director, NMF.
Followed by opening of stalls put up by prominent maritime agencies.

Highlights

Future is only at sea for food, minerals etc.,
Development always takes place faster only in coastal areas.
Shocking to know that this country
- with 7500 plus kilometer long coastline has less shipyards.
- with billion plus people has less seafarers.
We are not good at writing our own history.
Submarine INS Vela, decommissioned last year is expected to be brought to Chennai and converted as a museum for display.

Plenary Session I – Ship Building and Ship Repairs

Challenges of Submarine Construction in India and Scope of Indigenization for Scorpene Project – by Mr Mahesh B Koyande, DGM & HOD Design, Mazagon Dock Ltd, Mumbai.
Ship Repairs in India – Opportunities and Challenges – by Mr S Krishnakumar, Head Repair & Refit, L & T Ship Building Ltd, Kattupalli, Chennai.
Warship Construction in Indian Defence Shipyards, the Present and Future – by Capt (Retd) SKS Kushwaha IN, GM (Production), Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd, Kolkatta.
How Can India increase its Market Share of the New Building Orders ? – by Mr Hrishikesh Narasimhan, GM Ship Building, Goodearth Shipbuilding Pvt Ltd, Chennai.

Highlights

Surface Warship construction:
- Shortage of Naval Architects and specialised CAD personnel.
- Stealth technology no more limited to submarines alone.
- Series production of warships (minimum 6 to 10 no) must be done to minimize cost and reduced delivery time (present practice is to build 3 or 4 ships).
- Modernization/up-gradation of shipyard facilities and processes including human resources.
Submarine construction:
- While procuring submarines from other countries, complete technology including submarine design must be taken from the supplier.
- Shortage of Naval Architects and specialised CAD personnel.
- Setting up of parallel infrastructure for submarine construction in defence shipyards as submarine construction is totally different from surface warship construction.
- Increase creation of trained pool of workers.
- National policy on submarine construction must be known to Indian industries to encourage participation in construction.
- Scope for indigenization:
  - development of equipment to comply with acoustic requirements and resistance to shock requirements of submarines.
  - non HLES steel such as S355 steel.
  - pipes, cables, fasteners.
Ship Repair:
- To cut down time and cost over-run in ship building and ship repair, marine engineers involved in these activities have to fully involve in site work instead of giving elaborate justifications/excuses for the delay through computer excel sheets.
To increase India’s Market Share of the New Building Orders:
- Freeze all shipyard processes and have a clear documented ‘build strategy’.
- Translate it into a yard layout.
- Standardize shipyard’s product by standardizing quality of material, processes, equipment, safety and competency of personnel.

Plenary Session II – Maritime Systems, Equipment and Integration

Design and Development of Combat Management Systems – by Rear Admiral Arun Bahl, DG – Weapon Electronics Systems Engineering Establishment (WESEE), New Delhi.
Opportunities for the Indian Industries in the Maritime Preparedness of the Nation – by Rear Admiral S Kulshreshtha, DG – Naval Armament Inspection, New Delhi.
Marine System Integration – by Capt Siddhartha Sant, Director Marine Engineering, Indian Navy.

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Highlights

Get away with L1 methodology (consider expertise also) in selecting vendors, subcontractors.
Industry support needed for Design and Development of Combat Management Systems relating to:
- Architecture frameworks: Unified profile for DoDAF & MoDAF (UPDM); ToGAF.
- System Engineering: Real Time Embedded Systems (RTES).
- Reverse Engineering Legacy Artifacts.
- COTS Roadmap & Technology Incubation to tackle obsolescence & Enhanced User Requirements.
- Long term support.
Opportunities for Indian industry in Marine Police, Coast Guard.
- Boat/ship building.
- Maintenance of Propulsion system and Electrical Power Generation equipment.
- Repair and maintenance of Navigational equipment like Radar, GPS, Echo-sounder, Gyro/compass, speed log etc.,
- Repair and maintenance of electronic communication equipment.
- Supply and maintenance of night vision devices, binoculars.
- Future scope:
  - Development of technology/equipment for counter-terrorism.
  - Sensors and communication equipment for border surveillance including satellite based systems.
  - Cyber security.
  - Devices to detect and neutralize Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).
Marine System Integration
- Industry must be prepared to give guarantee for life cycle support by considering the long mission capabilities of
  - Aircraft carrier/LPD/Tanker – as 45 years plus
  - Frigates/Destroyers – as 35 years
  - OPVs/Corvettes/LSTs(L) – as 25 to 30 years
- Industry must be also ready to provide spares/expertise/upgrades on 24×7 basis wherever the ship is.
- Industry must develop their R&D in stealth technology relating to Infrared Signature (IR), Noise and Vibration levels of equipment to minimize Air Borne Noise (ABN), Structure Borne Noise (SBN).

