News:

• India’s proposed Maritime Development Fund is likely to be ready by the end of this year.
• The fund will be used to provide long-term, low-cost financial assistance to bolster indigenous shipbuilding efforts in the country.
• Moreover, the fund would also foster cruise tourism and support activities such as the mechanisation and capacity expansion of existing ports through public-private partnership initiatives.
• The fund is proposed to begin with an initial corpus of Rs 25,000 crore, distributed over a seven-year period. Its mandate would encompass various funding mechanisms, including debt, equity, Viability Gap Funding (VGF), and buyer credit support.