The Indian squid is known to occur in the Indo-West Pacific in the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and Arabian Sea, eastwards from Mozambique to the South China Sea and the Philippine Sea, northward to Taiwan (Roper et al. 1984).  

U. (P.) duvaucelii was one of the top three species that contributed to nearly 80% of all cephalopods caught in Kerala from 2012 to 2016. In the tropical southeastern Arabian Sea, statolith analysis shows the species to be of fast growth and a short life span (i.e.,  estimated at 6 months) associated with a rapid population turnover may facilitate rapid and continuous recruitment to the fishery (i.e.,  approximately after two months of age) (Venkatesan et al. 2017). The stock structure is unknown, this profile is defined as an assessment unit.

The bottom trawl fishery is a mixed fishery, targeting shrimp, cephalopods, and fish. The cephalopod traw uses the same mesh size as the fish trawl but is reportedly rigged slightly off-bottom, by adjusting the rigging of doors; in fact, it is rigged somewhat differently for each target species of cephalopod (Fishery Progress 2023).

Squids are columnar and exploited in high-opening off-bottom (semi-pelagic) otter trawl nets operated above the sea-bottom (Meiyappan et al. 2000).