I have immense pleasure to wish you New Year greetings in my new capacity as the Director of this esteemed Institute, especially when we are approaching the fag end of the Diamond Jubilee Year celebrations. We, as a unique community of fisheries scientists in the country have achieved tremendous heights during the past, thanks to the able stewardship of my predecessors. But the fact that we are confronted with new challenges, both scientific and institutional, should find ourselves engaged in collective endeavors of serious introspection as well as farsightedness.

Scientific uncertainty is nothing new to us. Still we have a long way to go in making the fisheries management scenario in the country sensitive enough to deliver as an informed governance system, which is becoming the need of the hour. I think the best way to make this happen, thus enhancing our visibility, is to rededicate us to our mandated goals.

We need to keep our eyes open at the strengths of globally networked research and organizational climate, the pace of which is such that we need to run twice as faster to remain where we are. Our commitment to scientific outputs of world standard should be nurtured, as has been our tradition and on our commitment to the cause of our stakeholders.

It is my wish that each one of you charter roadmaps that ultimately converge towards the goals we have already envisaged in the Vision 2026 document and at the same time honouring the guidelines drawn in the XI Plan EFC document.

In the past few years many of our colleagues have superannuated and I on my personal behalf and on behalf of each one of you wish them a good health and long life. We continue to value their great contribution to the Fisheries sector. We look forward for their best support in formal and informal ways to improve the efficiency of our system.

The productivity of an organization, to a large extent, is determined by level of competence and motivation of its human resource, a good governance and sound financial management. While recalling some of the most salient achievements during the past years, I wish to thank each one of you for the worthy contributions that enabled us to keep our head up and high as we go along.

I have firm and fervent belief in the capabilities and commitment of each one of you in meeting the emerging challenges. I request you to step forward with a newly invented zeal and dedication in the coming days. Let’s endeavor together bestowing further glory to our Institute.

Finally, I wish you and your family “A Very Happy, Healthy, Peaceful & Productive 2026”.