The twelfth convocation of ICAR- Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai was held on 7 Nov. 2014 at its new campus. Shri Radha Mohan Singh, Union Minister of Agriculture, Government of India, was the Chief Guest. Shri Singh awarded gold medals to 28 students for academic excellence. In his convocation address, he congratulated the students for getting their degree from this prestigious institute, and highlighted the importance of education for the development of the country. He urged the students to develop entrepreneurial skills and become job-providers rather than job-seekers. He also highlighted the role of fish in human nutrition and called for a Blue Revolution to increase its production for meeting the challenges of providing quality nutrition to the growing population and for fighting malnutrition. He also highlighted the initiatives taken by the Central Government to develop the fisheries sector inline with the views of Prime Minister of India. Earlier he inaugurated Indoor Sports and Gymnasium complex at CIFE new campus.
Dr S. Ayyappan, Secretary, DARE & DG, ICAR, presided over the function. In his address, he congratulated all the awardees, and thanked the parents of the students for sending their wards to this institute. He lauded the efforts of Shri R.M. Singh for his involvement at grass-root level for the development of all the sectors of agriculture.
Dr Bharati Lavekar, MLA, Government of Maharashtra, was the guest of honor. Dr W.S. Lakra, VC welcomed the dignitaries and presented the university report. He conferred 139 students with M.F.Sc degree and 19 students with PhD degree in various disciplines of fisheries. Dr A.K. Pal, Joint Director, proposed the vote of thanks.

The seventh national seminar on 'Dairy sector: the key player for nutritional security in India' was organized jointly by the ICAR-NDRI and NDRI Graduate Association on 19 Feb. 2014.
Shri T. Nanda Kumar, Chairman, National Dairy Development Board, Anand (Gujarat), the Chief Guest of the seminar, expressed in his keynote address that almost one-third of our population is below poverty line and the poverty is increasing in urban India. Though a few social schemes of Government of India such as MNREGAdo provide some income to the rural people, a lot still needs to be done for meeting the nutritional requirement of a large population which is increasing faster. He informed that dairying has proved to be a good source of nutritional security and income to the rural people. However, to sustain the growth of this sector it is important to work very cautiously on the breeding policy, animal- health care and the feed and fodder availability for the animals. It is equally important to improve the processing technology and quality-assurance system. He presented the awardofexcellencetoDrB.N. Mathur,ex-Director(Retd), NDRI, Karnal; and Dr Jagjit Singh Pujrath for their significant contributions in dairying in India. Dr A.K. Srivastava, Director & VC, ICAR-NDRI, Karnal; Mr Adrian Pollard, Managing Director, CHR-Hansen India Ltd; and Shri Sangram Singh Chaudhary, Executive Director, NDDB, also shared their views on this occasion.