India is silently copying the strategies of Singapore and Dubai for its economic success... and I’ll tell you how.

So both, Singapore and Dubai were terribly poor countries till they did two things to change everything...

One, they made a financial centre with tax breaks that the Govt is doing with GIFT City, but the second element is what I want to focus on today...

It is building itself as a transhipment hub...

I’ll explain.

As of now, whenever goods have to travel from say China to Europe or Africa, they go around the Indian Ocean and take a break at either Singapore, Colombo, Dubai or Oman... for what we call change of ships or “transshipment”

More than 75% of India’s cargo is also handled at these hubs outside the country, which costs us over USD 200 Mn annually, with higher import and export costs that reduce our cost competitiveness.

And these transshipment hubs make a lot of money for the country in the form of taxes, as well as develop their economy because a huge number of international companies start setting up base here.

And PM Modi has just inaugurated the first transshipment hub of India called Vizhinjam Port in Kerala...

Why has it taken India so long to do it?

The last time India had a transshipment port here was said to be over 900 years ago... and over the years, with changing governments, wars, natural disasters, bureaucracy, environmental concerns, no business house had the courage or the execution ability to take a chance at re-building it.

The project has already cost over a Billion dollars in phase 1 and will cost another Billion dollars in Phase 2 over the next decade...

So who could’ve afforded it?

It had to be the Adani Group... where they’ve supported both the Govt of Kerala and the Central Govt to build this in PPP - that’s a Public Private Partnership.

It has already generated over Rs 240 crores in revenue, employment of over 750 people, and local fisherwomen have been trained to operate machinery and rebuild their careers and given them a chance to earn more.

Let’s hope this is one step among many that is not just rebuilding Kerala, but will continue to building India in the future.

Jai Hind.
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A Chartered Accountant with about 10 years of experience in areas of Tax Advisory, Startup Consulting, Fundraising, Audits, Deal Advisory, Business Modelling and contract CFO services.
Winner of the ISB Young Leader Award 2017 and the Best All Rounder, PGP Class of '17, Sarthak has also been published about in the leading financial newspapers such as The Financial Express as possibly the youngest Indian to have completed the courses of CA, CS and CMA along with a graduate degree in Financial & Investment Analysis from University of Delhi, all by the age of 23 years