New Delhi, Nov 16 (PTI) Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala on Tuesday launched the fisheries business incubator in Gurugram at a cost of Rs 3.23 crore to promote startups in this sector.

Rupala inaugurated the business incubator, known as LINAC- NCDC Fisheries Business Incubation Centre (LlFlC), at Gurugram in Haryana costing Rs 3.23 crore to nurture fisheries start-ups under real market-led conditions, an official statement said.

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He said the incubation unit will provide handholding such as training, converting entrepreneurial ideas into business models and doling out seed money to the new as well as existing business entrepreneurs.

To begin with, the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), an implementing agency for the LIFIC, has identified the first batch of 10 incubatees from four states including Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

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Out of them, six are from newly-created Fish Farmers Producer Organizations with the support of the financial grant under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana.

Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Dr L Murugan said enlisted various steps taken by the Centre for growth of this sector.

Fisheries is a sunrise industry in India, growing at 7 per cent rate annually.

The prime minister has set a goal of 22 million tonnes of fish production and export to the tune of Rs one lakh crore by 2025. At present, fish production is 130 lakh tonnes and export worth Rs 46,000 crore.

"Setting up this first of business incubation centre for fisheries in India is a step in this direction to achieve the ambitious goal. We need to work on promotion of lots of innovation for startups, incentives and encourage cooperatives in the fisheries sector to achieve the targets,” Union Fisheries Secretary Jatindra Nath Swain said.

Overall, there are around 30,000 cooperatives in the fisheries sector.

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