Dr. Harmanjit Singh Banga, Registrar, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana
•The University has been accredited with ‘A’ grade by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) including all its undergraduate degree programs.
•It has been reported that BTech degree in Biotechnology has not been accredited thus raising qualms not only about the degree but also the existence of the College of Animal Biotechnology and putting careers of students in quandary by twisted reporting. In fact, the college has been duly recognised by the ICAR for imparting the BTech Biotechnology Degree.
Some qualms have been raised by ICAR on MSc Degree, where-in the university imparts degree in Animal Biotechnology while the ICAR insists on degree in Agricultural Biotechnology. Animal Biotechnology and Agriculture Biotechnology are two different streams – one dealing with animals and the other with plant kingdom.
The university’s mandate is for development of the Livestock, dairy and Fisheries sectors. Animal Biotechnologists work on Animal Health diagnostics, vaccines, genomics, metabolomics, molecular biology and reproductive biotechniques like IVF and embryo transfer. These aspects are transformative tools for the livestock sector. The university cannot abandon this important segment of animal sciences. The reservations raised by ICAR are unwarranted and surprising, as two institutes of the ICAR itself viz. IVRI and NDRI are also imparting degrees in Animal Biotechnology. This reflects the whimsical approach of ICAR in not recognising the Degree of Animal Biotechnology at GADVASU. Further, ICAR has also emphasized adding Basic qualification of BSc Agriculture, which is not tenable, as agricultural universities are imparting education in Agricultural Biotechnology.
•Further, it has been also mentioned in the news item that PhD in Veterinary Biotechnology has not been recognised as there was no pass-out student from this programme. In fact, one student has recently completed her degree from this programme and has been selected in a prestigious university of USA. All these facts have been well documented in the SSR report submitted by the university, though obviously overlooked by the ICAR.
•For the other two PhD Programmes in Dairy engineering and Veterinary Physiology, the reason cited is that there was no student currently, irrespective of the strengths of the departments with respect to faculty, laboratory and other infrastructure being in place. This is also a questionable decision of the accreditation team and shall be challenged at appropriate level.
•Likewise, the Degree programme of MSc economics has not been recognised as it does not have the component of Agriculture, which again appears to be a whimsical approach of ICAR.
It is put for the information that facts highlighted may please be published to clear the air .
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