• Union Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Dr. L Murugan has said that the ministry has taken several steps to improve fish production, export and infrastructure development in the last eight years.
• Speaking at the valedictory of Inland Fisheries Summit in Bengaluru, he said, India stands third in the world in terms of fish production.
• Making specific reference to Karnataka, the Union Minister said that 734.77 crore rupees was allocated to the state under the flagship scheme of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) from 2020-21 till date for the development of infrastructure facilities.
• Under PMMSY, over 53 crore rupees was given to complete phase three expansion of Mangalore fishing harbour, phase two of Gangolli fishing harbour, Alvekodi and Thenginagundi fish landing centres.
• In principle, approval is given for the development of state of an art fishing harbour at Majali in Uttara Kannada district at a total cost of 250 crore rupees.
• Under PMMSY, approval is given to acquire 114 new deep-sea fishing vessels at a total cost of 136 crore rupees for traditional fishermen in the state.
• A total of 1000 communication and tracking devices and 781 safety kits were also distributed to traditional and motorized fishing vessels at a total cost of 11.31 crore rupees.
• Under PMMSY, 62 new Ice plants or cold storage facilities, 799 fish transport vehicles, one fish retail market, 84 fish kiosks and three value-added enterprises were supported with an investment of 133.15 crore rupees.
• The minister informed the fish production in Karnataka has increased from 6.80 lakh tonnes in 2019-20 to 10.74 lakh tonnes during 2021-22 which is about 76 percent growth.
• PMMSY has helped create 1.4 lakh direct and indirect job opportunities in this sector in the state.

 Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY):

• The vision is to bring about Blue Revolution through sustainable and responsible development of fisheries sector.
• The main motto of PMMSY is ‘Reform, Perform and Transform’ in the fisheries sector.
• Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying is the implementing agency.
• The PMMSY is an umbrella scheme with two separate components – Central Sector Scheme and Centrally Sponsored Scheme.