ICAR-NAARM Annual Report 2008-09

Abstract

It is often said that we are afraid of dreaming considering it as a fancy, hence avoidable. In fact dream we must, otherwise how else we shall think of going ahead, how shall we chalk out the best strategies and devise the implementation plan ? So, we went ahead with our dream which was to take the Academy – which has served National Agricultural Research System over more than three decades rather well and is recognized, to another level which it has not achieved and the path it had not walked. At the Academy, we are happy that it is happening already. We have been able to launch two One Year PG Diploma Courses, one on Information Technology Management and the other on Intellectual Property & Technology Management. We believe that both these courses will be well taken by the prospective employers. Actually more than these courses, the new path has given our Academy a definite launch pad for bigger things to come in future. One of these is the launch of a Two Year PG Diploma in Management (Agriculture) Course in July this year. I am sure this will instill a great amount of self confidence in our faculty which is already known for its multi-tasking skills. Prior to commencement of these courses, a number of brainstorming were organized for eliciting valuable advice and suggestions from the best experts drawn from reputed institutions / organizations in public and private sector regarding curriculum design, internship etc. Two FOCARS – the flagship course of the Academy were organized and another initiated. This was done to pump in as many bright young scientists into our system as early as possible. Other training courses, both on and off – Campus programmes, were organized by the Academy and its partnering institutions like IIM, Lucknow; MANAGE, Hyderabad and NIRD, Hyderabad especially under L&CB Sub-Project of NAIP. The demand for our off-Campus programmes is large, but as we wish to do them, due to our limited human resource, we could do only few, fully realizing their potential to benefit a large number of participants who all cannot be trained at the Campus. The Academy has six NAIP Sub-Projects in Consortia mode – two as Leader and four as Partner. I must thank NAIP for its considerable financial assistance for these sub-projects which will go a long way in sharpening our training skill, strengthen our research capabilities and further improve already good infrastructure. In order to develop higher capabilities in teaching, training and research, a number of our faculty were sent for varying periods to USA, especially Cornell University and IFPRI which gave them very valuable exposure, contact with the leading exports, learning resources and also identifying Guest faculty for our courses. This effort has been very useful. More of our faculty will visit USA in next financial year. The approval of XI Plan SFC was a watershed for us as it allowed us to initiate teaching course, proceed with our long cherished desire to have a Deemed-to be- University status for NAARM. The relentless quest for excellence and moving ahead with the times It is often said that we are afraid of dreaming considering it as a fancy, hence avoidable. In fact dream we must, otherwise how else we shall think of going ahead, how shall we chalk out the best strategies and devise the implementation plan ? So, we went ahead with our dream which was to take the Academy – which has served National Agricultural Research System over more than three decades rather well and is recognized, to another level which it has not achieved and the path it had not walked. At the Academy, we are happy that it is happening already. We have been able to launch two One Year PG Diploma Courses, one on Information Technology Management and the other on Intellectual Property & Technology Management. We believe that both these courses will be well taken by the prospective employers. Actually more than these courses, the new path has given our Academy a definite launch pad for bigger things to come in future. One of these is the launch of a Two Year PG Diploma in Management (Agriculture) Course in July this year. I am sure this will instill a great amount of self confidence in our faculty which is already known for its multi-tasking skills. Prior to commencement of these courses, a number of brainstorming were organized for eliciting valuable advice and suggestions from the best experts drawn from reputed institutions / organizations in public and private sector regarding curriculum design, internship etc. Two FOCARS – the flagship course of the Academy were organized and another initiated. This was done to pump in as many bright young scientists into our system as early as possible. Other training courses, both on and off – Campus programmes, were organized by the Academy and its partnering institutions like IIM, Lucknow; MANAGE, Hyderabad and NIRD, Hyderabad especially under L&CB Sub-Project of NAIP. The demand for our off-Campus programmes is large, but as we wish to do them, due to our limited human resource, we could do only few, fully realizing their potential to benefit a large number of participants who all cannot be trained at the Campus. The Academy has six NAIP Sub-Projects in Consortia mode – two as Leader and four as Partner. I must thank NAIP for its considerable financial assistance for these sub-projects which will go a long way in sharpening our training skill, strengthen our research capabilities and further improve already good infrastructure. In order to develop higher capabilities in teaching, training and research, a number of our faculty were sent for varying periods to USA, especially Cornell University and IFPRI which gave them very valuable exposure, contact with the leading exports, learning resources and also identifying Guest faculty for our courses. This effort has been very useful. More of our faculty will visit USA in next financial year. The approval of XI Plan SFC was a watershed for us as it allowed us to initiate teaching course, proceed with our long cherished desire to have a Deemed-to be- University status for NAARM. The relentless quest for excellence and moving ahead with the times has kept fire in our stomachs burning which I am happy to share. In this Plan , a big boost to our infrastructure is envisaged like PG and Sports Complexes which were badly needed. All necessary work has been undertaken and we hope to lay their Foundation Stones also in July. A Language Lab is under final stages of establishment, it is hoped to provide a valuable support for training in communication and virtually in developing skills in foreign languages. Besides the training programmes, a number of researches are being conducted here. One such important project is on the rating of AUs – a project which if receives sufficient support from Aus, will come out with scientifically tested parameters which will be immensely helpful in attracting top students both from India and abroad and boost our export of education which we need to do more and more, besides of course getting better resources and funding from donor agencies. Another project which is assessing manpower requirement in agriculture , which is expected to provided valuable information which may become a basis for manpower planning in ICAR institutes and AUs. Other research projects are also expected to provide valuable information on agricultural research management .