Mr. Deepak Shetty

He is a former senior career civil servant of the Government of India and had served the same for 36 1/ 4 years since September,1980, as a direct recruit member of the Indian Revenue Service {Customs and Central Excise: I.R.S.(C&CE)}. His last official assignment was as Secretary to the Government of India and Director General of Shipping, until his retirement, on superannuation, at the end of 2016.

He has an extensive and first-hand civil service experience and expertise, in the Government of India, in the areas of public administration, civil service governance, global geo-political-strategic affairs, maritime, civil aviation & indirect tax administration, economic law enforcement, anti-money laundering, counter terrorist financing, anti-smuggling, human resource development & capacity building, finance, audit & inspection, anti-corruption, transparency, accountability, diligence, ethics, stakeholders engagement, corporate governance, etc., during & post his retirement.

He has held multiple and diverse official assignments in his career. These have ranged, in his parent department (Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax) in the ranks of Assistant / Deputy / Joint / Additional Commissioner, leading up eventually as Commissioner, Chief Commissioner and Principal Chief Commissioner. He has also had two central deputation / secondment postings – firstly as Additional Textile Commissioner-cum-Director, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India for 5 ¼ years and secondly as Joint Director General of Shipping-cum-Joint / Additional Secretary, culminating as Director General of Shipping-cum-Additional Secretary and finally as Secretary to the Government of India, in the Ministry of Shipping, for nearly 6 years.

He has been widely acknowledged as having been primarily instrumental, through his pro-active & relentless pursuit in various global fora, from 2012 to 2015, in the redrawal of the maritime high risk area (HRA) in the western Indian Ocean region, to India’s complete satisfaction, in 2015. This has culminated in average annual savings to the Indian EXIM consumers of about Rs.800-4,000 / crore of additional war risk premium. This arose out of his proactive leadership role of the official Indian delegation to the Plenary Session of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia held at the United Nations, in New York, in 2015 and his further leading the official Indian interactions with the Joint War Group of Global Marine Insurers (Lloyd’s Syndicate) at London, also in 2015.

He has been the key national functionary to have pioneered a global model of rescue, relief and rehabilitation package for Indian seafarers impacted by Somali piracy, through his persistent and passionate personal efforts over the years 2011-2015. This had been formally commended at the United Nations, in New York, at the Plenary Session of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), in 2014.

He was empanelled on the ‘Global Roster of Experts’ of the Security Council Affairs Division of the United Nations, in the fields of maritime transportation and crime.

He has officially represented India & very actively participated in the Sessions of the Council and Assembly of the International Maritime Organisation [IMO - global shipping regulator, under the United Nations], London, as a member of the official Indian delegations between 2011 - 2015.

He had also attended, as the official representative of the Government of India, the Plenary Sessions of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), held at the United Nations in New York and also at Djibouti and Dubai, between December, 2012 - July, 2015 and pro-actively taken part therein. He had very successfully led the official Indian delegation to the said last session in 2015.

He was trained, at Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in global anti-money laundering (AML) and counter financing of terrorism (CFT) standards and strategies, by the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering, Sydney, Financial Action Task Force, Paris, World Bank, Washington and International Monetary Fund, Washington. He was then chosen by these entities to be a member (first officer of the IRS-C&CE to have been selected), of an international team of experts that had evaluated Nepal as a jurisdiction from the perspectives of the said AML and CFT, in February, 2005. He had, on an invitation of these agencies, then made a co-presentation of the report of that team of experts (as its member) in their Annual Meeting held at Cairns, Australia, in July, 2005. He was formally commended by them for his vast expertise- cum-experience.

• Presidential Award of Appreciation Certificate for a Specially Distinguished Record of Service, bestowed on the Republic Day, 2002.
• Certificate for Meritorious & Sincere Services Rendered, conferred on the International Customs Day, 2002.
• Commendation by the External Affairs Minister, Government of India, for his outstanding role in the maritime rescue and evacuation of around 5,000 Indian & foreign nationals from war-torn Yemen in March – April, 2015, under ‘Operation Raahat’ of the Government of India.
• Commendation from the Foreign and Maritime Affairs Minister, Government of Seychelles, for his successful organisation of the Global Strategy Session of the CGPCS at Mumbai on 01.02.2016 and for his proactive leadership contributions therein.
• Commendation from the Director (Maritime Security), INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organisation – a United Nations agency) for his successful organisation of the global debriefs of piracy impacted Indian seafarers and consequential contribution to international evidence collection against Somali pirates by INTERPOL.
• Commendation Certificate, for outstanding anti-smuggling work, granted by the Central Board of Excise and Customs, Government of India, in 1991.
• 14 other commendation communiqués, for meritorious work, presented by the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, over time.

He was, in his civil service career, a proactive participant member of the official Indian delegations to the;

• Indo-Australia Joint Textile Forum.
• Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement on Textiles and Clothing.
• International Textile Manufacturers Federation.

He has delivered presentations on geo-strategic-diplomatic and maritime sector issues at global conferences at New York (CGPCS), Denver (One Earth Future – OEF), London (IMO, Council and General Assembly), Helsinki (ISWAN), Singapore (ReCAAP- Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships) & Kuala Lumpur (International Maritime Bureau – IMB) and nationally at Mumbai, (Indian Police Service Officers at the IIT-B: Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay), New Delhi (Research and Information Systems - RIS), Wellington (Defence Services Staff College - DSSC), Pune, Goa (ReCAAP) and Hubli.

On being commissioned by RIS (Research and Information Systems) and TERI (The Energy Resources Institute), both Delhi based think-tanks, he has submitted strategy papers on actionable road-maps for the future of the Indian shipping industry as well as the role of Indian shipping in the national blue economy paradigm.

He is currently also serving as an Independent Director on the Boards of Directors of several companies in India and overseas, such as;

• ISWAN (International Seafarers Welfare Assistance Network), London - Global Director and Trustee.
• Shreyas Shipping and Logistics Limited, Mumbai – Independent Director.
• Seamec Limited, Mumbai - Independent Director.
• Revalyu Recycling India Limited – Independent Director.
• CONCOR (Container Corporation of India Ltd.), New Delhi - Independent Director (until 2021).
• Flemingo Travel Retail Limited, Mumbai – Independent Director (until 2021).

He is currently also assigned as Senior Adviser (India) and Head of Operations- India, of the MACN (Maritime Anti-Corruption Network), since April, 2022. The MACN is a global and not-for-profit maritime industry association, comprising nearly 200 members drawn from the maritime and logistics sectors, world-wide. MACN – India has done salient work and increasingly been delivering tangibly impactful outcomes on the maritime anti-corruption fronts, pan-India, since its formal launch in India in July, 2022 and till date. Inter-alia, he has addressed several international and national fora in this respect, including at Copenhagen, Dubai, Hong Kong and Mumbai.

Besides, he also stands nominated by the Government of India, as a Member of the Finance Committees of the following 2 other national research and academic institutions under the Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India viz.,:

• Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), Thiruvananthapuram.
• National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune.

He was born at Jaipur, Rajasthan, on 2 nd November, 1956. He has had his academic education at Jaipur, Amritsar, Mangalore, Mysore and Hubli.

In his civil career, he underwent institutional training at the LBSNNA (Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration), Mussoorie, NACEN (National Academy of Customs, Excise & Narcotics), New Delhi & Chennai and IIM (Indian Institute of Management), Ahmedabad.