NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet's Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday gave in-principle approval to the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) for regulation of higher agricultural education.

It approved an additional fund of Rs. 200 crore for strengthening agricultural education for the remaining period of the current Five-Year Plan, over and above the regular provisions of Rs. 720 crore.

The new fund will be used for a series of activities, including conducting studies on assessment of manpower needs, and workshops to assess the need for new courses and networking facilities, and equipment.

It would provide for purchase of state-of-the-art equipment to support post-graduate research in basic and frontier science subjects; building niche area excellence; training and retraining; promotion of distance education by strengthening ICT facilities and equipment and vocation education.

The additional funding is aimed at promoting quality education, with emphasis on relevance and usefulness by producing professionals and academicians who are competent and self-reliant and not just while collar job-seekers.

Agricultural innovation project

In a related decision, the Cabinet, which also met on Thursday, approved a $250 million (Rs. 1,189 crore) National Agricultural Innovation Project, with the bulk of the funding coming from World Bank. The international agency would contribute $200 million.

The project components would be implemented by a large network of public research institutions, private sector, NGOs and other stakeholders. The project would result in the production of 15 value chain development reports for serving as models for other potential areas and planning for investment, about 20 sustainable rural livelihood models for replications in other disadvantaged areas and generation of about 25 patents of scientific and economic significance, besides about 100 research papers published in high quality research journals.

Panels for implementation

The project would be managed by the ICAR and several committees would be set up to ensure its smooth and effective implementation. There will be a national steering committee at the apex level, followed by a project management committee, an organisation and management programme committee, a research programme committee, an organisation and management advisory group, a consortium advisory committee and a consortium implementation committee for each consortium.

Full freedom

A basic innovation in the governance in the system is that the implementing consortia or institutions would be facilitated to work with full freedom and accountability, without any interference from the project authority once they have entered into partnership and clear agreements with ICAR.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail