In September earlier this year, cheered on by industry leaders, leaders of fishing communities across the country’s vast coastline, policy makers, and a number of overseas investors, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his government’s flagship policy program, the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), to develop the country’s fisheries sector. With an estimated investment of Rs 25,000 crore over five years as part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ mission, the new measure was yet another demonstration of the importance the government places on the fishery sector. While announcing the package, the Prime Minister placed the lens on the crucial role the fishery sector plays in India’s current journey of transformation in the context of its contribution to overall exports, development of skills and the creation of jobs. He also underscored the need to usher a Blue Revolution’ in fisheries, akin to India’s White Revolution’ in the dairy industry and the Sweet Revolution’ in the production of honey, adding that the fishery sector in India was well-placed to move forward rapidly propelled by new technological advances. However, despite the positive momentum created by the government, the fishery industry faces some daunting challenges related to the safety and security of fishermen out at sea, which threaten to hold back growth in the sector. Leading fishermen’s associations in Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have recently led a call by fishermen across the nation to highlight the urgent need for the adoption of new technologies in the fishing sector. They have also written to the honourable prime minister under the aegis of Indian Fishermen for Technology Adoption (IFTA), seeking his direct intervention to spur the adoption of new technologies in the sector. The lives of hundreds and thousands of fishermen are lost at sea every year due to the unavailability of modern connectivity technologies such as satellite based navigation systems that can connect Indian fishermen with mobile devices offering timely SoS alerts and harvesting predictions to ensure better catches and safety while at sea. We urge the government’s help for the industry to adopt new technologies to address this great risk to our lives and livelihoods, said Mr. Ganapati Mangre, Chairman of the North Kanara District Co-Operative Fish Marketing Federation Limited in a statement recently. It is high time that India adopts the highly-advanced communications and connectivity technologies that are already available to ensure the fishing sector benefits from them in the longer term. We urge the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s direct intervention and request his government to broadly deploy the latest technology immediately. We need a solution today as any delay will continue to endanger the safety and security of fishermen at sea, another statement by Mr. Yashpal Suvarna, President South Kanara and Udupi District Co-operative Fish Marketing Federation Limited Mangalore, also said. Indeed, there is enough evidence today that shows how the adoption of next-generation digital and satellite communications technologies would raise productivity of fishing harvests, create world-class competitiveness, apart from addressing the immediate and urgent challenge to ensure the safety of the state’s fishermen on the high seas. This, therefore, is as good a time to encourage digital technology innovation led by the private sector to help reap the true potential of a sunrise sector such as fisheries, while evaluating the possibility of creating stronger public-private partnerships, especially in the area of digital and connectivity technologies, to address opportunities and barriers more efficiently.