Government ensures designated funds to propel India’s Blue Economy
The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has come out with the draft National Policy for the country’s Blue Economy-2021. The blue economy of India that’s considered the subset of the country’s national economy is comprised of an entire ocean resources system coupled with the human-made economic infrastructure in onshore coastal zones comprising maritime and marine within the legal jurisdiction of the country.
The policy document aims at enhancing contribution of blue economy in the country’s GDP besides improving lives of coastal communities. The draft policy emphasizes on Fisheries and several key sectors to achieve holistic growth of the country’s economy.
Committed to bring about Blue Revolution through sustainable and responsible development of fisheries sector in the country the Government had launched ‘Blue Revolution: Integrated Development and Management of Fisheries’, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) in 2015-16. The scheme was launched with an outlay of Rs 3000 crores to be spent in five years.
A ‘Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund’ (FIDF) was also created in 2018-19 to address the critical gaps in the fisheries infrastructure. The fund size has been Rs. 7522.48 crores. Apart from all these the Government of India launched a new scheme Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) with highest investment of Rs. 20,050 crore in May, 2020.
These initiatives have resulted in propelling impressive growth in the fisheries sector of the country. The sector has shown an impressive average annual growth rate of about 10 % in 2014 to 2019 and the fish production has also registered the growth of more than 7% reaching to 141.64 lakh metric tons in 2019-20.
