With the aim to promote entrepreneurship skills among fishery graduates, a national webinar on “Ornamental Fisheries- Opportunities Unlimited’ was organized by the College of Fisheries (COF), GADVASU, Ludhiana in collaboration with IDP- Cell under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)- National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) project.
Dr. Meera D. Ansal, Dean, COF told that with increasing demand for aquaria in public as well as private sectors, ornamental fisheries is emerging as a promising sector with diverse entrepreneurial opportunities. To ingrain entrepreneurial zeal among the students, eminent scientists & successful fisheries professional turned entrepreneurs were invited to interact with the students so as to encourage them to take up ornamental fisheries as a remunerative enterprise, she said.
Dr. Saroj Swain, Director, ICAR-Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) shared his experiences in developing ornamental fish villages for tapping the sector as a commercial activity at community level. Dr. Atul Kumar Jain, an eminent Fisheries Scientist sensitized the students about the promising business opportunities in ornamental fisheries to be adopted innovatively to evolve smart attractive business outlets/service hubs.
Mr. Rupeshkumar Sakpal, Director, Utekar Fisheries Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai (Maharashtra) shared his experiences of transformation from a fishery professional to an entrepreneur of international repute involved in developing commercial, modern hi-tech aquaria with complete solutions and services under one roof.
Dr. Inderjeet Singh, Vice-Chancellor and Dr. S.P.S Ghuman, PI-IDP Cell and Dean, College of Veterinary Science, GADVASU also said that it is the need of the hour to develop entrepreneurial skills among the professional graduates to convert them into job providers rather than job seekers and be self-dependent with significant socio-economic contribution as well. Dr. Vaneet Inder Kaur, Scientist (Fisheries) organized and coordinated the webinar with scientific team comprising of Dr. Sachin Onkar Khairnar and Dr. Shanthanagouda A. H.
