The recent seminar on Seafarers’ well-being and industry expectation from seafarers, held at the Indian Maritime University (IMU) Training Ship Chanakya campus at Navi Mumbai, under the auspices of The Company of Master Mariners of India (CMMI) Navi Mumbai chapter was indeed unfettered by undue formality crisply delivered and its conclusions put together exceedingly well so that required changes will be that much easier to implement in future.

The Director General of Shipping, Mr Amitabh Kumar, IRS in his capacity as Chief Guest applauded the validity of the subjects chosen to be discussed and the post monsoon greenery of TS Chanakya set the tone for freshness of thinking and feeling that new thoughts could be sowed in a well irrigated soil.

The Guest of Honour, Mr Ashok Mahapatra who has led the Indian presence at IMO for many years was present to inspire the young cadets to putting their minds to a career that can lead to achieving some of the highest position in the industry and international forums.

Much debate and talks, later it immersed that several areas in seafarers wellbeing have remained untouched and perhaps escaped the thinking of the industry. It was sufficiently put out that rethink and at times reinvention will be required to put through and implement changes that will indeed bring about greater physical and mental wellness of seafarers who are today traversing not only the high seas but also technical changes and a huge amount of commercial pressures.

The organising committee led by Capt NK Sah, Chapter Head of Navi Mumbai put in a lot of time and efforts to not only taking care of appointing a venue, announcing the seminar and inviting the guest, but also very carefully selecting the speakers and panellists who would do justice to the entire event.

Speakers included Capt MP Bhasin of MASSA, Capt Fareed Bhombal, Sailing Master with Fleet Management, Mr Ravjyot Khuman of 3 Cube along with his colleague, and Capt MC Yadav of FOSMA.

The second topic – Industry Expectation from Seafarers, which was delivered in the form of panel discussion was moderated by the inimical Capt Yashovarman Sharma and the panellists Capt Anshul Rajvanshi of Synergy, Capt Pranab Jha of JSW Steel, Capt Manish Verma of INSA, Mr Sydney Lobo, Sailing Chief Engineer Superintendent and Capt Viraf Chichgar of Fleet MTI did an excellent job of pinpointing of many elements that required attention. Liberally, interspersed with anecdotes and incidents. The ideas put out will form the basis of the future paper on the two topics discussed here.

One of the objectives of holding this event at IMU TS Chanakya is definitely that Chanakya be returned to its past glory through greater exposure of its contributions and its importance to Indian shipping.

Mr Jagmeet Makkar, IMEI chair at IMU delivered a brief introduction and small insight into the many programme on offer by the IMU.

Contributions of the sponsors and supporters were recognized. The speakers, guests and panellists were honoured with a gift of a copy of a book titled A Leap of the Boy from Mountain to the sea, an autobiography by Capt Dr (Prof) P Vanchiswar, who is today in his 90s and perhaps one of the senior most captain in the shipping industry.

Keeping with the conciseness of the function a quick lunch and tour of TS Chanakya museum brought the event to the close.

Marex Media