Emphasis is being placed upon the modernisation of the country’s major ports after recent initiatives resulted in increased cargo volumes on revenue. Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari highlighted at a press conference in New Delhi the government’s focus on ports. Gadkari stated that the decline observed in the performance of major ports from 2008 to 2014 has reversed and they have shown improvement in their performance in 2015. The profit margins of major ports declined from 43 percent to 28 percent during 2008 to 2014 and the market share of major ports during the period declined from 72 percent to 57 percent. Underlining that the development of ports is important for increasing the GDP of the country, Gadkari said that the new initiatives implemented across the major ports resulted in the volume of cargo handled increasing by 4.6 percent and revenue increasing by 8.7 percent in 2015.