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The Department of Fisheries held a Fisheries Outreach Programme at Agatti, Lakshadweep, on 31 August 2026, where the Vice-President released 'Mission Rangeen Machhli 2031', a Strategic Action Plan for Ornamental Fisheries Development.
Lakshadweep has an estimated fisheries potential of over 1 lakh tonnes including about 94,000 tonnes of tuna and tuna-like species, but current harvest stands at only about 15,000 metric tonnes.
Fisheries development projects worth over Rs 62 crore have been approved for Lakshadweep under PMMSY; 16 deep-sea fishing vessels costing about Rs 1.2 crore each have been sanctioned with full financial assistance.
Lakshadweep has been notified as a Seaweed Cluster and a Seaweed Bank approved with ICAR-CMFRI; 575 seaweed cultivation units are being promoted with an investment of about Rs 2 crore.
India's fish production rose from 95.7 lakh tonnes in 2013-14 to 197.75 lakh tonnes in 2024-25, with seafood exports at a record Rs 73,890 crore in 2025-26.
Strategic Action Plan for the development of ornamental fisheries, released at Agatti for Lakshadweep
Key: Targets the ornamental (aquarium) fish segment, in which Lakshadweep holds over 300 species; supported by an ornamental fish hatchery at Agatti and three rearing units approved under PMMSY
Sustainable and responsible development of the fisheries sector, including fisher welfare — the Blue Revolution flagship
Key: Launched on 10 September 2020 with a total investment of Rs 20,050 crore for FY 2020-21 to 2024-25 — Central share Rs 9,407 crore, State share Rs 4,880 crore and beneficiary contribution Rs 5,763 crore. Implemented by the Department of Fisheries under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying
Formalise the fisheries sector's micro and small enterprises and improve their access to institutional credit and insurance
Key: Approved by the Union Cabinet on 8 February 2024 as a Central Sector Sub-scheme under PMMSY, with an outlay of Rs 6,000 crore for FY 2023-24 to 2026-27 — half public finance including World Bank and AFD external financing, half anticipated beneficiary and private investment
Provide concessional finance for fisheries infrastructure — fishing harbours, landing centres, cold chains, hatcheries, deep-sea vessels
Key: Created in 2018-19 with a fund size of Rs 7,522.48 crore; lends through Nodal Loaning Entities — NABARD, the National Cooperative Development Corporation and scheduled banks. Note the contrast with PMMSY: FIDF is a credit fund, PMMSY a subsidy scheme
Integrated development of inland, marine, aquaculture, deep-sea, ornamental and post-harvest fisheries
Key: PMMSY's predecessor — launched in 2015-16 with a central outlay of Rs 3,000 crore for 2015-16 to 2019-20, and subsumed when PMMSY began in 2020
Create a regulated route for Indian vessels to fish in the outer EEZ and beyond national jurisdiction
Key: Introduce an Access Pass and a Letter of Authorization. They matter because most Indian fishing is concentrated within 40-50 nautical miles of the coast, leaving the high-value offshore tuna resource largely unharvested
Lakshadweep is India's smallest Union Territory and its only coral atoll archipelago, lying in the Arabian Sea off the Malabar coast of Kerala. It comprises 36 islands grouped into 12 atolls, 3 reefs and 5 submerged banks, of which 10 are inhabited — Agatti, Amini, Androth, Bitra, Chetlat, Kadmat, Kalpeni, Kavaratti, Kiltan and Minicoy. Kavaratti is the capital; Agatti, where this programme was held, has the territory's airport. Minicoy, the southernmost island, is separated from the rest of the chain by the Nine Degree Channel, a major international shipping lane; the Eight Degree Channel separates Minicoy from the Maldives. The islands are administered by an Administrator, currently also holding charge of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. The whole territory's small land area sits atop a very large maritime zone — nearly 4 lakh sq km of EEZ, about 17% of India's total.
Implements PMMSY, PM-MKSSY and FIDF; organised the outreach programme and the EEZ and High Seas frameworks of 2025
India's premier marine fisheries research institute; partner for the approved Lakshadweep Seaweed Bank
Collectives of fishers and fish farmers being strengthened with financial, technical and capacity-building support to improve aggregation, value addition and market access
Governs the Union Territory through an Administrator appointed by the President; partner in the fisheries roadmap and the upcoming Lakshadweep fisheries policy
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982, a coastal state's EEZ extends up to 200 nautical miles from the baseline, measured seaward beyond the 12-nautical-mile territorial sea and the 24-nautical-mile contiguous zone. Within it the state has sovereign rights over exploring and exploiting living and non-living resources — but not full sovereignty; other states retain freedom of navigation and overflight. India legislated these zones ahead of the Convention through the Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and Other Maritime Zones Act, 1976. The point for Lakshadweep is arithmetic: a tiny land area generates a very large EEZ, because the zone is measured from the coastline of every island. That is why an archipelago with a few dozen square kilometres of land holds about 17% of India's maritime resource rights, and why Lakshadweep and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands together account for nearly half of it.
Simple Analogy: Each island is a small peg, but the fishing rights radiate outward from it like the circle a tethered goat can graze — a handful of pegs scattered across the sea claims an enormous field.
The two species named as the backbone of Lakshadweep's fishery. Both are assessed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List; the yellowfin was moved from Near Threatened to Least Concern in the 2021 update following enforcement of regional catch quotas — the standard example of quota management working.
The red seaweed at the centre of India's commercial seaweed push, farmed for carrageenan. It is not native to Indian waters — it was introduced from the Philippines — and is listed among the world's 100 worst invasive alien species, having spread over coral in the Gulf of Mannar. Any seaweed-cluster expansion in a coral atoll territory sits against that record.
Lakshadweep is India's only coral atoll archipelago, so its fishery, its lagoon area of 4,200 sq km and its ornamental fish diversity all rest on reef health, which is vulnerable to warming-driven bleaching.
The Blue Revolution is deliberately framed as the third in that sequence — Green for foodgrains from the mid-1960s, White for milk under Operation Flood, Blue for fisheries — a comparison exams ask directly.
Vessel monitoring systems, digital authorisation and international certification are all IUU-control instruments; they are the price of entry to premium export markets as much as a conservation measure.
GS Paper 3 > Economy > Animal Husbandry and Fisheries; GS Paper 1 > Indian Geography > Marine Resources
General Awareness > Government Schemes; Indian Geography > Union Territories
General Awareness > Government Schemes and Priority Sector Lending
General Awareness > Indian Geography and Government Schemes
Fisheries schemes and island geography both recur regularly; PMMSY has featured in general-awareness papers in several recent cycles.
The breeding, rearing and trade of aquarium fish rather than food fish — the segment addressed by Mission Rangeen Machhli 2031.
A ring-shaped coral reef enclosing a lagoon, formed as a reef grows around a subsiding volcanic island; Lakshadweep's 12 atolls are India's only such formation.
The maritime belt up to 200 nautical miles from the baseline in which a coastal state has sovereign rights over resources, under UNCLOS 1982 and India's Maritime Zones Act, 1976.
A collective of fishers or fish farmers formed to aggregate produce, add value and improve bargaining power and market access.
A gel-forming extract of red seaweeds such as Kappaphycus alvarezii, used as a thickener and emulsifier in food, beverages and medicines — the commercial driver of seaweed farming.