National Maritime Day of India is celebrated every year on the 5th of April to commemorate the departure of the first Indian merchant ship S.S. Loyalty for London on this date in the year 1919. The annual celebration of this day commenced in the year 1964 and hence, this year was the Diamond Jubilee Celebration.

This day is observed to honour the Shipping Industry and the Seafarers for their contribution to the world trade. The Indian Directorate General Shipping honours the outstanding Maritime Training Institute, Indian Shipping Company, Indian Employer of Seafarer, Foreign Employer Seafarer, Indian Port and Indian Terminal for their sustained contribution to the cause of Indian Shipping and Indian Seafarers with ‘Sagar Samman’ (Maritime Honour) Awards to motivate and encourage them to maximize their efforts towards this cause.

These awardees are selected jointly by the National Maritime Day Celebrations Committee. The Committee is composed of representatives of Ship owners, Seafarers, Port Trusts, Maritime State Governments, and Ministry of Shipping.

This year, second time consecutively, Anglo Eastern Maritime Academy won the first rank in ‘Outstanding Maritime Training Institute’ award in the category of pre-sea training Institutes conducting courses for office cadets (Nautical and Engineering). This award was received by Principal, Vice Principal and ETO Faculty of AEMA at the hands of Vice Admiral Sanjay Bhalla AVSM, Indian Navy at the NMD celebration held at Y.B. Chavan Auditorium, Nariman Point, Mumbai.

The committee took into consideration the picturesque campus, the green initiatives, the state-of-the-art training facilities, attention to human factors, DEIB (Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) initiatives and digitized library in addition the achievements of the cadets in academics as well as sports and extra-curricular activities. The recognition gained by the faculty in various forums of the industry and efforts put in for continuous professional development were also contributing factors.