Indian Fisheries Industry Opportunity For Foreign Investors

India being a peninsular country has a far-stretching coastline. It is surrounded by water on the east, west, and south coasts. As a result there is abundant fishing in India. The fisheries industry in India is huge. With its vast coastline, India is the fourth-largest producer of fish in the world. This is mainly because nearly 10 million people residing in more than 4,000 coastal regions are engaged in fishery activity. These people are mainly dependent on fisheries to earn a living.

India holds great potential for both inland and marine fishing. It has huge reservoirs for fishing. The fisheries industry heavily contributes to the Gross Domestic Product of India. The fisheries industry is responsible for filling the Indian exchequer with about $70 million per annum. Massive production and export has made the fisheries sector an essential part of the Indian economy.

Though the fishing industry in India contributes heavily to the GDP and is a valuable source of earning foreign currency for the country, it still has a huge potential for export. Out of the total area available for fisheries, a significant amount of area is left unutilized.

In the recent past, the fisheries industry has been growing considerably on a consistent basis. It has also caught the attention of foreign investors. Several foreign investors are now investing in the fisheries industry in India for its potential to offer them immense returns. Another reason for the foreign investors to invest in the industry is the easy availability of infrastructure facilities. The liberalized policy of the government is another vital factor for the fisheries industry to attract new foreign investments in India.

Both the central government of India and the state governments have undertaken initiatives and announced several policies to boost the growth of the fisheries industry in India.

The Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying, and Fisheries is the main authoritative body for development of the fisheries industry in India. This government body has been responsible for implementing infrastructure development programs and welfare-oriented schemes. It is also responsible for formulating appropriate programs to increase the productivity in the fisheries sector. Furthermore, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries is another agency that is responsible for the overall growth of the fisheries industry.

Though the central ministry takes active initiatives to boost the fisheries industry, it is mainly governed by the state governments. Each state has its own set of policies to attract new investments in the fisheries industry of the state.

Some of the most prominent states and union territories that promise huge potentials for investments include:

Goa: The state has a coastline of about 100 km and is rich in marine wealth. Fisheries are the main economic activity of the state. The fishing activity has given a big boost to the canning, freezing, and fish processing industries in the state. These industries offer great investment opportunities.

Kerala: The government of Kerala gives top priority to the fisheries sector. The sector contributes the most to the state governments revenue and brings in foreign exchange. The government is keen to develop this industry further. There are huge investment opportunities for investors in terms of providing technological assistance to the local fishermen, providing storage facilities, fish packaging, and so on.

Apart from these two states, prominent other states and union territories, such as Assam, Orissa, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep also promise great investment opportunities in the fisheries industry.

Job Opportunities In Indian Aviation Industry

After Sept 11, 2001 when USA got struck by terrorist attack, almost all the industries has been affected. But Aviation Industry is one of the hardest hit, as the major airlines likes of Swiss Air and American airlines. But despite of all these happenings Indian Aviation industry though minute could withstand this pressure and had grown leaps and bounds. This is due to the growth of Indian economy and tourism industry in particular in the last few years.

In the last two years many a new airlines have come to the fore in a huge way and many huge industries have declared their wishes to enter into this industry. Another major leap was the open sky policy of Government of India permitting the existing private airlines in India to fly to foreign destinations.

It does require a special mention that with such expansions planned by major aviation companies and new companies formed there is a vast manpower requirement. Qualified manpower is in huge abundance in India but they need a proper direction to capitalise on this surge in industry. When the human resources needed by these companies were less in number, it was easy to tap from a huge HR bank but when the demand for such HR increased they are finding it extremely difficult to maintain the quality of HR selected for these jobs especially when more and more foreign airlines are flying into India offering high salary packages forcing the better of HR to go with these companies.

It is important to mention here that Indian aviation industry grew by 20% second only to BPO industry in services sector and then comes the concept of no frills airline the market for which is growing vastly. Many no frills airline have already announced their plans to start services to India a few of them are Nok Air, Air Asia-Thailand, Air Arabia etc.

The boom in the aviation sector in India can be gauged by the fact that in one year, the number of people seeking pilot licenses and airhostess training has multiplied three times. In April 2005, it was 300. In April 2006, the number rose to 1045. The civil aviation industry is booming. Indian airlines placed orders for over 400 aircraft worth a whopping $30 billion for its operational requirements. That shows a requirement of 5600 pilots, 19000 airhostess or cabin crew, 24000 technicians, 36000 ground handling crew and various other related vacancies.

And these aviation industry vacancies are all fresh vacancies without including vacancies that may come up in the existing aircrafts.

Also the pay packages offered by the various Indian airlines have also seen an upward trend due to very few number of trained pilots and cabin crew availability. Hence there is an opportunity for you.

Indian aviation is witnessing a mushrooming of new airlines especially low cost carriers. Besides the existing Air Deccan, newly launched Spicejet and value airline Kingfisher Airlines, there are Indus Airways, Air One, East West Airlines, Go Airways, Magic Air and Crystal Air who are getting ready to fly Indian sky soon. India is to see the launch of at least 14 such airlines. Low cost start-up carrier IndiGo had stunned the aviation industry by placing orders for 100 aircraft at a list price of over $6 billion last year.