In Brief

In his key-note address,Prof M K Khanijo,Senior Advisor,Centre for Management and Innovation Technology (CMIT) of the Indian Management Institute (IMI),New Delhi said,for the growth of Indian economy,the major thrust has to be on the development and promotion of technology through innovation. For this extending knowledge to private and public domain is a must. He suggested that thrust should be on to promote knowledge economy replacing capital based economy. Sharing his views,the noted agricultural economist and former Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University,Patiala,Dr. S.S.Johl said knowledge is necessary to improve the efficiency of any system. He further added that public sector partnership with private sector should play a dominant role to make knowledge available to all at low cost.

Delegation from South Africa visits PAU
A five-member delegation from Walter Sisulu University (WSU) of South Africa led by Prof P N Luswazi,former registrar and Director of Center for Rural Development is on a three day visit to Punjab Agricultural University (PAU). The delegates met PAU Vice-Chancellor Dr Manjit Singh Kang and discussed various aspects of agricultural education,research and technology transfer. Prof Luswazi said they were greatly impressed by the PAU model of research and development in agriculture that led to the agrarian transformation through green revolution. Dr. Kang said that the Universities like PAU that followed the land grant pattern of the USA have done generally good. He said that the attainments made by PAU had been remarkable and the other Universities of India are experimenting on the PAU lines.

GADVASU scientists get Burnet Award
A team of scientists led by Dr. Hari Mohan Saxena,Professor cum Head in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology,GADVASU,has won the F. M. Burnet Award for interdisciplinary team research. The award has been instituted by the Indian Society for Veterinary Immunology and Biotechnology (ISVIB) in the memory of Nobel Laureate Sir F. MacFarlane Burnet to recognize outstanding research work by interdisciplinary teams of scientists.

The other scientists from the team are Dr. Gurpreet Kaur and Dr. Mudit Chandra,Assistant Professors and Dr. Krishan Sharma,Research Fellow from the Veterinary Microbiology Department of GADVASU. Collaborators Professor Ravindra Sharma from Haryana Agricultural University,Hisar and Dr. Ashwini Kumar,Veterinary Officer from the Regional Disease Diagnosis Laboratory,Jalandhar. The award carries a gold medal for the team leader and a certificate for all the members of the team. The coveted award was conferred to Dr Saxena for his presentation at the National Symposium and XVI Annual Conference of ISVIB held at Namakkal,Tamil Nadu recently.

PAU starts new courses
The College of Basic Sciences & Humanities,Panjab Agriculture University (PAU) has started 5-year Integrated M Sc (Hons) programmes in microbiology,biochemistry,botany,and zoology disciplines. He said the students under these programmes can also opt for a B Sc degree. The 10+2 pass outs from the medical/non-medical streams with 50 per cent or more marks are eligible for applying in these courses. Dr. Sidhu further informed that the admission in these courses is based on entrance test to be conducted by the PAU which is scheduled to be on June 18. The last date for receipt of application form is May 12 (without late fee) and May 19 (with late fee).