Prosperous Nation Building Through Shipbuilding

S. Navaneetha Krishnan

This book elucidates the potential of the shipbuilding industry for initiating economic development, which eventually leads to enhancing the prosperity of a nation. This is explained by intrinsically linking the macroeconomics of the nation with the microeconomics of the shipbuilding industry. The economic and commercial spin offs by the shipyard to the various industries have been analysed and calculated. An attempt has been made to trace the illustrious past of Indian shipbuilding from the Bronze Age, through the ancient kingdom period, to the present times, in the backdrop of Indian maritime history. The operational requirement of commercial as well as defence shipbuilding has been analysed to assess the available potential market space for the Indian shipbuilding industry.

Lessons from history help to formulate future strategies. In pursuit of this, the book investigates the global trends in commercial shipbuilding since the industrial revolution period to date; the success stories of leading shipbuilding nations viz.UK, USA, Japan, Korea and China have been analysed. The benefits accrued by these nations through shipbuilding have been summarised. The strategies adopted by each of these countries to reach the pinnacle in shipbuilding have been examined and the salient features relevant for India have been identified.

Productivity measurement in shipbuilding has been examined and the problems with the current system have been highlighted, along with solutions. This book suggests the usage of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a mathematical linear programming technique, as an appropriate tool to measure total productivity as well as profitability. The various ways of improving profitability in shipbuilding, by way of cost-cutting techniques, along with some Indian case studies have been explained in the book.

Keeping the ‘Indian Maritime Agenda 2010-2020’ vision document in the backdrop, a strategic appreciation of the Indian shipbuilding industry has been undertaken using the SWOT, the Matrix and the Scenario analyses. Based on these analyses, strategies have been formulated for all the stakeholders who can influence the Indian shipbuilding industry. The book then identifies the need for an alchemist leader, who can harmonise all the stakeholders and thereby propel the Indian shipbuilding industry towards achieving the long-term goal of creating a prosperous India.

S. Navaneetha Krishnan Cdr S Navaneetha Krishnan is an officer in the Indian Navy from the Corps of Naval Architects. He is posted at Submarine Overseeing Team, Mumbai, where he is overseeing the submarine construction works. His past work experience includes tenures at the Naval Dockyard, the Directorate of Naval Design (Surface Ship Group) and at the Submarine Design Group.

He is a graduate in naval architecture and shipbuilding from the Cochin University of Science and Technology and has completed his Post Graduate Diploma in Naval Construction from IIT-Delhi. He has done his M.Tech. in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from IIT-Kharagpur. He has also done his MBA with specialisation in Finance. He is presently pursuing a PhD in Strategic Management.

He was awarded the Admiral AK Chatterji research fellowship by the Indian Navy under the aegis of the National Maritime Foundation (NMF) for undertaking research in the shipbuilding industry.

He has published 10 technical papers in national and international journals and presented several papers in national and international forums. He has also published a book on efficiency measurement in ship design organisations.
e-mail: krishnansn@gmail.com