SKUAST-Jammu, on the First day of, its seventh convocation being held in the University from June 26th to June 28th, 2022 here at Baba Jitto Auditorium, SKUAST-Jammu, Chatha, organized Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri and Dr. Verghese Kurien Lectures.
Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri lecture was delivered by Dr. P. L. Gautam, Pro-Chancellor, Career University, Hamirpur (H.P), while Dr. A. K. Srivastava, Vice Chancellor, DUVASU, Mathura delivered the 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 the USA has different laws and acts enacted in the 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 the 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 the 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 the Indian dairy sector.
Although India is high milk producing country, low milk productivity is the major issue which needs to be addressed.Earlier, Prof. J P Sharma, 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.
The Vice Chancellor added that with the constant support of 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 occasion, 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.