Indian Coastline

Lack of manpower, training, infrastructure and coordination coupled with other systemic flaws and state government’s indifference to coastal security have severely undermined the efficacy of the coastal security apparatus.

• Pushpita Das
• 2009
• IDSA Occasional Papers

There are five fundamental deficiencies in India’s maritime security mechanism that will need to be addressed by the newly appointed National Maritime Security Coordinator (NMSC), to prevent a recurrence of a 26/11 scenario.

• Anurag Bisen
• May 18, 2022
• Issue Brief

A long coastline, ports, and availability of airfields all make Odisha a strategic asset that provides considerable leverage for securing India’s national interests and enhancing influence in South East Asia.

• Bhabani Das
• November 13, 2017
• IDSA Comments

FIPIC-2 has added substantially to the package of projects and activities. This has now to be matched by delivery and implementation, which are challenging tasks for the Indian government.

• Bhaskar Balakrishnan
• August 25, 2015
• IDSA Comments

Myanmar’s 2,276 km long coastline in the Bay of Bengal has the potential to provide the ‘second coast’ to China to reach the Indian Ocean and achieve strategic presence in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Especially transportation logistics to the ‘second coast’ from landlocked south west Chinese provinces like Yunnan have both economic and strategic benefits

• Namrata Goswami
• June 19, 2014
• IDSA Comments

While India has put in place a comprehensive mechanism for securing the country’s coasts, there is still a great deal to be done in terms of addressing issues relating to perceptions, resources as well as organisational management to ensure effective coastal security.

• Pushpita Das
• November 26, 2012
• IDSA Comments

The Andaman and Nicobar islands are of immense strategic significance for India. The geographical configuration and the location of the island chain in the Bay of Bengal safeguards India's eastern seaboard as well the approaches to the Indian Ocean from the east. Its proximity to the Southeast Asian region enables India to forge friendly relations with its Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) neighbours. The physical isolation and remoteness of the archipelago, however, make it vulnerable to conventional and non-conventional threats.

• Pushpita Das
• May 2011
• Strategic Analysis

While India is augmenting the security of the Lakshadweep islands, implementation of the coastal security scheme on the ground has been slow.

• Pushpita Das
• December 13, 2010
• IDSA Comments

State governments have to be coaxed and cajoled into actively participating and cooperating with the Centre in the national endeavour to secure India’s coasts.

• Pushpita Das
• November 26, 2009
• IDSA Comments

Many scholars assume that the European model of Realpolitik will prevail in Asia as the dual rise of China and India reorders regional politics. Others predict that Asia's China-centric tradition of hierarchy will reassert itself. But Indians look as much to 19th century US history as to any European or Asian model. Indeed, successive prime ministers have explicitly cited the Monroe Doctrine to justify intervention in hotspots around the Indian periphery. The Monroe Doctrine, however, underwent several phases during the USA's rise to world power.

• James R. Holmes , Toshi Yoshihara
• November 2008
• Strategic Analysis