Image Source: Pexels
This is part of the essay series: Sagarmanthan Edit 2026.
Countries increasingly recognise the ocean economy as a vital development pathway for resilient growth. In 2017, a World Bank study for Mauritius estimated that, under the right framework, the blue sector could grow at twice the rate of the overall economy. India recently unveiled an eight-pillar maritime decarbonisation roadmap to increase the blue economy’s contribution to national gross domestic product (GDP) from around 4 percent to 10 percent by 2047.
To succeed, these approaches must go beyond transforming existing maritime sectors and addressing coastal infrastructure resilience. They must engage all sectors of the economy, focusing on services and digitalisation while facilitating harbour-hinterland connectivity.
Integrating Hinterlands into the Ocean Economy
Today, inland regions…
