The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways is a Union Ministry of the Government of India, serving as the apex institution for formulating and administering policies related to ports, shipping, and inland waterways. Its origins trace back to the Department of War Transport, formed in July 1942. The Ministry was most recently created by renaming the Ministry of Shipping through an official notification published on November 10, 2020, following an announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8, 2020. The renaming was done to bring "clarity in name" and "clarity in work" by explicitly incorporating Ports and Waterways, thereby broadening the focus to include inland waterways development.
The Ministry works by exercising administrative control over India's 12 major ports and 111 declared national waterways. It regulates major ports under the Major Port Authorities Act, 2021, and develops inland water transport through the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), a statutory body established under the Inland Waterways Authority of India Act, 1985. The Ministry connects directly to major national initiatives like the Sagarmala Programme, initiated in 2015 for port-led economic development, and the Maritime India Vision 2030, launched in March 2021, which serves as a strategic blueprint for the sector. The most recent change was the November 2020 renaming, which replaced the Ministry of Shipping with the current name, explicitly expanding the mandate to emphasize inland waterways while the core function of governing ports and shipping remained.