India ready to cooperate on 'blue economy'

India is ready to co-operate with Bangladesh in efforts to develop a blue economy, an Indian oceanographer has said.

Nurul Islam Hasibbdnews24.com
Published : 3 Sept 2014, 05:40 AM
Updated : 3 Sept 2014, 05:40 AM

S Prasanna Kumar, head of the physical oceanography department of India's National Institute of Oceanography, said it all adds to a “knowledge based economy”.

“You will need skilled manpower for exploiting marine resources and doing research to understand the ocean,” he told bdnews24.com on Tuesday.

“But it’s (research) very expensive,” he said, “You cannot do it by yourself”.

Kumar was attending the first-ever international workshop on blue economy Bangladesh hosted in Dhaka.

He said this is “the best time” for Bangladesh to look for the blue ocean for sustainable growth as Dhaka settled its maritime boundary dispute with India and Myanmar.

He said India was also going to engage in “a very large way in oceanic research”.

“So we can have bilateral co-operation,” he said, “even Myanmar (another Bay of Bengal littoral) can also be a partner in this regard”.
He said oceanographers of both Bangladesh and India can use the Modi government’s neighbourhood policy to its benefit.
India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pushed for a dynamic neighbourhood policy since he invited SAARC leaders during his swearing-in ceremony and made his first visit to Bhutan and emphasized on growing together with all neighbours.
“There are several issues, technological issues as well as exclusive economic issues, so the best way is collaboration,” the Indian scientist said.
“And we have very good opportunity to collaborate,” he said, since Bangladesh has pitched strongly for a blue economy.
Bangladesh took interest in hosting the workshop after it has settled its maritime boundary disputes with neighbouring India and Myanmar “peacefully”.
Sovereign rights have been established on more than 118,000 sq km of maritime territory, 200 nautical miles (NM) of exclusive economic zone, and 354 NM of continental shelf after positive verdicts in international courts.
It has raised hopes of extracting “plenty of resources” from the Bay of Bengal, considered by Bangladesh as its “third neighbour”.
But Bangladesh also understands its limitation in exploiting the Bay.
The foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali on Tuesday closing the workshop sought partnerships.
Oceanographer Kumar said: “You need to have knowledge of a particular marine region which then could be utilised for the sustained growth of the country since it’s (blue economy) knowledge based economy”.
“This would need to have the experts who would understand what the ocean is and would have sound knowledge of the regional ocean that you have”.
“You would need qualified manpower and probably several oceanographic teaching centres,” he said.
The Bay of Bengal is the largest bay in the world that forms the north-eastern part of the Indian Ocean.
It is bordered mostly by India and Sri Lanka to the west, Bangladesh to the north, and Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the east.

S Prasanna Kumar (File Photo)

Kumar said first of all “you have to understand what the Bay of Bengal would be like”.
“We have not much information, we do not have enough data,” he said referring to the northern part of the Bay which is in the east of Bangladesh.
“Quantity of fresh water that is coming from the Meghna River, how much is that, how much nutrient that is bringing into the Bay of Bengal”.
“This is important because when you talk about resource creation you would need to know how much resources are being generated,” he said.
“The best example is the production of phytoplankton. If you have huge phytoplankton, it can sustain fisheries”.
“We need to understand what drives the kind of fisheries we have. We also need to look at the energy sector and also at the bio-molecule.
“There have huge potential to isolate bio-active molecule which can be used to cure several diseases”.
He said India has embarked on “a very ambitious” programme by using bio-technology to isolate the bio-active molecules.
Once found commercially viable, he said they would look into other components of the ocean like phytoplankton from which “we can get these molecules and then that will be utilised for diseases and treatment”.
“So we have lot of opportunities to explore ocean together,” he said.
He said private sector would be needed, but government has to create the mechanism first.