As a fisheries scientist, Dr. Modadugu Vijay Gupta of India’s involvement in research spanning a period of 5 decades in a number of countries in Asia, Africa and the Pacific, resulted in significant increase in fish production and laid foundation for the Blue Revolution.

Dr. Gupta spent his entire life developing environment friendly aquaculture methods/technologies using agriculture wastes and by-products along with innovative implementation practices that benefitted small-scale farmers and addressed issues of poverty, nutritional deficiency, and self-resilience in South and Southeast Asia, and enthusiastically organized and educated the poor spreading his methods of aquaculture. Moreover, he actively taught aquaculture to women with low social status, leading to major improvements in women’s rights and their empowerment. Ignoring threats to his own life and devoting himself to research in war-torn conflict areas, Dr. Gupta’s efforts to develop low-cost methods of aquaculture has created a possible solution that can overcome the food crises as a result of anticipated population explosion and impact of climate change.