The technical committee of IMEI, Mumbai Branch in association with Directorate General of Shipping, Government of India conducted a webinar on the Outcome of MEPC 77, which was held on 22nd December 2021. The objective was to discuss the outcome of 77th session of the IMOs Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC 77) from 22nd to 26th November 2021. The webinar was attended by over 200 participants.

Mr Sunil Kumar, Head – Technical Sub-Committee, IME(I), Mumbai Branch gave the opening remarks and expressed his gratitude to DGS officials for their wholehearted support of this event. He invited Mr AK Gupta, Chairman, IME(I) Mumbai Branch & Ex CMD SCI for giving welcome address of the event.

Mr Gupta thanked the Chief Guest, Mr S Barik, Chief Surveyor to Govt of India and Mr AjithKumar Sukumaran, Principal Officer of MMD, Chennai for marking their presence. He also expressed his pleasure towards the panelists for their presence in the event. He further introduced the Chief Guest and invited him to address the gathering.

Mr Barik congratulated all the Indian Delegates for successfully raising all the issues at MEPC 77. He invited members of IMEI to come forward and submit papers on relevant topics for submission at IMO and made announcement that top 3 papers will be chosen and suitably awarded.

Mr David Birwadkar, Member, Technical Sub-Committee & Vice Chairman IME(I) Mumbai Branch gave a brief introduction of moderator of the event Mr SM Rai, Member, Technical Sub-Committee IME(I) Mumbai Branch and invited him to take over the proceedings of the event.

Mr Rai first invited Leader of Delegation Mr Sukumaran to give his views on outcome of MEPC 77. Mr Sukumaran gave a brief framework of the event and mentioned that panelists will be discussing the issues in detail.

Mr Vikrant Rai, E&SS, DG Shipping gave a general idea of the participants, formation and functioning of shadow committee. He also mentioned that initiatives will be taken by India and same will be presented in next MEPC meeting.

Mr SM Rai started the proceedings of the webinar and gave introduction of the panelists of the webinar. He invited all the panelists to express their respective views. Total 6 panelists were present.

Mr PK Mishra (Head-Operations, IRS) spoke on Energy Efficiency Existing Ship Index (EEXI); Mr CPK Kashyap, Executive Director – Operations, Sanmar Shipping shared his views on Carbon Intensity Index (CII); Mr Mudit Mehrotra, AVP-Technical, GESCO shared his views w.r.t Net Zero Emissions; Mr A Srinivasa Prasad, E&SS, DGS put light on Marine Plastic Litter and Carbon Budget; Mr MB Prasad, GM-Training, Ambuja Cements spoke on Biofuel and alternate fuel; and Mr Mahesh Subramanian, Manager – Energy Efficiency, AEMS shared his views on Ballast Water Management System.

In a healthy question and answer session, the panelists addressed their views on various questions that were raised during the proceedings.

After the panel discussion, Mr Sanjeev Mehra, Hon Secy, IME(I) Mumbai Branch requested Mr Gupta to present memento to Chief Guest, Mr Barik and further requested Mr Barik to give memento to all panelists as a token of appreciation on behalf of IME(I).

Lastly, Mr TS Girish, Member, Technical SubCommittee IME(I) Mumbai Branch proposed a special vote of thanks to DGS, Mr Amitabh Kumar (IRS) and Mr Barik for the support and motivation provided to IME(I). A special thanks was also extended to Mr Sukumaran panelists and committee members.

Marex Media