Plenary Session III – Development of Ports & Harbours

Opening Remarks – by Mr Umesh C Grover, Senior Advisor (Shipping & Logistics), SKIL Infrastructure Ltd, Mumbai.
Developments of Ports & Harbours – by Capt Suresh N Amirapu, MD, Portman India Private Ltd.
Significance of New Gateway Ports – by Capt K N Ramesh, CEO, Logistics & Dredging, Marg Limited.

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Highlights

Exclusive DG – Ports has to be set up to ensure faster development of Ports & Harbours.
Single window system for procedures and approvals.
Industry not to be trapped in State vs Central govt interests.
Minor ports (except Gujarat) are not doing well.

Plenary Session IV (Panel Discussion): Offshore Energy – How Soon in India ?

Moderator – Dr L R Chary, Prof Emeritus, AMET University, Chennai.
Presentation on Futuristic Design of Offshore Wind Mills – by Prof KNG Reddy, AMET University, Chennai.
Panel Discussion – by Mr Rajesh Katyal, Scientist and Unit Chief (R&D), Centre for Wind Energy Technology, Chennai.
Panel Discussion – by Mr Nitin Bhate, Policy & Marketing Manager, GE Renewables (India).
Panel Discussion – by Mr Malolan R Cadambi, MD, Greenshore Energy Pvt Ltd.

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Highlights

The government (for that matter even god) can not increase the price of wind (unlike petrol, diesel, lpg prices).
Through innovative technology, cost of offshore wind power can be controlled/minimized.
Environment is not affected by offshore wind farms (in fact it boosts the marine life).
Maintaining offshore wind mills is easier than maintaining offshore oil platforms.
NMF must take the initiative to develop this industry faster in India.

January 22 – Day 2 proceedings:

Plenary Session V: Maritime Sector – Human Resource and R&D Needs

Human Resource (HR) Challenges in Design & Development – by Dr K Tamilmani, CEO, CEMILAC, Bangalore.
Emerging R&D Opportunities for Marine Industries – by Dr S Sundarrajan, Scientist ‘H’, DRDO L, Hyderabad.
Maritime Research in India – Opportunities and Challenges: by Prof (Dr) Rao Tatavarti, Director and Senior Professor, Gayatri Vidya Parishad College of Engineering.

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Highlights

Encourage private industry to take up maintenance of warships instead of burdening defence shipyards.
Private industry must understand the intricacies of marine equipments and develop HR accordingly.
Set up regulatory mechanism to monitor R&D.
Develop R&D facilities
- considering the fact that the cost of warship hull is only 10% of the total cost of the ship with equipment.
- considering the life cycle of warships: life cycle of Aircraft carrier/LPD/Tanker is as high as 45 years plus.
- in areas of material, processes, corrosion, indigenization, high capacity fuel cells.
- to ensure high performance, less maintenance, high energy efficiency, environment friendly and sustainable systems in ships.
Set up Integrated Marine R&D by involving shipyards, industry, academic institutions.
Do not consider R&D as waste of time or money.
India with high man power (18% of world’s population) stands low in Science & Technology as India spends 1% of GDP for developing Science & Technology.

