Vet varsity makes schoolchildren aware of ‘entrepreneurial opportunities in fishery’

Ludhiana: The College of Fisheries (COF), Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, conducted awareness programmes on ‘Entrepreneurship opportunities in fisheries’ for Scheduled Caste (SC) school students of different districts of Punjab, in collaboration with the Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). It was under the centrally sponsored scheme (SC Sub Plan) for development of SC aspirants through capacity building. Dr Vaneet Inder Kaur, Coordinator of the programme, informed that 200 SC students of four government senior secondary schools in Barnala, Bathinda and Ludhiana districts of Punjab were enlightened about entrepreneurial and employment opportunities in the fisheries sector at the state, national and international levels. Dr SN Datta, Dr Grishma Tewari, Dr Vikas Phulia and Khushvir Singh conducted the awareness sessions. Dr Meera D Ansal, Dean, COF, informed that nurturing and encouraging the idea of entrepreneurship and innovative start-ups in the young minds of the school-going students can drive them into an ideology of self-reliance and transform the youth into an economic asset for their families and the nation. Dr Ravishankar, CN, Vice-Chancellor, ICAR-CIFE (Deemed University), Mumbai, emphasised that it is very important to implant the spirit of entrepreneurship in school education to equip the students with the required confidence and knowledge during their early years of learning and make them foresee varied entrepreneurial opportunities in various farming sectors, including fisheries. Dr Inderjeet Singh, Vice-Chancellor, underlined that youth of the country need to be engineered at a young age to metamorphose them into think tanks to generate innovative remunerative start-ups for solving emerging socio-economic challenges in livestock and fisheries sectors. He added that the vet varsity is encouraging school students, especially in rural areas, for attracting youth into livestock and fisheries sectors as an “Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan” activity.