India to deepen engagement with Singapore-based ship safety agency
Singapore (PTI): India, a founding member of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP), is set to deepen its engagement with the Singapore-based Information Sharing Centre (ISC) of the grouping, its Executive Director Vijay D Chafekar has said.
"We expect closer cooperation with the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), the Indian Focal Point of ReCAAP, for promoting safe and secure seas in Asia," Chafekar told PTI on Saturday.
India is one of the founding members of the 21-nation ReCAAP, which was established as a regional, government-to-government institution for enhancing maritime security and ship safety.
The grouping is also drawing interest from countries beyond Asia, Chafekar said.
“Most of the attacks on ships are now for stealing engine and machinery spares for which there is demand in parallel markets. There has not been any incident of kidnapping of crew or hijacking ships in recent years,” said the retired Additional Director General of the Indian Coast Guard, who has been heading ReCAAP for the past year of his three-year term.
ReCAAP, he said, is now preparing for its 20th anniversary event to be held in Singapore in March, where representatives from member countries will discuss future plans of the agency.
A high-level Indian representation is expected at the Singapore forum, he said.
“Overall, ReCAAP engagement with the law enforcement agencies has been good and a successful arrangement is in place for ships to sail through Asian waters safely, though the weakest point is still the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS), where sea robberies have increased in 2025 though these were mostly petty theft cases,” Chafekar said.
He noted a marginal rise in incidents at Indian anchorages, with two cases reported in Kakinada and one in Kandla. In 2024, two incidents were recorded at Indian anchorages, according to ReCAAP ISC data.
Chafekar said the arrest of perpetrators in one of the attacks in Kakinada had led to a decline in such incidents in Indian waters.
A total of 132 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia were reported to ReCAAP ISC last year, marking a 23 per cent increase from 107 incidents reported in 2024. Only one Indian-flagged vessel was attacked among the incidents reported in 2025.
The SOMS continued to be an area of concern, with 108 sea robbery incidents reported in 2025.
“The sharp increase in number of incidents on SOMS in 2025 does not indicate a corresponding increase in threat to maritime trade passing through the straits, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes,” Chafekar said, adding that most of the reported incidents involved minor theft.
While the rise in sea robberies underscores persistent security challenges in busy waterways, the decline in incidents following the arrest of suspects by the Riau Islands Regional Police highlights the deterrent effect of effective enforcement, he said.
He reiterated ReCAAP ISC’s appeal to shipping companies to report all incidents of theft and unauthorised boarding to the nearest coastal state authority.
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Democracy invests in higher education so that graduates may govern themselves well: CJI
Chandigarh (PTI): A democracy does not invest in higher education so that its graduates may simply prosper, it does so to ensure that they govern themselves well, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said on Saturday.
"Every institution of public life -- the courts, the civil services, the schools, the hospitals, the local governance bodies -- all depend for their quality on the calibre of the people who choose to serve within them," the CJI said while addressing the 12th convocation ceremony of the Central University of Haryana in Mahendragarh.
Justice Kant said in barely 17 years, the university has earned national accreditation and recognition for its swift growth.
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He told the gathering of students that the degrees conferred on them certify the knowledge they have acquired and they should be proud of it but at the same time, he emphasised that "what your degree does not certify, and no examination can measure -- how your character and judgment hold up once the structure of formal education is no longer around you. In my experience, this ultimately determines the trajectory of life".
The CJI said there are graduates of the most-celebrated institutions who have faltered under pressure, not because they lacked knowledge but because they were never tested by anything other than a school or college examination.
"And then there are professionals from institutions nobody has heard of, who rise with composure and seriousness, earning the confidence of every room they enter," he said.
So what is the distinguishing factor then, he asked the students.
"In my view, it has nothing to do with the talent one may display in the classroom and almost everything to do with upbringing.
"Those who grew up observing their families manage scarcity with dignity, who understood early on that the world does not rearrange itself for your convenience and who entered professional life already knowing that hard work is not just a phase but a permanent state, they carried something that no curriculum can teach. They carried a seriousness that was not performative but genuine," Justice Kant said.
Many of the students present on the occasion carry exactly this formation, he said.
"You grew up in homes where a university degree was not a given but a goal that the entire family organised itself around. The investment by your families was not made so that you could merely earn a comfortable living.
"It was made because they believed, even if they could not always articulate it, that an educated daughter or son would use what they learned to build something beyond themselves," the CJI said.
This belief is the bridge between "what your upbringing gave you and what the world is now entitled to expect from you", he told the students.
The CJI said it is often discussed what education provides to an individual.
It opens doors, boosts earning potential and enhances mobility, he said, adding that however, there is a fundamental question that a congregation at a central university should address.
"What does your education owe to the society that funded it? The resources that build these classrooms, the resources that paid your faculty and the resources that maintained the laboratories where you trained came from the public exchequer. Which means they were derived from citizens' earnings and taxes, many of whom will never set foot in a university themselves," he said.
"This fact creates an obligation. Not a sentimental one, but a structural one. A democracy does not invest in higher education so that its graduates may simply prosper. It invests so that they may govern themselves well...," Justice Kant said.
In the Ramayana, when Bharat was handed the throne of Ayodhya by his father's own decree, he chose to place Ram's "paduka" on the seat of power and govern from Nandigram as a trustee, not as a sovereign, he pointed out.
"This distinction between holding authority for yourself and holding it on behalf of others is what your obligation towards the public means," the CJI said.
He told the students that "wherever your careers take you, carry with you the awareness that our collective life depends on whether educated people choose to engage with the systems around them or simply benefit from them".
Giving the example of a "raider" in a Kabaddi game, the CJI told the students, "Watch the finest raiders carefully.... Their greatness is not in the distance they cover, but in the precision with which they judge the line between ambition and overreach.".
He told the students that as they advance in their chosen careers, they must carry the discipline their families have imparted, the endurance that this landscape has taught them and the straightforwardness that Haryana is known for.
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