In India, about 6.74 million ha area is salt-affected, of which ~ 25.36% is saline, 18.46 coastal saline, and 56.16% is sodic in nature. Besides this, 248 districts in 18 states and 6 Union Territories are also affected by groundwater salinity, which is increasing at an alarming rate causing secondary salinization. Groundwater salinity is severe in the Northwestern inland states of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh situated ~ 1500 km away from the sea coast. The quality of inland saline water (ISW) in this area varies from place to place in terms of salinity and the ionic composition of potassium (K+), calcium (Ca++) and magnesium (Mg++) in contrast to seawater. Both saline soils and groundwater salinity have severely affected agriculture productivity and ultimately livelihood of the people. Two decades of research in inland saline aquaculture (ISA) in India with about a dozen of fish species namely milkfish (Chanos chanos), grey mullet (Mugil cephalus), pearl spot (Etroplus suratensis), tiger shrimp (Peneaeus monodon), Pacific whiteleg shrimp (Penaeus vannamei), Indian white shrimp (Penaeus indicus), Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer), silver pompano (Trachinotus blochii) among the sea fishes and giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbegii), common carp (Cyprinus carpio), striped catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus), Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus, GIFT) and Indian major carps revealed that the ionic imbalance in ISW in contrast to seawater follows different trends of survival and growth for fresh, brackish and marine fish species. Whereas some species sustain well in ISW without any ionic corrections or with marginal compensation of growth, the ionic amendment of ISW with fertilizer/commercial grade chemicals was found essential for the larval rearing of giant freshwater prawn (GFP) and the farming of tiger shrimp & Pacific whiteleg shrimp. Based on our research, ICAR-CIFE has successfully demonstrated commercial production of GFP seed, and tiger shrimp & Pacific whiteleg shrimp farming in ISW with ionic amendments at its Rohtak Centre (Haryana). The major species in high and medium inland saline waters remains to be P. vannamei, owing to high economic return. Since maintaining K+ in ISW requires a huge quantity of fertilizer, we are focussing our research on ionic amendments/retention through the addition of nutraceuticals in diet. The supplementation of K+ (1% KCL) in the diet has been found to significantly minimize the requirement of K+ in ISW and save the cost of the amendment. To further enhance performance, the supplementation of organic osmolytes such as glycine-betaine, myoinositol, taurine and alanine in the feed which crustaceans inherently accumulate while dealing with osmotic imbalances. This dietary approach will certainly bring down the operating cost and environmental impacts associated with fertilizing the culture water substantially although the maintenance of inorganic ions at minimum levels in water may be physiologically inevitable. In our initial trial, the blending of potassium (0.2 %) and taurine (0.5 %) in the diet appears best to mitigate stress and enhance the growth of tilapia (GIFT) reared in ISW and hence our future research shall be targeting the other organic supplements on suitable species for ISA.