02-03-2021 | 12:54 PM
Draft Blue Economy Policy
Context
The draft Blue Economy policy has recently been rolled out by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), seeking suggestions and inputs from various stakeholders including industry, NGOs, academia, and citizens by February 27, 2021.
Key Highlights
The policy document highlighted the blue economy as one of the ten core dimensions for national growth.
The policy document has been disseminated for public consultation on several outreach platforms including websites and social media handles of MoES and its institutes. Stakeholders have also been invited to submit inputs and ideas by February 27, 2021.
The objective of the policy document is to enhance contribution of the blue economy to India’s GDP, improve lives of coastal communities, preserve marine biodiversity, and maintain the national security of marine areas and resources.
The draft policy framework emphasizes policies across several key sectors to achieve holistic growth of India’s economy. The document recognizes the following seven thematic areas:
National accounting framework for the blue economy and ocean governance.
Coastal marine spatial planning and tourism.
Marine fisheries, aquaculture, and fish processing.
Manufacturing, emerging industries, trade, technology, services, and skill development.
Logistics, infrastructure and shipping, including trans-shipments.
Coastal and deep-sea mining and offshore energy.
Security, strategic dimensions, and international engagement.
The draft policy also suggests to offer the Blue Economy related educational programs comprising various technical and managerial skills in the universities and technical institutes along with the coastal states of India.
The Draft Blue Economy policy document prepared and circulated by the MoES is available at https://moes.gov.in/writereaddata/files/BlueEconomyPolicy.pdf.
What is the Blue Economy?
The concept of Blue Economy was introduced by Gunter Pauli in his 2010 book: “The Blue Economy: 10 years, 100 innovations, 100 million jobs”.
Blue Economy is the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, and ocean ecosystem health.
It advocates the greening of ocean development strategies for higher productivity and conservation of ocean's health.
Blue Economy emphasizes on integration of development of the ocean economy with social inclusion, environmental sustainability, combined with innovative business models.
