Indian costal container industry Introduction India is bounded to the southwest by the Arabian Sea, to the southeast by the

Bay of Bengal, and to the south by the Indian Ocean. It is a miracle of rich biodiversity with varied degree of life forms the sand dunes, beaches, wetlands, mangroves, estuaries, backwater lagoons and coral reefs. The coastal environment plays a vital role in Indias economy by virtue of the resources, productive habitats, and rich biodiversity. Indias coastline stretches about 7500 km and supports almost 30% of its human population. The Indian shipping industry has grown over the years in terms of its physical and financial assets, human resources, knowledge base, operating processes and support infrastructure. PESTAL Analysis. Political factors :- Costal container industry in India is administered by central government through Ministry of Shipping with the sole responsibility to formulate policies, programme and their implementation. Each port is governed under Indian Ports Act 1980 and Major Port Trust Act 1963 and administered individually by board of trustees under direct orders from central government. Political factors are important here due to immense involvement of government in this industry. Appointment of Custom House Agents :- Customs House Agent (CHA) is a person who is licensed to act as an agent for transaction of any business relating to the entry or departure of conveyances or the import or export of goods at any Customs station. These agents are governed by Customs House Agents Licensing Regulations, 1984 which involve responsibilities like filing bills of entry, shipping bills, submitting documents, helping in examination of goods, payment of duty on behalf of principal, storage and movement of goods. Infrastructure Development:- Maritime Transport is a critical infrastructure for the social and economic development of a country. It influences the pace, structure and pattern of development. 90% of India domestic trade is carried out by sea, in contrast its existing port infrastructure is insufficient to handle trade effectively. Safeguarding Domestic Market :- With an action of anti dumping and anti subsidy measures in line with WTO agreement, government seek to provide necessary relief and protection to domestic companies against dumping of goods and articles at cheaper rates by exporting companies of domestic countries. This factor is negatively affects the shipping business, Because the anti dumping and high duty will discourage the domestic player to deal in Indian market and by this the Indian shipping market suffers a lot because of less import and less opportunities of business in such a condition. Promoting Exports: This factor is positively affects the Indian costal container Business, as the tax saving and other benefits in SEZ is more, the foreign players are also interested to invest in Indian costal container Industry, which will results into the development of Indian costal container industry. Other thing is that 100% tax benefit and other duty free schemes encourage the domestic players to invest more and more and export as much as possible, which will result into high growth of industry and up liftman of sector.A

Economic Factors: Economic factors are as important as political factors which concern not only this industry but every industry in each and every corner of the world. Change in economic conditions at domestic or at international level largely affects the functioning of every industry; following are some of the economic factors which may affect costal container industry. Rationalization Measures: These rationalization measures are untaken to improve infrastructure, quality of life of people, better facilities and environment friendly products. This factor is positively affects the costal container industries, as encouragement of export, minerals, and marble, tiles improvements etc will increase the export and increase the profitability of Indian costal container industry. Inflation: Rate of inflation reflects changes in demand and supply conditions in economy. Inflation management therefore involves controlling demand and supply factors by various monetary and fiscal measures respectively.

Socio-Cultural Factors: Population in India is second highest in the world. As of 2010, Indias population is estimated to be 1.18 billion. India ranks 139th globally, under medium human development category according to Human Development Index (HDI). Due to significant changes in economic reforms undertaken during the industrial revolution in 1991, India has transformed itself to one of the fastest growing economies in world. India is also a strong member of Commonwealth of Nations, SAARC, and WTO. Cultural Trends: Trends are a manifestation of new enablers unlocking existing human needs which are constantly changing with time. This cultural shift has denote impacts on the Indian work scenario. Start-ups today have fresh innovative concepts and exciting working models which highlights the key socio-cultural trends in India. Businesses are increasingly catering to rational, practical and current cultural needs and are not based only on traditional models and offerings. Technological Factors: Technologies significantly affect humans ability to control and adapt to their natural environments. We will see some of the benefits of technology which is revolutionizing costal container industry. Faster Data Processing: Traditional methods of manual data entry using typewriters for preparation of shipping documents, bills of entry, survey reports, load/ discharge list has been taken over by computers and internet. Now customers are preparing shipping instructions in their own office using computers and directly sending them to shipping lines for preparation of bills of lading using internet. Customers are also receiving web invoices and are making payments to shipping lines through online banking. This technology improvement has changed the way people were traditionally working with more ease, flexibility and efficiently. Customers can also track estimated arrival/ departure of their cargo to/ from terminal on shipping lines website because of synchronization between companys system and internet. Shipping lines and CHAs have also benefited with this technological innovation, they are now able to communicate with customs, government offices easily through mails and can send official shipping documents using encrypted data transfer channel. Ship Technology: Changes in ship building and designing technology have also made significant changes in order to decrease carbon emissions, reducing erosions to save marine ecosystem and to increase fuel efficiency. Overall, technological factors positively affect the costal container industry, because development in technology will useful in reducing the time of process and useful in timely decisions. New technological advancement will increase the business by better service quality and fast data processing.

Environment Factors:- Over the decades, the depletion of ozone layer and its preservation had been high a priority for environmentalists and developed nations. Campaigns and initiatives are being taken globally to reduce these carbon emission levels through technological innovations and mass education. Marine Protection Programmes: Marine pollution can kill birds, marine mammals and fish, particularly near coastline. India is a member country of this programme and it has its own indigenous National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (1996) which looks after protection of marine environment around Indian coast with help of coast guard and other non government agencies. This policy is adversely affects the shipping industry, because of heavy and strict rules for transporting a hazardous chemicals and using of fuel in ships. Legal Factors: Legal factors are related to the legal environment in which firms operate which elaborate rights and responsibilities in variety of ways. We will look at some of the main acts on which shipping industry is dependant internationally as well as domestically. The Dock Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act 1948: Dock worker means a person employed or to be employed in any port in connection with the loading, unloading, movement or storage of cargo from ship or vessel. This act regulates the recruitment and management of dock workers in Indian ports either temporary or permanently including their entry and removal, regulating terms and conditions of employment, deciding rates of remuneration and hours of work, minimum wage in respect of non availability of work and prohibiting, restricting or controlling the employment of dock workers not covered under this scheme. The Essential Commodities Act 1955: This act gives powers to government to regulate or prohibit production, supply and distribution of essential commodities for commerce and trade in India. This factor is positively affects the costal container industry, because as the government prevents production, the suppliers will import more goods from the domestic to meet the high demands of products. As the import increase, it wills results into the beneficial for costal container industry in a way of transferring or movement of goods from one place to another. The Right to Information Act 2005: This act has given secure access of information under the control of public authorities, to citizens of India. The act has brought transparency and accountability in working practices of public enterprises with continuous and gradual decrease in corruption cases. This factor affects in a both way. As the information is available there is a less chance of corruption and illegal practices in business. But by other side it raises the competitors and the chance of loss due to secret information leak and governments policies.