India re-elected to International Maritime Organisation Council with highest vote
London (PTI): India has been re-elected to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Council with the highest vote in its category at elections held at its Assembly in London for the 2025-26 biennium.
India's election in Category B on Friday falls under the collection of 10 states with “the largest interest in international seaborne trade,” alongside Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The newly elected Council will meet for its 136th session on December 4 and will elect its Chair and Vice-Chair for the next biennium, the IMO said.
“India re-elected to the IMO Council securing the highest vote in Category B with 154 votes,” the Indian High Commission in London announced following the vote.
“We thank our partners for putting their trust in India, and pledge to continue to work for the global maritime sector,” the mission stated.
The IMO is the premier body that oversees the world's maritime sector, which in turn underpins international trade, transport and all maritime activities.
The Council is the executive organ of IMO and is responsible, under the Assembly, for supervising the work of the organisation.
In July, the Secretary at the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways had launched India’s candidature for re-election as he revealed the ministry’s plans to invest USD 1 trillion in the sector over the next 25 years.
T K Ramachandran invited representatives from around the world to “partner with India in this quest for us to become one of the leading maritime nations in the world.”
“India embraces the philosophy of 'One Earth, One Family, One Future,' and we bring this vision to life through fostering robust and collaborative maritime efforts,” said Ramachandran at the time.
“Under our Vision 2047, we see maritime growth as a corner of global progress, and we deeply value a growing engagement with the IMO and its member states… we have several pillars, including shipbuilding, ship recycling, ship financing, ship ownership and ship flagging, the entire ecosystem,” he said.
The IMO Assembly normally meets once every two years in a regular session. It is responsible for approving the work programme, voting the budget and determining the financial arrangements of the organisation.
It also elects the organisation's 40-Member Council at these meetings for the next two-year period.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
