A Common Facility Centre was established and inaugurated at Kanamana Village, Astaranga Block, Puri District on 29 August 2022 under the Institute project “Development of women entrepreneurship in livestock and fisheries sector for promoting gender equity and strengthening livelihood”. A Women Farmer Interest Group (Omm Sai WFIG) has also been formed in the village which consists of 21 members belonging to the SC community. The members were selected based on their experience and interest in fisheries and livestock activities. The common Facility Centre will be used as the centre for trainings and demonstrations and the equipments like solar cabinet dryers, packaging machines, diesel pumps and other inputs (funded by SCSP) in the centre will be used by the members of the WFIG for their livelihood activities. Dr Tanuja S, Senior Scientist, ICAR-CIWA and PI of the project gave the welcome address and detailed about the purpose and objectives of the formation of WFIG and Common Facility Centre in the village. The Chief Guest of the programme was Shri Khirod Kandi, Sarpanch, Chhuriana GP. In his address he lauded the activities of ICAR-CIWA in empowering rural women. Dr. Lipi Das, Principal Scientist, ICAR-CIWA and Co- PI of the project stressed the importance of formation of women collectives in the form of co-operative societies and FPO’s. She also highlighted the importance of entrepreneurship in value addition for improving the income of rural women. Dr Biswanath Sahoo, Principal Scientist and Co-PI of the project, detailed about the different livelihood options present in the livestock sector. Smt Nibedita, Block Programme Co-ordinator, Mission Shakti explained about the activities of Mission Shakti and the support that could be extended for marketing of the products prepared by the rural women. The programme was attended by around 60 participants which consisted of women farmers, media persons, officials from State Departments, NGO and progressive farmers. A demonstration on the preparation of value added fish products followed the inauguration programme. Shri Atul Chetan Hemrom, Senior Technical Assistant, ICAR-CIWA gave the vote the thanks. The programme was co-ordinated by Dr Tanuja S, Senior Scientist, ICAR-CIWA and Shri Atul C.Hemrom, Senior Technical Assistant, ICAR-CIWA.