| JU Biotechnology a leading center of excellence, say experts | | |  Early Times Report
JAMMU, June 7: An Advisory committee meeting of the School of Biotechnology, University of Jammu as per the mandate of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT, GOI) was held in the University in the hybrid mode. Being the first meeting of the Advisory Committee, after his joining as the Vice-Chancellor, University of Jammu, Prof. Umesh Rai conveyed his best wishes to the faculty and students of the School of Biotechnology. The meeting was chaired by Prof. Manoj K.Dhar, Former Vice-Chancellor, University of Jammu. The meeting was attended by Dr. Sudhanshu Vrati, Executive Director, Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB), Faridabad as DBT nominee, Prof. R.N.K. Bamezai, Former Vice-Chancellor, SMVDU, Katra, Director Delhi School of Public Health, University of Delhi; Prof. Neeraj Dilbaghi, Head Department of Nano and Biotechnology, Guru Jambeshwar University, Hisar; Dr. R.K. Maurya, Vice-President, Concord Biotech, Ahmedabad (Industry expert); Mr. Ankit Rana, Cluster Head - North Zone, Life Sciences Sector Skill Development Council, New Delhi. In his opening remarks, Prof. Manoj K. Dhar, traced the history of establishment of the Department of Biotechnology in the University during 1998 - 1999 and its growth and development with the active support and patronage of the Vice-Chancellors, eminent Scientists and academicians. He mentioned that with the introduction of post-graduate programmes in Microbiology, Biochemistry and an innovative programme in Bioinformatics, the School of Biotechnology has made enormous progress and has over the years produced well trained and quality human resources. The School of Biotechnology is considered to be one of the leading Biotechnology Departments in the country and has been ranked 'A' by the DBT, Prof. Dhar informed. He expressed hope that the advisory committee will critically assess the progress of the School and shall give suggestions for further improvement. In view of the implementation of the National Educational Policy 2020, the course curricula needs to be strengthened with courses in frontline areas, he remarked. He mentioned about efforts taken in this direction during the last two years involving National and International experts. Prof. B. K. Bajaj Director, School of Biotechnology gave a detailed presentation of the progress made by the School in the last five years (2017-2022). Prof. Bajaj highlighted that the School of Biotechnology has high-quality infrastructure developed out of the grants awarded by various funding agencies like DBT, UGC, DST (PURSE, FIST), CSIR, ICMR, ICAR, NMPB, RUSA and International fundings from IUSSTF-US, DAAD-Germany, BBSRC-UK, Commonwealth Commission UK, ERASMUS-MUNDUS, EU-Co-Fund, VLIR-UOS (Flanders, Belgium). Competent faculty having recognition at National and International level has been a major driving force for the progress of the School, he said. The admission of M.Sc Biotechnology is based on the Graduate Aptitude Test - Biotechnology (GAT-B) entrance test conducted by Regional Centre for Biotechnology, GOI Faridabad. Prof. Bajaj highlighted the unique components of the curriculum followed by the School of Biotechnology which has greatly helped the students in finding placements/ admission for higher studies in National and International institutions. All the faculty members of the School are actively engaged in research. This is exemplified by the fact that all the faculty members have extramural research grants worth crores of rupees. The projects deal with the problems of local, National and global importance. Besides, the faculty has published about 250 research papers in high Impact factor International and National journals in the last five years. |
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