Nari Shakti Puraskar presented to INSV Tarini team.

Members of the Indian Navy Sailing Vessel (INSV) Tarini team were presented with the Nari Shakti Puraskar 2017 by union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi. The six-member all-women team comprising of Lt Commander Vartika Joshi,Lt Commander Pratibha Jamwal, Lt Commander Swathi Patarpalli ,Lt Aishwarya Bodapatti, Lt SH Vijaya Devi and Lt Payal Gupta received the award.

President Ram Nath Kovind had conferred the Nari Shakti Puraskars on International Women's Day in Rashtrapati Bhavan. As the INSV Tarini team was sailing then, the award could not be presented to the team.

The crew of the INSV 'Tarini' is a part of the Indian Navy's unique project 'Navika Sagar Parikrama', an all-women team circumnavigating the globe, promoting ocean sailing activities in the Navy and depicting government of India's commitment towards women empowerment. Each crew member has minimum of 20,000 nautical miles sailing experience. The project aims to demonstrate the thrust of Nari Shakti on the world platform .The voyage also showcased the Make in India initiative by sailing on-board the indigenously built INSV Tarini.

The six-member all-women team, led by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi circumnavigated and managed the whole operation in this first ever global journey. The voyage which lasted for 254 days, with 199 days at sea covered 21,600 nautical miles, had 5 port calls in Fremantle, Australia; Lyttelton, New Zealand; Port Stanley, Falklands; Cape Town, South Africa and finally at Mauritius before returning home to Goa. All six members of the crew were trained for over three years under Captain DilipDonde, who is also the first Indian to successfully carry out solo-circumnavigation of the globe between 2009 and 2010. (Source: The Times of India)