India's Maritime Trade : Safety & Security

India has been a maritime nation since time immemorial with maritime trade being mentioned in the Vedic texts and ship repair and building facilities being discovered at Indus Valley sites that dot the Indian sub-continent.As India grows as an economic power and takes its place at the forefront of trading nations a growing concern has been its ability to protect its trade routes, coastline and maritime assets. Piracy directed against Indian shipping and acts of piracy in Indian ports has been an issue over the last few years.The risk of piracy has also caused foreign flag ships to have armed marines on board causing on occasion high levels of risk to innocent fishermen around the Indian coast, thus hampering India's fishing activity and affecting the livelihood of millions of fishermen.Maritime security is a broad and sometimes nebulous area of strategic thought, and has relevance to everything from physical safety and security measures to port security, terrorism and more. A nation's lifeline is its maritime security and this cannot be compromised.The paper primarily looks at pirate attacks in and around the India as well as in the immediate vicinity and possible measures to mitigate these threats. An unsafe maritime environment will necessarily thwart the nation's economic ambitions and its ability to grow in the years to come