On June 9, the world’s largest container ship, the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) Irina, docked at Vizhinjam international seaport in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The Irina has a capacity of 24,346 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), with a length of 399.9 metres and a width of 61.3 metres — more than four times bigger than a standard FIFA-designated football field.This tale is not about Irina, though; it is about India quietly punching much above her weight in a determination to take a pole position in the world as a maritime hub. With a coastline of over 11,000 km washed by a bay, a sea, and an ocean, and a proud seafaring history stretching back to the fifth millennium BCE, this would appear to be a natural comparative advantage. Yet, it is one of the most fiercely contested domains globally. Seven of the top ten container traffic ports are in China, a hegemony interrupted only by Singapore (third), Busan in South Korea (fifth) and Jebel Ali in the UAE (tenth).
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