To infuse AM into the ship operations and repairs industry, it is important that a feasibility study with advantages and pitfalls be done. This study will aim to be beneficial to government bodies and private stakeholders to purchase equipment, learn about various parts that can be repaired using this technology, maintain a digital inventory, and streamline the spare-parts supply chain.

There is a limited number of studies on global shipping emissions which contain estimations on the in-port emissions, which is ship emissions on ports. Ports represent a source of atmospheric pollutants that can contribute significantly to jeopardize air quality of port cities. NOx, SOx, PM, and VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) are emitted by ships during maneuvering in ports at arrival or departure and during hoteling when moored at wharves. Several methods exist to estimate emissions in function of ships' activity and engine parameters. However, there is still a significant uncertainty in these calculations. This is a severe limitation to develop effective plans of mitigation of air pollution in port cities. A reliable and up-to-date ship emission inventory is essential for getting overview of the trends and challenges, and for assessing the effect of different emission control options. It is therefore recommended to establish an environmental accounting model for continuous monitoring of ship traffic, air emissions and impacts in the region. The model could provide stakeholders with updated status for the most important air emission components, both local pollutants and GHG emissions. Furthermore, it is recommended that the Drone sampling of exhaust gases from ships and AIS-based emission inventory is further detailed to categorize emissions as domestic, international or transit. This could help guide port facilities administration, coastal administration authorities in making targeted policy choices to fulfill national obligations relating to domestic emissions. 

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We are looking to partner with Ports and Academicians to carry forward this project under the guidance of our team and Committee member -Dr Jai Acharya. Email us to register your interest. 

One of the common issues and problems discussed during the session was that how operators find it difficult to make 'Green and sustainable' decisions as there does not exist any known advantage. In many countries some operators are incentivized for sustainable decisions; but experts do not consider incentivization programs to be long-lasting. IMRC realizes that a long-term and beneficial structure that provides economic advantages for green and environmentally conscious decisions must be developed.

This project aims to study past practices, current scenario and why organizations are unable to turn green. The project will help draw up a feasibility study and find ways to match economic sustainability to environmental sustainability. It will also highlight sectors, areas, policies that will require change going forward.

The IMRC session mainly discussed operators on port (such as tug operators); however researchers can pick any sector/industry of their choice to base their study on. 

In order to develop international standard maritime clusters in India with immense strategic benefits and for adding capacity, we must develop in areas such as:

• Indian Flag Primary Register Tonnage

• Easy and Friendly Bareboat and/or Bareboat-cum-demise charters

• Formulation of charter schemes at the level of International Standards

• Indian International Shipping Register (IISR)

The need of predictive analysis tools for risk assessment and budget forecasting for maritime corporations is growing at exponential rate. IMRC announces a project to develop generic and function-specific predictive analysis tools which will be available on a secure open platform for organizations to use and perform discreet analysis with their data.

Expanding the existing technology at IMRC, we announce a project for a cloud based data collection platform for vast maritime information exchange. We would like to invite companies and individuals who would be willing to assist us in expanding Maritime's big data collection into a more beneficial asset in global operations.

Security should always be the priority when it comes to global trade and business. The old and retired technologies aren't equipped with right features to secure these trade and transactions happening at such a massive scale in the maritime industry. Not only the trade satistics or transactions, the supply and logistics information must also be secured of each individual company. A small step towards a secured maritime information exchange could be to equipping Blockchain Technology. Blockchain has been shown in studies to be capable of being incorporated into operations such as commercial and documentation workflow. Moreover, researchers may further examine the use of blockchain in the ports and shipping industry to drive technological change. 

The dynamicity of tariffs all across the inland and seaports of the country have left some crucial problems that needs to be addressed. This has left the logistics sector unsteady, leaving some ports' traffic to be irregular or unbalanced due to high level competency to meet the right tariff charges meeting applicable facilities being provided. A foreordained tariff system could potentially solve the issue, providing individual ports to have a level playing field in the industry. A foreordained tariff system would also increase the dependability of Concessionaires' revenue streams, in addition to incentivizing productivity and cost minimization.