Plenary Session VI – Maritime Security and Surveillance

Betterment of Maritime Security and Infrastructure – by Mr R Sri Kumar, IPS (Retd), Vigilance Commissioner, Govt of India.
Coastal Security Aspects – Tamil Nadu: by Rajesh Das, IPS, IG, Head – Tamil Nadu Coastal Security Group, Chennai.
Coastal Security for better effectiveness – by Capt S Suresh, CSO to Naval Officer in Charge, Naval Base, Kochi.

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Highlights

Develop human intelligence and integrate with technical intelligence.
Encourage citizens to act as policemen without uniforms (fishermen for coast) and empower them to report freely to the authorities on what they see/hear in security related issues (use of mobile phones to a toll free number).
Coastal security includes water security (as more desalination plants are coming up using sea water) and energy security (as oil imports are done using sea routes).
Government is well prepared by conducting regular review meetings on coastal security and by conducting security exercises as realistic as possible.
Coast must be vigilant to overcome threats from unregulated fishing boats, trawlers, dhows, ferry services, underwater swimmers, un-scanned incoming cargo etc.,
Create Marine Police cadre, conduct coastal security awareness drives including use of toll free number 1093.

Plenary Session VII – India Maritime Technology Colloquium:

By all participants formed into four brain storming discussion groups.

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Highlights

Marine HR/R&D
- Lack of funds.
- Fear of failure.
- Lack of awareness among youth.
- Lack of availability of common platform or forum to interact.
Ports & Harbour
- Sustainable port policy needed.
- Norms for classifying major/minor ports – to be reviewed.
- Inadequacy in feasibility reports of PPP in ports and harbours.
Marine Systems, Equipment, Integration
- Lack of trust between the Indian Navy and the Industry.
- Lack of industry friendly policies.
- L1 syndrome.
Ship building & Ship repair
- Lack of design/CAD specialists.
- Lack of skilled man power.
- System of CDC to be introduced for shipyard workers.
- Most of the private shipyards are un-organized.
- Infrastructure to be improved.
- Government must provide subsidy.
- Centralized core team/organization can be set up to train marine man power to work in shipyards.
- Setting up of DG – Ship Building to be considered.

Plenary Session VIII – Forum for International Applications and Learning Experiences (FINALE)

Ship to Shore, a Global Maritime Business – by Mr Colin Clinton, Direcor, Ove Arup & Partners, Hong Kong.
ONR Global and Collaboration with India on Maritime Technology – by Dr Gabriel Roy, Associate Director, Office of US Naval Research Global, HQ – Singapore.
Maritime Search and Rescue – the Malaysian Experience: by Major (Retd) Murali P V Bhaskaran, RMAF, Director, Global SAR Resources SDN BHD Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

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Highlights

Ove Arup & Partners have extensive experience globally in: Port Master Planning, Waterfront Development, Offshore Windfarms, Coastal Engineering, Port Operations, Hydraulic Modeling, Transport Planning, Asset Management, Rail Freight, Environmental Assessment and Design, Contract Documentation and Site Supervision.
Sponsored research programs by ONR (Office of Naval Research – U.S.) in India are going on over the past three decades; ONR has also a budget of over 2 billion USD.
Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR) – the Malaysian Experience: Suggestions for improvement
- Bilateral cooperation involving multi agencies.
- Regional SAR exercises.
- Joint operations.
- Improved SAR system.
- Create a regional fund for development of SAR.
- U.N. Body that addresses all SAR issues.

Valedictory Session

Presentation of Draft IMTC 2011 White Paper – by Capt Suresh Bhardwaj, Vice Chancellor, AMET University.
Introduction of Chief Guest for Valedictory – by Commodore (Retd) S Shekhar, IN – Regional Director, NMF.
Valedictory address by Chief Guest – Rear Admiral (Retd) Rakesh Bajaj, Mazagon Dock Ltd, Mumbai.
Vote of Thanks by Gp Capt (Retd) L V Mohandas, Head – IT & Internal Security, CII, Chennai.

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Highlights

The Chief Guest emphasized that the country can prosper in R&D only when the youth specialize in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry at graduation and post graduation levels.

Here are some more photographs of the event:

Registration by delegates