INDIAN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUE, NEW DELHI

Empowerment of Rural Youth

Considering the importance of youth empowerment, Centre of Advanced Studies, Division of Agricultural Extension of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi organized a 21-day training course on "Empowerment of rural youth through participatory extension methodology"f rom2 9N ovembert o1 9D ecember2 007. Total2 0s eniorlevel extension professionals like Professors and Assistant Professors of State Agricultural Universities, scientists of ICAR institutes and Subject Matter Specialists of Krishi Vigyan Kendra from 10 states across the country participated.! he training was inaugurated by Dr S.P. Mishra, Vice-Chancellor, Deve Sanskriti Viswa Vidyalaya, Hardwar. Dr PL. Gautam, Deputy Director-General (Crops), distributed the certificates and addressed the concluding session, which was presided by Dr H.S. Gaur, Dean and Joint Director (Edn).

The training was divided into four parts, e.g. Basics of empowerment, Economic empowerment, Behavioural empowerment and Organizational support, and interface with successful entrepreneurs. The experiences of the participants were discussed and shared during deliberations. A course manual was prepared and distributed among the participants. It is expected that the 20 participants will replicate these skills and approaches in training rural youth in their respective organizations, and help achieve the national and millennium goals.

Training on Advanced Biochemical and Molecular Techniques

A training programme on "Advanced biochemical and molecular techniques" was conducted under the auspices of Centre of Advanced Studies, Division of Biochemistry, IARI, New Delhi from 18 September to 8 October 2007. Total 11 professionals of the rank of Assistant Professor participated in this training, which was imparted on Isolation of plant and plasmid DNA, Restriction analysis, Southern blotting and PCR, GLC, HPLC, PAGE, ELISA, and Purification and analysis of chloroplast and nitrate reductases. The course was inaugurated by Dr B.S. Bisht, ADG (Edn), ICAR, and valedictory address was delivered by Dr H.S. Gaur, Dean and Joint Director (Edn), IARI.

Foundation Day of Plant Physiology Division

Division of Plant Physiology, IARI, celebrated its foundation day on 14 November 2007.On this occasion Dr S.A. Patil, Director, IARI, delivered a lecture on "New approaches for enhancing productivity potential of crop plants". Dr PL. Gautam, Deputy Director-General (CS), presided over the function. This programme was attended by a large number of
scientists and students of the institute.

On this occasion the 7th Dr R.D. Asana memorial lecture was also delivered by Dr G.C. Srivastava, Professor of Plant Physiology, IARI, on "My journey through realm of Plant Physiology"

Course on Stem Cell Technology

A 21-days short course on" Introductiont os temc ellt echnology" was inaugurated by Prof. M.P. Yadav, Vice-Chancellor, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut (former Director of IVRI), as the Chief Guest, who released the course compendium.

The course, organised by Centre of Advanced Studies in Veterinary Physiology, IVRI, was attended by 21 participants including scientists, Assistant or Associate Professors and Lecturers from different parts of the country.

In his inaugural address, Prof. Yadav highlighted the scenario and perspective of livestock sector, and informed that there are many challenges being faced by the scientific community in the present era of frontier sciences. He also stressed the need to undertake research and development in the new areas such as Nano-technology, Bio-technology, Bio-informatics, Communication technology, Stem-cell technology etc., the last one having huge potential to improve the health and productivity of livestock.

Delivering the presidential address, Dr S.P.S. Ahlawat, Director and VC,I VRI, highlighted the importance of stem cell technology and its research in veterinary and animal sciences. He also hoped that the participants would initiate research projects in this area on successful completion of this training course. He further stressed the need to establish a stem cell conservation bank, gene bank, DNA bank etc. at IVRI, for utilization of these useful technologies for the welfare of human beings as well as for promoting animal productivity.