The Union Shipping Ministry is planning to create three lakh jobs in the next five year. The creation of jobs will increase the current strength of employees from 2.08 to 5 lakh. According to Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Shipping, the number of employees jumped to 2.08 lakh in 2018 from 1.54 lakh in 2017. 

"We are already the third largest supplier of sea farers in the world. We will take this to 5 lakh sea farers in the next five years," said Mandaviya.

The minister said that about 900 women are also working as seafarers. While the number is low, it is slowly increasing, he said.

The announcement of job creation in shipping industry comes during the launch of the first Biometric Seafarer Identity Document (BSID). BSID captures facial biometric data of seafarers and will be a foolproof identification document. India is the first mover in this space.

India contributes about 4 per cent to the global seafaring manpower. In 2018 it had gone up to 10 per cent. According to Mandaviya, India is the third largest supplier of seafarers in the world. 

Additionally, in order to promote coastal shipping and inland waterways the minister noted the need to reduce logistics cost. “We need to reduce logistic cost. We are at 14 percent while the world is at 9 percent but we are traditionally a seafaring country, he said.