From the Captain's Deck

I congratulate all of you on this occasion of National Maritime Day which also coincides with the foundation day of this leading maritime Board of the country. 29 Years ago in 1982, a timely and prompt decision taken by Government of Gujarat formed this autonomous statutory body under Gujarat Maritime Board Act, 1981 with a view to accelerate growth in the Port sector in the State. This decision proved to be the stepping stone of establishing Gujarat as the leading Maritime state of the country.

As we all know, Ports Sector is vastly spread having numerous stakeholders right from the organizations directly involved in running private ports to small companies only exporting their cargo from various ports, from shipping agents to shipping lines calling on these ports, from stevedoring agents to freight forwarders, from warehouse owners to logistics support providers; all of them are connected with Gujarat Maritime Board in one or the other way. However, a streamlined and systematic communication channel was the need of the hour. Moreover, being a pioneer in various aspects related to the Maritime sector, we understand and appreciate the importance of knowledge sharing. This e-magazine can be a knowledge sharing forum within the Ports sector. This has been our vision in coming out with this e-magazine so that GMB's perspective can be effectively communicated with one and all involved in this sector. And in this age of electronic media, what better way could we have to communicate with our vastly spread stakeholders than through this medium of e-magazine.

It gives me great pleasure bringing out the first issue of "GMB e-Musing"- the e-magazine of Gujarat Maritime Board. This quarterly publication of Gujarat Maritime Board would feature articles about different vistas, parameters and areas of Ports Sector of Gujarat. New developments and achievements of Gujarat Maritime Board and feats achieved by Gujarat Ports sector would be included issue by issue. I see tremendous scope of this e-magazine for not only reaching out to the parties currently involved with Ports sector but also for organizations willing to join themselves in this Sunrise industry.

I would urge all the present stakeholders of Ports Sector to use this magazine as a forum for communicating ideas for better and faster development of ports sector of Gujarat which would in one way or the other fuel the growth engine of Gujarat State.

I would also urge all the members of Gujarat Maritime Board for contributing their ideas not only for this magazine but also for contributing to the success of Gujarat Maritime Board.

I must congratulate the Editorial Board and Team of "GMB e-Musing" for the hard work and the efforts put in by them for coming out with the first issue of this magazine. And lastly, I wish them all the success for the coming editions of the magazine.

Pankaj Kumar, IAS
Vice Chairman & Chief Executive Officer,
Gujarat Maritime Board