Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri and Dr. Verghese Kurien Lectures delivered during First Day of 7th Convocation of SKUAST-Jammu

SKUAST-Jammu during its seventh convocation being held in the University from  26th to 28th of June 2022 here at Baba Jitto Auditorium, SKUAST-Jammu, Chatha organized Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri and Dr. Verghese Kurien Lectures. Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri was delivered by Dr. P. L. Gautam, Pro-Chancellor, Career University, Hamirpur (H.P) and Dr. A. K. Srivastava, Vice Chancellor, DUVASU, Mathura delivered Dr. Verghese Kurien Memorial Lecture. Dr. P. L. Gautam spoke on the Evolution of Land Grant Universities in India and said that the concept that originated from USA has different laws and acts enacted in USA for establishment of Land Grant Universities and how the journey shifted to India for its establishment. He also talked about the status of Agricultural Education in India since medieval period and stressed upon to review/ revisit the Agricultural Universities in view of mushrooming of new private Universities/ colleges and emerging national/global issues. Dr. A. K. Srivastava while delivering Dr. Verghese Kurien Lecture deliberated on glorious saga of Indian Dairy Sector which is a classical example of AtmaNirbhar Bharat. Dr. Srivastava stressed upon the need for stability and strengthening of Indian dairy sector. Although, India is high milk producing country but low milk productivity is the major issue which needs to be addressed.

Earlier, Prof. J P Sharma, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor of the University welcomed the Guests and speakers and thanked both the eminent speakers for accepting the invitation to deliver the lectures. Prof. Sharma presented major achievements of the University in the field of education, research and extension. He said recently three new faculties namely, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Dairy Technology and Faculty of Horticulture and Forestry have been sanctioned, thus taking the total strength of existing faculties to six. Vice Chancellor added that with the constant support of Hon’ble LG J&K UT to strengthen the University, two new KVKs at Ramban and Kishtwar have been set up. Highlighting the achievements of University in academics, he informed that last year 66 students have qualified NET examination besides other prestigious national fellowships like INSPIRE; Maulana Azad National Fellowship, SERB and Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship. He also informed about the research and extension initiatives being undertaken by the University which include promoting agri-preneurship and 52 startups have been incubated during the last three years in the Agribusiness Incubator and 14 incubated startups have received the grant in aid from the Ministry of Agriculture and Family Welfare, Government of India. To inculcate competitive spirit among various divisions of the faculties, a competition was held in which presentations were also made by the Head of the Division of all the three faculties regarding academic, research and extension achievements of their respective divisions. Dr M C Sharma, Dr A K Srivastave, Dr Umesh Rai, Dr. Bechan Lal and Dr U C Sharma were the Jury on the occassion, Dr  During this occasion, Vice Chancellor Open badminton tournament was also held on this occasion and trophies were awarded to the winners 2022. Among the faculty, Dr. Puneet Choudhary and Dr. Vinod Gupta won the Badminton Double and Dr. Akhil won the Singles. Cultural programme was also organized.

Dr. M. C. Sharma, Former Vice Chancellor, IVRI, Dr. U. C. Sharma, Ex-National Director, ICAR; Dr. S. P. Tiwari, Vice Chancellor, Jabalpur University, Dr. Bechan Lal, Vice Chancellor, Cluster University, Jammu, Dr. Umesh Rai, Vice Chancellor, University of Jammu, statutory officers of the University, Head of various Divisions, KVKs, and Research Stations; faculty and students were also present during the occasion. At the end vote of thanks was presented by Dr. S. E. H. Rizvi, Dean, Faculty of Basic Sciences. The proceedings of the programme were conducted by Dr. Ankur Rastogi.

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