services; and human resource development through training, education and extension. Objectives • Marine Fishery Resource Assessment • Productivity and Production Enhancement through Mariculture • Conservation of Marine Biodiversity • Transfer of Technology, Training and Consultancy Major research focus and its impact on marine fisheries sector in India Support to strengthen the marine fishery management regime in India Right from its inception, CMFRI has focussed on gathering information of the marine fishery resources of India. Through its sustained efforts a database on fisheries landings and effort statistics has aided the developing effective fisheries management plans with stakeholders participation; proactive measures to ensure regulated and sustainable fisheries and aiding efforts in marine fisheries management realm by preparing policy guideline documents based on the research programmes of the institute. Notably, the National policy on Marine Fisheries (NPMF) 2017 notified by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare was developed with wide stakeholders’ consultations by the institute and is a major step towards a framework for a sustainable marine fisheries development model in the country. Marine fisheries policies for the state of Kerala & Lakshadweep Islands, Karnataka, Goa and Andhra Pradesh are formulated with the reassert and policy inputs from CMFRI scientific expert teams. The institute has also prepared a document entitled Indian Marine Fisheries Code which guides the establishment of a sustainable marine fisheries resources management model for India in accordance with Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO's) Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF). Other contributions of CMFRI recognized as major inputs for the national level policy making are policy guidance on Fish Aggregating Device (FAD); based on which Government of Karnataka banned an FAD assisted cuttlefish fishery that was contributing to growth and recruitment overfishing of cuttlefishes and leading to loss of livelihoods and income to local fishers, Guidance on National Plan of Action (NPOA) for sharks in India for increasing awareness of the need to ensure their sustainable exploitation and conservation, guideline on temporal and spatial measures of effective Trawl Ban for Government of Kerala, recommendation on Minimum legal size (MLS) of commercially important marine fishes aimed at restricting juvenile fishing for various coastal States (Based on which Govt. of Kerala notified MLS for 58 commercially important species in the Gazette), recommendations on use of technology in agricultural insurance’ to NITI Aayog, Guidelines for the Mariculture Policy in India etc. ICAR-CMFRI also coordinated and provided scientific inputs for India's first Marine