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The National Policy on Marine Fisheries 2017 of Government of India provides for several schemes for small fishermen to enhance their skill and livelihood and to provide accidental insurance to them and their families. Activities undertaken under the National Scheme of Welfare of Fishermen aim to enhance livelihood and quality of life of small fishermen below poverty line. As part of the scheme, grant-in-aid is provided for the development of model fishermen villages with basic amenities like housing, drinking water, sanitation, community hall building etc. The scheme also includes a group...[more]
Over 90% of the world cargo is mobilized trans-oceanically and nearly 10 billion tones of ballast water is filled at one part of the ocean and discharged at the other. In doing so it introduces vide range of living organisms, including pathogens, into alien regions, usually along the coasts of the continents. These organisms can establish and invade an environment, if found suitable and pose economic and human health hazards. Many cases of marine bio-invasion have been reported and their harmful effects on the ecosystem and human health have been documented. Therefore marine bio-invasion has b...[more]
Launched in October 2009, the 12.5-kilometer (7.8-mile) Phase 1 corridor has proven to be popular with citizens, and ridership remains higher than on the previous bus system. Source: Institute for Transportation & Development Policy Since opening, the system has expanded to 31 km (19.3 mi) and ridership has more than doubled to nearly 60,000 passengers per day. Over 40 percent of the passengers switched from motorized two- and three- wheelers, while the remainder switched from the existing city bus service. ITDP, in partnership with CEPT University, assisted the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporatio...[more]
As part of India's commitment to international cooperation, especially south-south cooperation, India has been sharing its expertise and experience on oceanography with our partner countries. In the Indian Ocean region, the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (ESSO-INCOIS) is one of the few centres providing value added and comprehensive ocean-service products to a vast array of users (from fishermen folk to marine industries). INCOIS relies heavily on advances in satellite oceanography, modeling capabilities, and vast in-situ observation networks. INCOIS focus areas are m...[more]
South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP) is an inter-governmental Organization, established in 1982 by Governments of the eight South Asian countries to promote and support protection, management and enhancement of the environment in the region. Countries, namely; Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have ratified the articles of Association of SACEP. It is also registered with the Secretariat of the United Nations as Multilateral Organization in accordance with under the Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations. SACEP has its hea...[more]
India initiated its Arctic Research Program in 2007 with thrust on climate change in the circumpolar north. The major objectives of the Indian Research in Arctic Region are as follows:  To study the hypothesized tele-connections between the Arctic climate and the Indian monsoon by analyzing the sediment and ice core records from the Arctic glaciers and the Arctic Ocean.  To characterize sea ice in Arctic using satellite data to estimate the effect of global warming in the northern polar region.  To conduct research on the dynamics and mass budget of Arcti...[more]
India is using remote sensing space technology for specific mapping applications of oceans and seas. India is one the few countries which have built and launched satellites specifically for Ocean applications. OceanSat-I or IRS-P4 and Oceansat-II were designed to and launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to study oceans and the linkages between oceans and atmosphere. The applications of these satellites included : Sea-state forecast: waves, circulation and ocean MLD (Mixed Layer Depth); Monsoon and cyclone forecast - medium and extended range; Observation of Antarctic ...[more]
India's coastline is over 7500 km long, of which around 5400 km is in mainland and over 2000 km is in the Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands. India's coastline supports more than 30% of its population. Coastal fisheries are linked to economic and environmental health. Coastal vegetation habitats are important for the health of coastal ecological systems through their modulation of land-ocean modulation, providing nutrients for marine life, supporting biodiversity and preventing salt intrusion into ground water. Well managed coastal beaches can also promote sustainable economic developme...[more]
Development of Early Warning System, Science based fishing to lower cost and diesel consumption, establish two way communication for capturing observations and feedback. Partnership approach to take research output to last mile. Also looking at deep sea communication methods. We have developed an ICT platform for fishermen to help them get the information on Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ), Wind Speed and Direction, Wave height, etc. PFZ helps them to decide the nearest location where they should go for fishing and if the location is not nearby, the fishermen tend to avoid go for the fishin...[more]
The IHO capacity building programme seeks to assess and advise on how countries can best meet their international obligations and serve their own best interests by providing appropriate hydrographic and nautical charting services. Such services directly support safety of navigation, safety of life at sea, efficient sea transportation and the wider use of the seas and oceans in a sustainable way, including the protection of the marine environment, coastal zone management, fishing, marine resource exploration and exploitation, maritime boundary delimitation, maritime defence and security, and o...[more]
India is spending over US $ 3.5 billion each year on health services, with substantial expenditure on services aimed towards women’s and children’s health. Currently, India is focusing on strengthening its efforts in the 264 districts that account for nearly 70% of all infant and maternal deaths. Between now and 2015, India will provide technical assistance to other countries and share its experience, and will support the creation of a platform for global knowledge management to oversee the dissemination of best practices.
