Describe India's shipping and ports infrastructure and explain why it is important for trade.

India has approximately eleven thousand one hundred kilometres of coastline connected to regions like West Asia, Africa, and Europe. This supports trade through shipping. Shipping is a cheaper mode of transport for heavy goods like coal, cars, and cement over long distances. India has twelve major ports and two hundred seventeen minor ports where ships dock, and goods are loaded and unloaded. The volume of cargo handled has increased by fifty per cent in the past decade, showing growing trade activity.