National workshop at National Academy of Agricultural Research Management concludes

Rajendranagar: The 2-day National Workshop on 'Academic Excellence through Building Partnerships and Resources Generation' at NAARM (National Academy of Agricultural Research Management) concluded on Wednesday.

The chief guest of the workshop Dr Narendra Singh Rathore, Deputy Director General (Education), ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), New Delhi, emphasised on building partnerships with the local institutions for the Universities in order to achieve academic excellence and resource generation as well. "Objectivity, transparency, effectiveness, fairness and inclusiveness are the key-points for having well and good partnerships," said Dr Rathore.

This workshop was organised as a part of World Bank funded ICAR research project on 'National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP)' Component 2A: 'Investments in Indian Council of Agricultural Research Leadership in Agricultural Higher Education' implemented by NAARM and IASRI (Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute).

The NAHEP Component 2A focuses on Investments in Indian Council of Agricultural Research Leadership in Agricultural Higher Education. The implementation agencies are Indian IASRI, NAARM, Hyderabad and NIAP of Indian Council of Agricultural Research with a budget outlay of Rs 69.41 crore for a period of three years (2020-21).

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research in collaboration with the World Bank is implementing NAHEP with the goal of developing resources and mechanism for supporting infrastructure, faculty and student advancement, and providing means for better governance and management of agricultural universities.

Its objective is to develop a holistic model to raise the standard of current agricultural education system and is entrepreneurship oriented and on par with the global agriculture education standards. It also envisaged to contribute for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals like Quality Education; Decent Work and Economic Growth; Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure and Climate Action.

During the inaugural session of the workshop, Dr Vishnu Sharma, Vice-Chancellor, Rajasthan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Bikaner categorically stated that the rote type of MoUs does not serve the purpose; but requires effective partnerships with the diverse agencies.

While speaking on the occasion, Dr Ch Srinivasa Rao, Director, NAARM stressed on generating resource is very much essential for its excellence and survival for the organization. He urged the stakeholders to be at the centre stage. Dr Prabhat Kumar, National Coordinator, Component 2A, stressed on the learning perspectives and over all development of students.

The programme was organized by the ICAR-NAARM, IASRI and Education Division of the Council including all the Principal Investigators of NAHEP and ICAR's Nodal Officers of 26 SAUs.

Dr Sudha Mysore, CEO, Agri Innovate India Limited, New Delhi; Dr. K. Vijayaraghavan, Chairman, Sathguru Management Consultants, Hyderabad; and Dr. Suman Preet Singh Khanuja, Former Director, Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP/CSIR), Lucknow were also present as the key-speakers of the programme. A total of 80 participants including professors, Assistant professors, associate professors of various universities, principal scientists, senior scientists of ICAR took part in the workshop.