National Institute of Animal Welfare (NIAW) and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (JNU) have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to conduct academic programmes that will focus on development of Animal Welfare Sciences. The MoA was signed by Vice Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Prof. M Jagdish Kumar, and Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Shri Anil Sant, here today. The signing ceremony took place in the presence of Minister of Human Resource Development, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, and Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Shri Prakash Javadekar. The Secretaries of the two Ministries were also present on the occasion. On the occasion, Smt. Irani said that JNU is a university that has name and credibility in academic activities and launching of this course is a good beginning for expanding its academic activities. Shri Javadekar said that such courses were being conducted in countries like Australia and New Zealand and now will be conducted by JNU in NIAW campus. He said that the introduction of this course will help in preparing competent manpower to man various posts in zoos, municipalities, slaughter houses and veterinary hospitals. He said that the MoEFCC has sought JNU as an academic partner to help the Institute in developing academic programmes according to national needs and global standards in the field of animal welfare. He further hoped that this endeavor will go a long way to meet the objectives and mission of NIAW.
The total cost of the project for the first year is Rs.88 lakh. More than 200 students are expected to be enrolled for diploma and certificate courses in the first year. These courses are aimed at providing a direction to the youth for employment in the sector. A website for NIAW will be in place, illustrating information on the programmes, resources available and facilities such as animal shelter/ houses, OT Labs etc. The National Institute of Animal Welfare (NIAW) was set up to meet the education and training needs of the Animal Welfare sector across the country. The Institute had launched short term courses in 2005, which has so far trained more than 1000 personnel, already engaged in Animal Welfare and those handling animals in the formal and non-formal sector. On the workshop of State-level Environment Impact Assessment authorities held today, the Environment Minister said that all processes for granting environmental and forest approvals have been made online. He also emphasised that along with transparency, 100 days’ time has been given to complete all processes. Shri Javadekar also said that the government’s effort is to bring in more transparency and avoid delays.