More than 30% of India's population lives along its more than 7500 km long coastline. Fishing is a major economic activity and India is the third largest producer of fish and second largest producer of inland fish. Locating and catching fish is always a challenging task. India's scientists dealing with marine sciences, remote sensing and fishery science have collaborated to develop a technique to use the remotely sensed sea surface temperature (SST) to identify the locations of fish aggregation. The Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) as a proxy to potential shoals of fish aggregation will benefit...[more]
The Agenda 21 adopted by UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992 emphasised the need to adopt the concept of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) for sustainable utilisation of coastal and marine resources and prevention of degradation of marine environment. This is best achieved through integration of activities prevalent in the land, coastal and marine areas. Monitoring the health of coastal sea is essential to assess the status of environmental quality and to alert government and public institutions for their implications relating to fisheries and other human rela...[more]
As a highly vulnerable city to major natural disasters, Mumbai has experienced several major extreme weather events within the past decade that have effectively brought the city to a standstill and caused severe human and economic losses. In response to the growing need for a contingency plan, the city of Mumbai drafted the Disaster Risk Management Master Plan that outlines the city's commitment to mitigating future risk and damages that could potentially result through future natural disasters. Source: Shanghai Manual: A Guide for Sustainable Urban Development in the 21st Century (2010) ...[more]
India's National Action Plan on Climate Change from 2008 is integrated into its 5-year development planning cycles. Source: The National Action Plan on Climate Change identifies measures that promote India's development objectives while also yielding co-benefits for addressing climate change effectively. It outlines a number of steps to simultaneously advance India's development and climate change-related objectives of adaptation and mitigation. There are Eight National Missions which form the core of the National Action Plan, representing multi-pronged, long-term and integrated strategies f...[more]
India's Natural Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) launched in 2006, is a Guaranteed Wage Employment program implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development. In its first two-and-a-half years, NREGA generated more than 3.5 billion days of work reaching on average 30 million families per year. Source: World Resources Institute (2011) A Compilation of Green Economy Policies, Programs, and Initiatives from Around the World. The Green Economy in Practice: Interactive Workshop 1, February 11th, 2011 Natural Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) promotes wage employment and natural resource m...[more]
India has a comprehensive and ambitious ocean observing system in the seas around India for acquisition of multidisciplinary data with a view to contributing to scientific knowledge of the oceanographic process of the Indian Ocean. These are being achieved through national contribution and international coordination. The primary purpose of accurate measurements of ocean parameters also contributes to a wide range of operational services including issue of early warnings. These observation systems have been deployed in various parts of the Indian Ocean through national program and internati...[more]
The Ministry of Shipping of Government of India has started Project Green Ports which will help in making the Major Ports across India cleaner and greener and promote environmentally sustainable economic growth. Project Green Ports has two verticals - one is Green Ports Initiatives related to environmental issues and second is Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan (Clean India Initiative). The Green Port Initiatives include twelve initiatives which will be implemented under strict time bound fashion in order to achieve the targets. Some of these initiatives are acquiring equipments required for monito...[more]
Coastal community development is a key component of the ambitious Project Sagarmala (port-led development) launched by the Government of India that has direct benefit to the small and artisanal fishermen. The development of coastal community is a critical area in India as 18% of Indias population lives in 73 coastal districts. Major approaches adopted by Government of India for skill development of coastal community to create jobs for them include:  Promoting skill training programmes for job roles related to ports and maritime sector,  Promoting skill training an...[more]
As part of its continuing commitment to sharing its expertise and experience with fellow developing countries in a spirit of south-south cooperation, India has extensive cooperation with SIDS and several ocean littoral countries in the area of Hydrography surveys. In recent years, detailed hydrographic surveys of the waters of Mauritius and Seychelles have been carried out following signing of bilateral MOUs on Hydrography with both these countries. India has assisted Mauritius in the setting up of the Mauritian National Hydrographic unit. Such cooperative efforts have resulted in updating o...[more]
Fisheries is the fastest growing food producing sector in the world with a great potential to meet the food, especially protein requirement of a large number of population. With an annual growth rate of above 7 per cent, India is the second largest producer of fish from aquaculture in the world. The National Policy on Marine Fisheries 2017 has sustainability of the resources at the core of all actions. The policy framework aims to meet the national, social and economic goals, livelihood sustainability and socio-economic upliftment of the fisher community and is intended to guide the coordina...[more]
The world population is living, working, vacationing, increasingly conglomerating along the coasts, and standing on the front row of the greatest, most unprecedented, plastic waste tide ever faced. Every year, 8 million metric tons of plastic end up in our oceans. There is particular concern in India about the amount of plastic waste it produces which is responsible to impact from the whale, sea lions, and birds to the microscopic organisms called zooplankton. It assumes significance because plastic debris has an impact on oceans, wildlife, and, potentially, humans through the food chain. wea...[more]
In the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, India cooperated with partners in Asia and Africa to establish a regional early warning system within a multi-hazard framework for the generation and communication of early warning information, and capacity building for preparedness and response to trans-boundary hazards. The Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early warning Systems (RIMES) was established in 2009, and registered with the United Nations on 1 July 2009. RIMES operates from its regional early warning center located at the campus of the Asian Institute of Technology in Pathumthani...[more]
India has longstanding tradition of south-south cooperation with fellow developing countries, especially LDCs and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). This cooperation spans a vast range of development partnership activities (including renewable energy, infrastructure, disaster risk reduction, agriculture, fisheries). The Government of India has substantially increased its financial support to SIDS and has pledged a sum of US$ 500 million in grant-in-aid and US$ 1 billion in soft loans over the next three years to SIDS. During the last three years the Government of India has contributed a ...[more]
The great Sumatra earthquake (Mw 9.3) of 26th December, 2004, was rated as the worlds second largest recorded earthquake. This earthquake generated a devastating tsunami, which caused unprecedented loss of life and damage to property in the Indian Ocean rim countries. The tsunami was considered as one of the deadliest natural hazards in the history, killing over 230,000 people in fourteen countries. In India it claimed an estimated more than 10,000 lives. The Ministry of Earth Sciences took up the responsibility of establishing the Indian Tsunami Early Warning System (ITEWS). The ITEWS was es...[more]
