Dr TR Sharma, Deputy Director General (CS) ICAR visited ICAR-NBPGR on 18 Feb 2020

The newly joined DDG (Crop Sciences) Dr TR Sharma visited ICAR-NBPGR on February 18, 2020. This was his first visit to any ICAR institute after joining as DDG (CS). Upon arrival he had a brief interaction with the HoDs and OICs of various Divisions and Units before he had a meeting with all the staff of NBPGR in the B P Pal Auditorium, NBPGR. The ADG (Seed) Dr DK Yadava also joined him in the visit. At the outset the Director, ICAR-NBPGR Dr Kuldeep Singh briefly gave an overview of the institute and summarized the achievements of ICAR-NBPGR over the past few years. He highlighted the new initiatives future thrusts of the institute. The ADG (Seed) supplemented the information from Council’s perspective. The DDG in his address appreciated the work done by the scientists and spoke highly of the role of ICAR-NBPGR at both national and international fora. He emphasised that without the germplasm/ genes/ alleles provided by ICAR-NBPGR, the breeders would not be able to bring out any new varieties and due credit should be given to the role of ICAR-NBPGR. He reiterated the need to bring more visibility to the institute and asked the scientists to present one slide on introduction of ICAR-NBPGR and its role at the national level in any presentation being made outside. Based on the inputs that were provided to his office prior to his visit he had analysed the areas where there was scope for improvement in the working of ICAR-NBPGR as follows:

• To increase visibility of ICAR-NBPGR and its important role, success stories in about 100 words with impactful photographs to be uploaded on NBPGR website on a regular basis so that public gets an idea of the true scientific achievements.
• Need to have an introspection for improving quality publications through improved scientific output.
• Scientists were encouraged to read beyond subject to develop novel ideas and get competitive grants and have a competitive spirit. They need to be open to use of new technologies for executing their ideas.
• HRD component to be strengthened and need to initiate MoUs with other universities to take up more students for both Ph.D. & M.Sc. Also, 10% of all staff to go for training to upgrade their skills in India and abroad. Staff should also be encouraged to attend conferences etc. every year.
• Division-wise advise was as follows:

• TCCU to standardize more tissue culture/ regeneration protocols;
• PEGCD to include study of habitats and how species are getting affected by climate change;
• DGC and DGE to focus more on utilization, large scale evaluation of PGR to generate phenotypic data so that potential users collaborate and acknowledge the contribution of NBPGR;
• GEPU to be more user friendly;
• DPQ to highlight the impact of quarantine and the losses averted through interception of pests;
• DGR to be give more emphasis to DNA Fingerprinting and particularly trait/gene mapping which should form a part of EFC 2020-25.

(Source:  PME, ICAR-NBPGR, New Delhi)